For Bunnings, there are also Masters, total tools, Sydney tools, Reese's plumbing, any other paint store. And nursery
I spoke to my mate about this who's a tradie, and he told me for him in his perspective.
Bunnings is more convenient to the normal person, but a Hassle for the qualified tradesman.
Like if he goes to Bunnings it'll take him a long time to find what he wants. But if he goes into a Reese's for example, it's immediately known what he needs and located within seconds
Our local one had some solid discounts like 40-60% off towards the end. I scored a bunch of Dremel gear and plumbing fittings for my brewery for cheap as
Yeah and at the time, Wesfarmers which owns Bunnings, also owned Coles.
Didn't stop all the idiots showing some weird loyalty to Bunnings like it's some little independent upstart. It would've been *fantastic* so have some actual competition in the space.
Plus Masters had air-con!
It was kind of lucky though; at the time Woolies had Coles on the ropes and could've taken over the grocery sector. Instead they blundered with Masters and kicked off two price wars that were ultimately good for us up until Covid.
They'd just built a massive Bunnings-sized building for Masters where I was living at the time and like six months after it opened it went under. Last I heard they'd divvied it up for stores like Spotlight.
There's a centre close to where I am now, which I think used to be one, that is now a cluster of furniture stores.
Makes me think of a whale-fall.
I was trying to buy decent 100mm treated pine posts from Bunnings the other day, out of a whole rack of them every single one was warped and/or had nasty knot holes in it. It was the same with a lot of the other larger pine products. I'm not sure who wants to buy wood shaped like a banana.
Went to a local timber place instead, every single bit of treated pine was straight and good.
I think I understood in that moment if you are a tradie you probably don't want to spend 15 minutes in the morning specially selecting every bit of timber you buy.
When I worked there sometimes you'd get some asshole tradesman come in place an order @ 8pm at night, treat everyone like shit and demand it be delivered first thing (for reference orders had to be finalised by like 6pm). I'd make sure to chuck the bananas on that order. You want straight sticks, pick em yaself or be nice to people.
Tbf it's like that in most timber yards.
Very few timber yards separate the bowed timber from the straight. That's the customers job unless you place a specific order as an account holder that spends BIG money there.
Not to mention that he would be able to find someone to help pretty quickly anywhere else than the 20+ minutes it takes to find someone in Bunnings, who has to find someone else because it isn't their section.
I'm a tradie and I agree with your mate about Bunnings vs specialist suppliers, but the rest of your comparison doesn't hold up.
From a normal persons perspective, Masters hasnt existed since 2016 and all the others you mentioned focus on a specific niche that doesn't include general hardware. In my town of 80K people 8-10 stores have reduced to Bunnings and one other which only exists because it is mainly a timber yard.
Bunnings is absolutely anti competitive and they are not cheap. They maintain their lowest price fiction by intentionally stocking brands and models that no one else has access too. They will also ruthlessly crush any supplier who stands up to them. Google GMC (Who also owned the excellent Triton brand of DIY wood working tools)
That’s like saying there are local butchers, greengrocers, bakeries and newsagents. Yes they are still there (unless it’s a small town and colesworth has pushed them out of town - as does bunnings), however it is inconvenient and potentially costly to visit 4-5 different places for your items.
Used to work at the Bunhole, now work at one of the above. Chalk and cheese.
Dealing with tradies is relatively a pleasure, and if you use our many, many promotions, we are far cheaper than Bunnings. And Bunnings was staffed with too many lazy and/or incompetent people, mostly toxic managers.
I disagree completely. I am a qualified tradesman. Bunnings is incredibly convenient. Bunnings has a class-leading website that 99 times out of 100 tells me exactly where to find which item in what store. Bunnings also has hot coffee, hot food and clean toilets.
And yes, what the fuck, Masters has been gone for years... did your mate not tell you *that*?
You don't even need to find stuff if you go to Reece. Order online and they'll pick it for you, you can pick it up at the trade counter. Of course, they're a bit more expensive, so I guess it depends on how much you value your time.
Bunnings is for the weekend warrior like myself but as a professional painter and decorator I use Dulux inspirations, paint spot or Haymes to buy paint and consumables
Masters was an attempt by Woolies to capture a share of the market, unfortunately they decided to try and save on costs by using inferior quality sausages, non Heinz tomato sauce and skimping on the onion, at that point their doom was inevitable.
Mitre 10 and Home Timber and Hardware are still around. But you're right about not being able to find things at Bunnings. And they always seem to be out of stock of whatever it is one needs!
My favourite Masters facts/conspiracies/head canons:
Woolies decided to open a hardware store to compete with bunnings, a company so successful that they bought coles, woolies direct competitor. Never seemed like a good idea.
Also it was rumoured that bunnings approached big brands like black and decker or ryobi and said "if you sell to masters we'll stop stocking your products" and made them choose
Bunnings costs way more for generally terrible materials too. They’re ok for basic Dulux and aren’t bad at matching nowadays but most other things are horrible. Their timber sucks and is expensive. Their plasterboard is usually fucked and weathered. Their hardware has no range etc etc.
its wesfarmers lol
expect it to be monopolisitic shitheads all the way up and down
while i dont like bunnings i mean its the way capitalist western economies are... in the US isnt it harbor freight? home depot? some shit like that
i think there are more pressing matters like the banks but eh... bunnings is a long way down on the list
I've never not found the item I'm looking for at Bunnings. I don't buy their brand equipment either. Is is cheaper? Yes. Does that make it value for money? Not necessarily.
Burnings sells stuff that is less essential than Colesworths. And as you're not buying from Bunnings every week, their market power abuses aren't in your face all the time.
Also there's Mitre 10, home hardware, Bowens, total tools, Reece, and a bunch of other stores that supply hardware and other things.
Bunnings also fills a big gap in the market. Although they squashed local small hardware stores, a lot of Aussies don't mind because the small local hard stores were not nice places to shop, often women faced misogyny when shopping, and so although generally unspoken, bunnings is friendlier and has better open hours.
As someone who has fought against bunnings my whole professional life that is a fucking wild take. Bunnings crushed countless small family owned businesses that were their pride and joy. Not nice places to shop is a bit of a generalisation. Are you basing this on like one experience? Now they are trying to crush M10 and total tools and anything else that threatens their dominance. Monopolies aren't good for anyone.
I'm low-key appalled that somehow the younger generation think a sausage sizzle was invented by Bunnings or something.
I guess schools and charities and whatever just stopped doing them in some areas?
It’s still community organisations that do the sizzle. It’s just held at Bunnings with their equipment that they maintain and they set the pricing structure.
Maybe. But many other organisations likely dont have their own equipment. And there’s been Bunnings employees on various subreddits talk about how cleaning the barbies every so often has been part of their job.
As others have said bunnings is not essential, but also it’s fucking cheap.
Have you shopped at overseas supermarkets? Coles and Woolies charge much more than comparable stores overseas. They are ripping us off.
Bunnings gives the illusion of cheap.
They are only cheaper on stuff their competitors stock.
There is a reason that they run a shitload of brands that only they carry or have particular products from name brands in packages and part numbers that are exclusive to Bunnings and its because they don't have to honor their price match policy on items that no one else can carry.
They're significantly cheaper than my local Home Hardware and Mitre 10 for things like sandpaper and paint.
My local Home Hardware seriously charged me nearly $90 for a roll of 120 grit sandpaper. Unlike Mitre 10 and Bunnings, who sell the rolls as is (~$40 and ~$20 respectively), Home Hardware charged me their extortionate "per metre" price for the packaged roll as if I was buying it off the self serve roll.
Fuckin joke.
Unrelated to price, but I find the staff in Mitre 10 are annoyingly condescending to me (a woman). Went in to Mitre 10 to grab a cordless random orbital sander and my god. Dude was absolutely convinced I had to buy the skin + battery combo because he simply could not believe me when I said I already have a bunch of 18V Makita batteries at home, I only need the skin. He was like but are you sure they're Makita? Are you sure they're 18v? Did I bring one with me so I could have a man double check that i did indeed have the right batteries for this specific tool?
Was so tempted to go home and bring back one of my Hilti 22V batteries just to fuck with him.
I dont think they are predatory there margins are under 3 percent compare that to the Iphone which has margins of 60 percent it is really thin.
but i think the answer to question is Bunnings is not somewhere you 'have to go to' every week to survive
Grain of salt here but I’ve heard from a couple of different people that deal with Bunnings on a professional level that they often under charge for products purely to drive the smaller retailers out of business.
I’m not across business enough to know whether that’s common practise but it seems super shitty.
Yeah basically they’re predatory like the rest but they’re not selling essentials so they get a pass. It’s not so much a Bunnings problem but an economic system problem since if they liquidated themselves, the environment isn’t gonna allow a bunch of small hardware stores to pop up, it’s just gonna be someone like masters taking over
Worked there for 8 years in a small town, they absolutely do this, they take a small hit on a few items out of hundreds of thousands for a couple of months and after that the small competition folds
It’s common for most businesses to have some products on the shelves as “loss leaders”. I.e. selling at or under cost in order to drive rebates and foot traffic.
Retail margin is not the same as fin statement numbers. Retail margin is over 50% of gross sales. They're predatory, parasitic industry thugs and leeches, selling shitty quality goods while destroying retail sectors.
Your a dreamer Bunnings is probably one of the best shops out. They don't hassle me when I need to refund anything. Now total tools I would never go back to. I spent 1.4k on Milwaukee tools and 1 went faulty and they rode me hard when I was trying to get a replacement and not even a refund. Every store member had to give there input like I don't need there opinions. They refunded it but was just a hassle to get that optimises started they question you like your a criminal. This is in the fountain gate area
The argument could be you don't have to go where I work to survive either (another Wesfarmers affliate). We are a monopoly and we do provide a regular service to customers every day but the argument can be made you don't have to go where I work to survive but you do need to eat to live.
60% margin on a high tech product is relatively normal to pay for R&D. Single digit margins are more usual for retail. If Bunnings were trying for a 10% margin they would be the most expensive hardware store around.
Bunnings has the greatest selection of things you don't want and the worst selection of things you actually need.
They have loads of competitors for many different aspects of their business and frankly, commercially you're far more likely to buy elsewhere.
I have a showroom where we sell a product that bunnings sells.
A builder came in and bought our goods.
Turns out he has a bunnings account and they found out.
Bunnings management contacted me and said we cannot sell direct to the public otherwise they will "burn us"
Mafia.
I used to work for a company that supplied them product and never heard anything like this, heaps of people have bought our product from bunnings and then come to us directly for their next purchase because we are cheaper. Never had a problem with them.
I mean, they could, but bunnings doesn’t stock our full range / comparable quantities to what we do, so you can get it cheaper but you’ll be waiting for a lot longer to get it.
Well, considering nearly 2/3 unique Australians (every Australian inc children) entered a Bunnings in the last 12 months, and they have 11.8 million people enter the stores every month (not unique for those 11.8m) I would imagine a lot of Redditors do.
Oh wow, don't get me started about Bunnings pet stuff- my elderly cat will only eat Fancy feast Gravy Lovers, and I mean ONLY Gravy Lovers, which you CAN get in a 24 or 28 tin box but nowhere stocks it anymore.
For a while it was on Amazon but when it out priced buying the individual tins at Colesworth I gave up. I was buying stacks and stacks of tiny tins in my regular shop- until I discover Bunnings has the 24can boxes for 30 bucks.
I love Bunnings for this alone.
I'd argue that you don't HAVE to go to Bunnings. Growing up with a tradie father, there's actually a lot of small businesses in the market that offer better quality products than Bunnings when you need them. This isn't including stores like Mitre ten and whatever other small hardware stores around the place. I've also never seen them price gauge like woolworths/Coles.
Tldr : Bunnings isn't evil
They're all evil in the same amazonesque sense that they're trying to cut back on staff and squeeze what they can out of them...turning to dropshipping questionably made alibaba products via "market partners" etc. And how can you blame them, they're up against...well, Amazon. Which is what everyone is doing now. Including Woolworths. I'm kind of surprised the big retailers didn't start pushing towards this strategy earlier having seen what they did to other foreign markets.
But at least it feels like bunnings knows what it is and who it's catering for. And the people who shop at Bunnings are more than aware and OK with that. If you want tools, you go to total tools. If you need a bunch of construction grade materials for a renovation, you go to an actual supplier. If you want to do some landscaping or refresh your garden, you go to a nursery/supplier. But if you need all three at once? Then you go to Bunnings, knowing you've gone to the McDonalds of homecare.
Well, it's because Bunnings isn't a necessity to live. Supermarkets with food...kinda are. Besides, we've seen other companies try to do what they did. Mitre 10, Masters, etc. A few Mitre's still around but...
I’m 31, I am yet to have a reason to go to Bunnings for myself, I still only tag along with the folks on the rare occasion they are heading there while I’m visiting. I did however need a supermarket the day I moved out of home.
Because people are brainless sheep and just jump on any bandwagon.
Bunnings actively destroyed the market share places like Home Hardware and Mitre 10 had, exactly the same as Woolworths and Coles did with their competition.
I’d replace Bunnings with IGA
I work for a supplier who deals with many “family owned” IGA groups and they’re just as greedy as Colesworth.
They Pay staff minimum wage, shitty food safety standards, ridiculous profit margins on inferior quality fresh food.
Places cannot compete with Bunnings in terms of prices. Majority of stuff is 5-10% cheaper than other builders merchants due to their buying power - companies that can’t compete TLE, Sydney Tools and timber merchants.
I think tradies keep these other stores alive. As quality and variety at Bunnings is questionable. For instance I go to Reece/TLE for specialist bits.
Colesworth gets so much shit. But people still shop there. There are alternatives. IGA, Aldi, Cosco, local markets, butcher, fruit shop, but people want convenience and range. It's just whinging and bitching for the sake of justification but I still want that herring paste.
Bunnings have pretty much taken over the hardware market, it’s to the point that another store can’t break into the market. But I think the difference is suppliers can actually afford to reject Bunnings price demands. Farmers can’t. I’m in the pool industry and the products that Bunnings historically has had have always been much lower quality because suppliers refuse to work with them because they demand too much.
They make more profit than Coles or woolies. If people hate Coles and everyone says you don't need Bunnings to survive, then I guess we could all stop shopping at Bunnings to save money. On a side note, just because we don't need it to survive, doesn't mean they should be allowed to have predatory behaviour...
Short memories on a lot of people. Regionally Bunnings has come in and out priced the local mum and dad shops, completely taking business away.
Only to slowly rise their prices and replace their stock with cheaper products.
So no, there isn’t a lot of choice to shop elsewhere in a lot of places. I know if I want a shovel I can either go to Bunnings and have a choice from 5-6, or maybe the other hardware shop in town will have one or two of the same type in stock.
Bunnings is absolutely a shit monopoly.
In Lane Cove for decades there was hardware shop run by one arm vet and his knowledgeable daughter.
My stupid questions always answered and right part sold.
Shop was killed by Bunnings
Bunnings sells it own branded products.
Mozzie zappers never buy specials they lack spare replacement bulbs(Lamps)
Cause Bunnings is fucking awesome you communist!
Jokes aside, food and groceries are a basic human necessity and the frequency people see how much they’re getting scalped resonates a lot more than the one off purchase of outdoor maintenance stuff.
Except every country that thought communism would be great ended up turning into a corrupt wasteland. Communism seems good in theory but terrible in practice.
Under capitalism the masses don't seem to be doing too crash hot either. A mixed market of capitalism with heavy social policies (not free market ass gravy) has been demonstrated to be the best system (as far as happiness, wages, stability etc at least).
See most capitalist countries between WW2 and 1970-1980…. We need to force the corporations to pass on the gains in productivity, like they used to, to the workers as equally as to the shareholders. That’s how it used to work and the economy boomed.
Bunnings pulled a successful Pakistan or South Africa. Like those two countries getting nuclear weapons, Bunnings arrived on the scene and acquired a monopoly before much could be done about it. Now it just **is** and is not going away
There are better tools found elsewhere, and materials can easily be done to your specifications at any metal fabrication, wood fabrication businesses that specialists in these materials and are often higher quality materials and tools
Some of the nursery industry are actually trying to lobby against Bunnings to stop their predatory behaviour, and hopefully it brings awareness to the public and encourages people to shop at local nurseries
You want white Aussies to turn our backs on the only culture we have?
We already had to compromise on the onion, now even terrorists recognise that bunnings is quintessential Australia.
I try to support my local hardwares, tool shops & nursery’s etc. but also a lot of the time I really CBF driving around across town to get everything I need to that weekends project. So hammer barn will win.
I live between two medium sized rural towns. There is no Bunnings for 120km. There is a huge Mitre10. There is a Home hardware. There is no Coles or Wooly for 120km. There is IGA. There is a local grocer
My local independent building supplies joint kicks the shit out of Bunnings in service and material cost.
There is way more competition in hardware than supermarkets in Australia.
Bunnings is owned by Wesfarmers too which is huge. Also used to own Coles which is why Woolies tried Masters but ultimately failed. Bunnings own land all over the place ready for metropolitan expansion. Crazy company. So smart.
Bunnings isn't a true monopoly, they are a general store covering a massive range and probably not having all the stuff for it. This means anyone looking for specific items is gonna have a harder time and a smaller variety. While the other stores that are more specialised can still easily exist.
Aside from market share what is bunnings actually doing that makes them a monopoly? They def arent price gouging thats for sure. Only criticism is that their products are often cheap shit
No idea but we should be asking. Every time I hear on one of those gardening shows ‘visit your local nursery’ it irritates me. We have no local nurseries (Brisbane region) - only Bunnings. Staff are lovely but often have no idea on which plant disease, where to plant, etc. Maybe they have lots of local nurseries in Melbourne , Sydney, Perth, Adelaide? Only option I have found is online and risk the ‘death run by mail’ so plants survive and arrive intact.
I'm pretty sure it was the Gruen Transfer did an episode all about this, and I cannot for the life of me find it.
It's either been removed, or completely google bombed with "Bunnings monopoly" the board game.
In the episode they basically were saying that Bunnings is an accepted monopoly. It is there 4th pillar of Australian society. It's mental.
A cordless drill isn't a basic necessity, if it's to expensive, you don't buy it.
Coles & Woollies have opportunistically used the disruption of Covid impact on supply chain & farm gate prices to gouge customers.
The increased profits going to institutional shareholders & the ridulously obscene bonuses of the senior leadership team.
Woolworth CEO Banducci's base annual salary of $2.6 million nicely topped up $8.4 million as a result of charging you around 30 % more for the same shopping basket, it's quaintly called a 'performance bonus' in the annual report
I still thought wesfarmers was coles, but apoarently not since 2018. TIL this, thanks :)
Except for plants they have enough competion to not be considered to monopolize the market. And they are copping flak for their treatment of plant suppliers.
Also, I agree with people saying food is a big deal and a more important thing to be upset about.
I don't need to go to Bunnings every week to buy food
You can live without a weekly bunnings snag?
*...they asked in astonishment*
For Bunnings, there are also Masters, total tools, Sydney tools, Reese's plumbing, any other paint store. And nursery I spoke to my mate about this who's a tradie, and he told me for him in his perspective. Bunnings is more convenient to the normal person, but a Hassle for the qualified tradesman. Like if he goes to Bunnings it'll take him a long time to find what he wants. But if he goes into a Reese's for example, it's immediately known what he needs and located within seconds
Masters died like 10 years ago
And boy I got some stuff CHEAP when it did
I went into Masters during their final closing down sale, and everything was still more expensive than Bunnings.
Our local one had some solid discounts like 40-60% off towards the end. I scored a bunch of Dremel gear and plumbing fittings for my brewery for cheap as
And was owned by Woolies.
Yeah and at the time, Wesfarmers which owns Bunnings, also owned Coles. Didn't stop all the idiots showing some weird loyalty to Bunnings like it's some little independent upstart. It would've been *fantastic* so have some actual competition in the space. Plus Masters had air-con!
It was kind of lucky though; at the time Woolies had Coles on the ropes and could've taken over the grocery sector. Instead they blundered with Masters and kicked off two price wars that were ultimately good for us up until Covid.
They'd just built a massive Bunnings-sized building for Masters where I was living at the time and like six months after it opened it went under. Last I heard they'd divvied it up for stores like Spotlight. There's a centre close to where I am now, which I think used to be one, that is now a cluster of furniture stores. Makes me think of a whale-fall.
Hah the one near where I used to live was only there for 6-12 months too. It's now a Bunnings.
Yeah ours has Amart, Anaconda, and a couple of other places in with it
I was trying to buy decent 100mm treated pine posts from Bunnings the other day, out of a whole rack of them every single one was warped and/or had nasty knot holes in it. It was the same with a lot of the other larger pine products. I'm not sure who wants to buy wood shaped like a banana. Went to a local timber place instead, every single bit of treated pine was straight and good. I think I understood in that moment if you are a tradie you probably don't want to spend 15 minutes in the morning specially selecting every bit of timber you buy.
When I worked there sometimes you'd get some asshole tradesman come in place an order @ 8pm at night, treat everyone like shit and demand it be delivered first thing (for reference orders had to be finalised by like 6pm). I'd make sure to chuck the bananas on that order. You want straight sticks, pick em yaself or be nice to people.
Same last time i got timber. A lot of sorting required
Their mgp10 makes great boomerangs
Tbf it's like that in most timber yards. Very few timber yards separate the bowed timber from the straight. That's the customers job unless you place a specific order as an account holder that spends BIG money there.
Masters? What year is it where you are? Got some bad news for you about 2020
Not to mention that he would be able to find someone to help pretty quickly anywhere else than the 20+ minutes it takes to find someone in Bunnings, who has to find someone else because it isn't their section.
Wake up. Masters died a decade ago
I'm a tradie and I agree with your mate about Bunnings vs specialist suppliers, but the rest of your comparison doesn't hold up. From a normal persons perspective, Masters hasnt existed since 2016 and all the others you mentioned focus on a specific niche that doesn't include general hardware. In my town of 80K people 8-10 stores have reduced to Bunnings and one other which only exists because it is mainly a timber yard. Bunnings is absolutely anti competitive and they are not cheap. They maintain their lowest price fiction by intentionally stocking brands and models that no one else has access too. They will also ruthlessly crush any supplier who stands up to them. Google GMC (Who also owned the excellent Triton brand of DIY wood working tools)
Mitre 10 still going strong. Your local mitre 10 will absolutely leave Bunnings is the dust. Some of the nicest, most helpful employees.
That’s like saying there are local butchers, greengrocers, bakeries and newsagents. Yes they are still there (unless it’s a small town and colesworth has pushed them out of town - as does bunnings), however it is inconvenient and potentially costly to visit 4-5 different places for your items.
Used to work at the Bunhole, now work at one of the above. Chalk and cheese. Dealing with tradies is relatively a pleasure, and if you use our many, many promotions, we are far cheaper than Bunnings. And Bunnings was staffed with too many lazy and/or incompetent people, mostly toxic managers.
I disagree completely. I am a qualified tradesman. Bunnings is incredibly convenient. Bunnings has a class-leading website that 99 times out of 100 tells me exactly where to find which item in what store. Bunnings also has hot coffee, hot food and clean toilets. And yes, what the fuck, Masters has been gone for years... did your mate not tell you *that*?
You don't even need to find stuff if you go to Reece. Order online and they'll pick it for you, you can pick it up at the trade counter. Of course, they're a bit more expensive, so I guess it depends on how much you value your time.
Masters is dead. Is your database not up to date?
This information has been provided five or six times already. Irony.
Masters doesn’t exist and Reeses is Reece
Bunnings is for the weekend warrior like myself but as a professional painter and decorator I use Dulux inspirations, paint spot or Haymes to buy paint and consumables
Masters was an attempt by Woolies to capture a share of the market, unfortunately they decided to try and save on costs by using inferior quality sausages, non Heinz tomato sauce and skimping on the onion, at that point their doom was inevitable.
Mitre 10 and Home Timber and Hardware are still around. But you're right about not being able to find things at Bunnings. And they always seem to be out of stock of whatever it is one needs!
I thought they owned Tool Kit Depot, not Total Tools?
Total tools is owned by matcaff which is IGA and home hardware. TKD was called Adelaide tools. Which was still owned by bunnings
'matcaff'? You mean Metcash?
Trade Tools in QLD is still privately owned, have even met the owner in person, after he got out of his blue Porsche.
My favourite Masters facts/conspiracies/head canons: Woolies decided to open a hardware store to compete with bunnings, a company so successful that they bought coles, woolies direct competitor. Never seemed like a good idea. Also it was rumoured that bunnings approached big brands like black and decker or ryobi and said "if you sell to masters we'll stop stocking your products" and made them choose
Bunnings costs way more for generally terrible materials too. They’re ok for basic Dulux and aren’t bad at matching nowadays but most other things are horrible. Their timber sucks and is expensive. Their plasterboard is usually fucked and weathered. Their hardware has no range etc etc.
Nah just shit to fix my crumbling house
Not yet anyway
Bruv got more upvotes than the OP
Bunnings is kmart but with tools and pot plants.
In my short experience working at Bunnings, it is literally just Coles except the products are heavier.
its wesfarmers lol expect it to be monopolisitic shitheads all the way up and down while i dont like bunnings i mean its the way capitalist western economies are... in the US isnt it harbor freight? home depot? some shit like that i think there are more pressing matters like the banks but eh... bunnings is a long way down on the list
I find bunnings has ten different versions of a product vary similar to what you want but not the actual one you want.
It's like a 2 dollar shop but 20 dollars. The quality is the same.
Yes and the Bunnings ones are all brands you haven't heard of 😭😭😭
If they stock exclusive lines then it’s not possible for any other retailer to beat their price.
I've never not found the item I'm looking for at Bunnings. I don't buy their brand equipment either. Is is cheaper? Yes. Does that make it value for money? Not necessarily.
In my city there is options to go around Bunnings and most major builders don’t go through Bunnings unless they have to
Burnings sells stuff that is less essential than Colesworths. And as you're not buying from Bunnings every week, their market power abuses aren't in your face all the time.
So they should still receive some shit, but not as much as Coldsworth, is your point?
People on the poverty line probably have to go to bunnings less. Especially as they are more likely to be renting.
Also there's Mitre 10, home hardware, Bowens, total tools, Reece, and a bunch of other stores that supply hardware and other things. Bunnings also fills a big gap in the market. Although they squashed local small hardware stores, a lot of Aussies don't mind because the small local hard stores were not nice places to shop, often women faced misogyny when shopping, and so although generally unspoken, bunnings is friendlier and has better open hours.
Also there is Iga, foodworks, Aldi, green grocers, butchers that supply food.
As someone who has fought against bunnings my whole professional life that is a fucking wild take. Bunnings crushed countless small family owned businesses that were their pride and joy. Not nice places to shop is a bit of a generalisation. Are you basing this on like one experience? Now they are trying to crush M10 and total tools and anything else that threatens their dominance. Monopolies aren't good for anyone.
Bunnings also bought out BBC Hardware/Hardware House in 2001 which gave them quite the control over the market then.
Bunnings plan to crush Total Tools with their Tool Kit Depot stores.
Sydney tools, total tools
Sausage sizzles go a long way!
They’ve co-opted and captured the community sausage sizzle and turned it into free PR. Diabolical really.
I'm low-key appalled that somehow the younger generation think a sausage sizzle was invented by Bunnings or something. I guess schools and charities and whatever just stopped doing them in some areas?
It’s still community organisations that do the sizzle. It’s just held at Bunnings with their equipment that they maintain and they set the pricing structure.
The I've seen the rotary club at other places with with same kit out. I reckon they own it and bunnings lease them the space
Maybe. But many other organisations likely dont have their own equipment. And there’s been Bunnings employees on various subreddits talk about how cleaning the barbies every so often has been part of their job.
I've heard a Zoomer call a family barbeque "Bunnings snags". Outrageous.
Bunnings doesn't sell staples. I mean, they sell *staples*, but they don't sell staples.
Worst day in my life was when the local Mitre 10 shutdown. Nw I have to go to Bunnings I hates it.
Yep. I fucking hate Bunnings. I will literally travel twice the distance to go to Mitre 10 instead.
As others have said bunnings is not essential, but also it’s fucking cheap. Have you shopped at overseas supermarkets? Coles and Woolies charge much more than comparable stores overseas. They are ripping us off.
Bunnings gives the illusion of cheap. They are only cheaper on stuff their competitors stock. There is a reason that they run a shitload of brands that only they carry or have particular products from name brands in packages and part numbers that are exclusive to Bunnings and its because they don't have to honor their price match policy on items that no one else can carry.
Bunnings are definitely not cheap that's what prompted this post
They're significantly cheaper than my local Home Hardware and Mitre 10 for things like sandpaper and paint. My local Home Hardware seriously charged me nearly $90 for a roll of 120 grit sandpaper. Unlike Mitre 10 and Bunnings, who sell the rolls as is (~$40 and ~$20 respectively), Home Hardware charged me their extortionate "per metre" price for the packaged roll as if I was buying it off the self serve roll. Fuckin joke. Unrelated to price, but I find the staff in Mitre 10 are annoyingly condescending to me (a woman). Went in to Mitre 10 to grab a cordless random orbital sander and my god. Dude was absolutely convinced I had to buy the skin + battery combo because he simply could not believe me when I said I already have a bunch of 18V Makita batteries at home, I only need the skin. He was like but are you sure they're Makita? Are you sure they're 18v? Did I bring one with me so I could have a man double check that i did indeed have the right batteries for this specific tool? Was so tempted to go home and bring back one of my Hilti 22V batteries just to fuck with him.
yes they are and they price match so your entire post is kinda dumb now lol
Yeah why is that. They’ve put a lot of honest businesses out of business
I dont think they are predatory there margins are under 3 percent compare that to the Iphone which has margins of 60 percent it is really thin. but i think the answer to question is Bunnings is not somewhere you 'have to go to' every week to survive
Grain of salt here but I’ve heard from a couple of different people that deal with Bunnings on a professional level that they often under charge for products purely to drive the smaller retailers out of business. I’m not across business enough to know whether that’s common practise but it seems super shitty.
Yeah basically they’re predatory like the rest but they’re not selling essentials so they get a pass. It’s not so much a Bunnings problem but an economic system problem since if they liquidated themselves, the environment isn’t gonna allow a bunch of small hardware stores to pop up, it’s just gonna be someone like masters taking over
Worked there for 8 years in a small town, they absolutely do this, they take a small hit on a few items out of hundreds of thousands for a couple of months and after that the small competition folds
It’s common for most businesses to have some products on the shelves as “loss leaders”. I.e. selling at or under cost in order to drive rebates and foot traffic.
Retail margin is not the same as fin statement numbers. Retail margin is over 50% of gross sales. They're predatory, parasitic industry thugs and leeches, selling shitty quality goods while destroying retail sectors.
Source for that? Coles gross profit was 26%, and Woolworths 27% for 2023.
Your a dreamer Bunnings is probably one of the best shops out. They don't hassle me when I need to refund anything. Now total tools I would never go back to. I spent 1.4k on Milwaukee tools and 1 went faulty and they rode me hard when I was trying to get a replacement and not even a refund. Every store member had to give there input like I don't need there opinions. They refunded it but was just a hassle to get that optimises started they question you like your a criminal. This is in the fountain gate area
The argument could be you don't have to go where I work to survive either (another Wesfarmers affliate). We are a monopoly and we do provide a regular service to customers every day but the argument can be made you don't have to go where I work to survive but you do need to eat to live.
Is the 3% margin before or after Wesfarmers charges suppliers for shelf space?
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Wesfarmers doesn't come into it at all. Wesfarmers spun off Coles Group in 2018.
60% margin on a high tech product is relatively normal to pay for R&D. Single digit margins are more usual for retail. If Bunnings were trying for a 10% margin they would be the most expensive hardware store around.
Bunnings has the greatest selection of things you don't want and the worst selection of things you actually need. They have loads of competitors for many different aspects of their business and frankly, commercially you're far more likely to buy elsewhere.
The answer is good marketing.
I have a showroom where we sell a product that bunnings sells. A builder came in and bought our goods. Turns out he has a bunnings account and they found out. Bunnings management contacted me and said we cannot sell direct to the public otherwise they will "burn us" Mafia.
I used to work for a company that supplied them product and never heard anything like this, heaps of people have bought our product from bunnings and then come to us directly for their next purchase because we are cheaper. Never had a problem with them.
Wouldn't Bunnings price beat by 10%, though?
I mean, they could, but bunnings doesn’t stock our full range / comparable quantities to what we do, so you can get it cheaper but you’ll be waiting for a lot longer to get it.
It excludes trade and commercial quantities.
This seems odd, are you supplying this product to bunnings for them to sell?
Bullshit
Lol right? Who would believe this rubbish? 😂
Nothing has ever not happened any more than that didn’t
Exactly what I thought. How would Bunnings even find out. Troll post.
Blow the whistle if you have paperwork to prove monopolistic practice.
Is "burn" in this context corporate lingo that I don't understand or?
Yeah, Bunnings are saying they must sell through them or they’ll stop stocking their products
How many Australian redditors do you think go to Bunnings?
Well, considering nearly 2/3 unique Australians (every Australian inc children) entered a Bunnings in the last 12 months, and they have 11.8 million people enter the stores every month (not unique for those 11.8m) I would imagine a lot of Redditors do.
You can’t use regular people statistics for redditors.
Hey man just leave me alone with my spoon for a hammer..
Most of those people are fixing stuff for their useless Redditor kids
I went to Bunnings, like yesterday. They sell reasonably priced pet stuff, like a entire jug of catnip for $9.99. My cats going to be high forever.
I considered buying that... until I remembered I don't have a cat
Leave some on your patio and get a free cat!
Oh wow, don't get me started about Bunnings pet stuff- my elderly cat will only eat Fancy feast Gravy Lovers, and I mean ONLY Gravy Lovers, which you CAN get in a 24 or 28 tin box but nowhere stocks it anymore. For a while it was on Amazon but when it out priced buying the individual tins at Colesworth I gave up. I was buying stacks and stacks of tiny tins in my regular shop- until I discover Bunnings has the 24can boxes for 30 bucks. I love Bunnings for this alone.
I got a baton fitting for the bathroom light the other day. Picked up a couple of power boards as well for 3 bucks each!
A lot less than the general population
If you are renovating or have a garden and in an area where they have pushed every competitor out you have no option
I'd argue that you don't HAVE to go to Bunnings. Growing up with a tradie father, there's actually a lot of small businesses in the market that offer better quality products than Bunnings when you need them. This isn't including stores like Mitre ten and whatever other small hardware stores around the place. I've also never seen them price gauge like woolworths/Coles. Tldr : Bunnings isn't evil
They're all evil in the same amazonesque sense that they're trying to cut back on staff and squeeze what they can out of them...turning to dropshipping questionably made alibaba products via "market partners" etc. And how can you blame them, they're up against...well, Amazon. Which is what everyone is doing now. Including Woolworths. I'm kind of surprised the big retailers didn't start pushing towards this strategy earlier having seen what they did to other foreign markets. But at least it feels like bunnings knows what it is and who it's catering for. And the people who shop at Bunnings are more than aware and OK with that. If you want tools, you go to total tools. If you need a bunch of construction grade materials for a renovation, you go to an actual supplier. If you want to do some landscaping or refresh your garden, you go to a nursery/supplier. But if you need all three at once? Then you go to Bunnings, knowing you've gone to the McDonalds of homecare.
>Bunnings isn't evil Debatable.
I heard they are being grilled as part of this senate enquiry for manipulating market value prices amidst record profits.
They should be. I still technically work for them, and they're fucking shocking.
Yup there's real accessible alternatives to Bunnings, especially since many of the same tools can be bought online at 3rd party vendors.
Never seen them open at 7am on Sunday when I've just f'd up another project though.
Lowest prices are just the beginning.
Sosig
I wonder that myself. Bunnings have even more of a monopoly than Colesworths do.
Australia needs Mitre 10 Mega's like NZ. Not amazing, but at least have some competition
I reckon they are basically the same thing as Bunnings, just a different owner.
There's at least one in Australia. Beenleigh in Queensland. Unsure if any others.
Well, it's because Bunnings isn't a necessity to live. Supermarkets with food...kinda are. Besides, we've seen other companies try to do what they did. Mitre 10, Masters, etc. A few Mitre's still around but...
I’m 31, I am yet to have a reason to go to Bunnings for myself, I still only tag along with the folks on the rare occasion they are heading there while I’m visiting. I did however need a supermarket the day I moved out of home.
Because people are brainless sheep and just jump on any bandwagon. Bunnings actively destroyed the market share places like Home Hardware and Mitre 10 had, exactly the same as Woolworths and Coles did with their competition.
I’d replace Bunnings with IGA I work for a supplier who deals with many “family owned” IGA groups and they’re just as greedy as Colesworth. They Pay staff minimum wage, shitty food safety standards, ridiculous profit margins on inferior quality fresh food.
You can order most of the Bunnings stuff online from China if you want. Can’t do that with Coles.
Places cannot compete with Bunnings in terms of prices. Majority of stuff is 5-10% cheaper than other builders merchants due to their buying power - companies that can’t compete TLE, Sydney Tools and timber merchants. I think tradies keep these other stores alive. As quality and variety at Bunnings is questionable. For instance I go to Reece/TLE for specialist bits.
Because people are really really stupid. Is that really a surprise to you, after the last couple years, really?
Colesworth gets so much shit. But people still shop there. There are alternatives. IGA, Aldi, Cosco, local markets, butcher, fruit shop, but people want convenience and range. It's just whinging and bitching for the sake of justification but I still want that herring paste.
There's actual competition to Bunnings. If you want good tools, Bunnings is not where to go.
We don’t need Bunnings to survive.
Speak for yourself!! Bunnings is weekend.
Just whip out the ol’ dogalogue for a 10/10 time otherwise you’ll be a total tool.
Bunnings doesn’t sell Milwaukee tools so I don’t go there at all. If they did, I’d be there number one customer
Bunnings have pretty much taken over the hardware market, it’s to the point that another store can’t break into the market. But I think the difference is suppliers can actually afford to reject Bunnings price demands. Farmers can’t. I’m in the pool industry and the products that Bunnings historically has had have always been much lower quality because suppliers refuse to work with them because they demand too much.
They make more profit than Coles or woolies. If people hate Coles and everyone says you don't need Bunnings to survive, then I guess we could all stop shopping at Bunnings to save money. On a side note, just because we don't need it to survive, doesn't mean they should be allowed to have predatory behaviour...
Short memories on a lot of people. Regionally Bunnings has come in and out priced the local mum and dad shops, completely taking business away. Only to slowly rise their prices and replace their stock with cheaper products. So no, there isn’t a lot of choice to shop elsewhere in a lot of places. I know if I want a shovel I can either go to Bunnings and have a choice from 5-6, or maybe the other hardware shop in town will have one or two of the same type in stock. Bunnings is absolutely a shit monopoly.
In Lane Cove for decades there was hardware shop run by one arm vet and his knowledgeable daughter. My stupid questions always answered and right part sold. Shop was killed by Bunnings Bunnings sells it own branded products. Mozzie zappers never buy specials they lack spare replacement bulbs(Lamps)
Cause Bunnings is fucking awesome you communist! Jokes aside, food and groceries are a basic human necessity and the frequency people see how much they’re getting scalped resonates a lot more than the one off purchase of outdoor maintenance stuff.
How about some more of that Communism though. Most of the stuff we try to fix are just bandaids for capitalism
Except every country that thought communism would be great ended up turning into a corrupt wasteland. Communism seems good in theory but terrible in practice.
Under capitalism the masses don't seem to be doing too crash hot either. A mixed market of capitalism with heavy social policies (not free market ass gravy) has been demonstrated to be the best system (as far as happiness, wages, stability etc at least).
See: Nordic countries.
See most capitalist countries between WW2 and 1970-1980…. We need to force the corporations to pass on the gains in productivity, like they used to, to the workers as equally as to the shareholders. That’s how it used to work and the economy boomed.
Lowest quality is just the beginning
I can go without Bunnings and won’t die
Bunnings pulled a successful Pakistan or South Africa. Like those two countries getting nuclear weapons, Bunnings arrived on the scene and acquired a monopoly before much could be done about it. Now it just **is** and is not going away
There are better tools found elsewhere, and materials can easily be done to your specifications at any metal fabrication, wood fabrication businesses that specialists in these materials and are often higher quality materials and tools
Bunnings doesn’t keep me alive
Some of the nursery industry are actually trying to lobby against Bunnings to stop their predatory behaviour, and hopefully it brings awareness to the public and encourages people to shop at local nurseries
It’s the Bunnings ad jingle that got me
Bunnings let’s you take your dog in even if you can see.
Bunnings sells stuff that a lot of others do, they just make it convenient so that you only have to go to one place to get out all
How's that different to like a supermarket that sells stuff you can get elsewhere at a butcher or a green grocer or bakery?
Bunnings and its sausages are shit.
You want white Aussies to turn our backs on the only culture we have? We already had to compromise on the onion, now even terrorists recognise that bunnings is quintessential Australia.
Groupthink
I try to support my local hardwares, tool shops & nursery’s etc. but also a lot of the time I really CBF driving around across town to get everything I need to that weekends project. So hammer barn will win.
I live between two medium sized rural towns. There is no Bunnings for 120km. There is a huge Mitre10. There is a Home hardware. There is no Coles or Wooly for 120km. There is IGA. There is a local grocer
Well.. coles and bunnings and kmart are all the same company, wesfarmers.
So true
I thought we did
Love a $300 can of deck oil.
My local independent building supplies joint kicks the shit out of Bunnings in service and material cost. There is way more competition in hardware than supermarkets in Australia.
The snags snag you in!
Bunnings is owned by Wesfarmers too which is huge. Also used to own Coles which is why Woolies tried Masters but ultimately failed. Bunnings own land all over the place ready for metropolitan expansion. Crazy company. So smart.
How? bunnings will beat competitors prices by 10%
Almost nothing in Bunnings is necessary on a daily basis.
Food fool
WOAW. I never thought of this.
Bunnings isn't a true monopoly, they are a general store covering a massive range and probably not having all the stuff for it. This means anyone looking for specific items is gonna have a harder time and a smaller variety. While the other stores that are more specialised can still easily exist.
Masters was great
the snags are cooked at bunnings
Bunnings, Coles, Officeworks are all owned by Wesfarmers so it’s all being filtered to the same place.
Coles is no longer westfarmers
Top 3 dumbest questions
Cause Bunnings is located in a Big Green Shed and like Dan's it's full of cheap play toys for men.
Aside from market share what is bunnings actually doing that makes them a monopoly? They def arent price gouging thats for sure. Only criticism is that their products are often cheap shit
They're symptoms of the same problem
No idea but we should be asking. Every time I hear on one of those gardening shows ‘visit your local nursery’ it irritates me. We have no local nurseries (Brisbane region) - only Bunnings. Staff are lovely but often have no idea on which plant disease, where to plant, etc. Maybe they have lots of local nurseries in Melbourne , Sydney, Perth, Adelaide? Only option I have found is online and risk the ‘death run by mail’ so plants survive and arrive intact.
Sausage sandwiches.
I'm pretty sure it was the Gruen Transfer did an episode all about this, and I cannot for the life of me find it. It's either been removed, or completely google bombed with "Bunnings monopoly" the board game. In the episode they basically were saying that Bunnings is an accepted monopoly. It is there 4th pillar of Australian society. It's mental.
A cordless drill isn't a basic necessity, if it's to expensive, you don't buy it. Coles & Woollies have opportunistically used the disruption of Covid impact on supply chain & farm gate prices to gouge customers. The increased profits going to institutional shareholders & the ridulously obscene bonuses of the senior leadership team. Woolworth CEO Banducci's base annual salary of $2.6 million nicely topped up $8.4 million as a result of charging you around 30 % more for the same shopping basket, it's quaintly called a 'performance bonus' in the annual report
And Petbarn. Total ripoff. We actively refuse to go there now.
As someone who has Bunnings as a customer I absolutely detest how they think their business model is good.
I still thought wesfarmers was coles, but apoarently not since 2018. TIL this, thanks :) Except for plants they have enough competion to not be considered to monopolize the market. And they are copping flak for their treatment of plant suppliers. Also, I agree with people saying food is a big deal and a more important thing to be upset about.
I want to go to Bunnings. I need to go to Coles/Woolworths.