I don’t understand how the heck Bunnings manages to have so much public good will.
It’s a total monopoly that has run all of it’s competition out of business and over the past 20 years has become progressively shitter at customer service.
@Joshi
It’s also less and less of a hardware store and more and more a crappy homewares store. If you need actual hardware—timber, metal, proper tools etc—or god forbid, advice then you are out of luck if a hammerbarn has killed all the hardware stores in your area. @shinyrat
There are other ways to source your hardware and tools.
Discount Stores and Home/Mitre 10/Total Tools/Sydney Tools/etc are still around.
Wholesale material suppliers are often willing to sell Retail as long as you don’t waste their staffs time. The One True Monopsony (Amazon) also sell most of the stuff from Bunnings, cheaper.
Also AliExpress and Temu have most of the small consumables at a much competitive price. Just remember that some of it will be eWaste in a few months, but that goes for any electronics purchased from anywhere.
The main benefit of Bunnings is that they are open long hours and have lowest-common-denominator products that aren’t too overpriced
Also, you buy a sausage made of sawdust and beef fat on the way out (very tasty, although not very healthy.)
@mativity@Joshi@shinyrat yup, Mitre 10 and Home Hardware are both still around (now the same company that also owns Total Tools). Also, a Bowen’s building supplies opened up in the old Bunnings nearby after they moved out to an even bigger store.
I don’t understand how the heck Bunnings manages to have so much public good will.
For me:
I go into giant warehouse size of small city
find what i want, price is decent
i go through self checkout and leave
👍
everytime I’ve been has been fine? except when I look for a small widget that has 10 in stock on the website but there’s none on the shelf because scumbags have stolen them all but 99% of the time it’s fine
It is fine, unless you want a brand that doesn’t have a deal with Bunnings, or unless you want garden furniture that is remotely durable, or unless you want some advice from someone who has experience in hardware.
Back when Bunnings was one of several large chains and small local hardwares were much more common it was easy, even Bunnings was made better by the competition. Monopolies are bad for consumers.
I don’t understand how the heck Bunnings manages to have so much public good will.
It’s a total monopoly that has run all of it’s competition out of business and over the past 20 years has become progressively shitter at customer service.
I miss other hardware stores 😔
@Joshi
It’s also less and less of a hardware store and more and more a crappy homewares store. If you need actual hardware—timber, metal, proper tools etc—or god forbid, advice then you are out of luck if a hammerbarn has killed all the hardware stores in your area.
@shinyrat
There are other ways to source your hardware and tools. Discount Stores and Home/Mitre 10/Total Tools/Sydney Tools/etc are still around.
Wholesale material suppliers are often willing to sell Retail as long as you don’t waste their staffs time. The One True Monopsony (Amazon) also sell most of the stuff from Bunnings, cheaper.
Also AliExpress and Temu have most of the small consumables at a much competitive price. Just remember that some of it will be eWaste in a few months, but that goes for any electronics purchased from anywhere.
The main benefit of Bunnings is that they are open long hours and have lowest-common-denominator products that aren’t too overpriced Also, you buy a sausage made of sawdust and beef fat on the way out (very tasty, although not very healthy.)
@Joshi @shinyrat Mitre 10 is still around.
@mativity @Joshi @shinyrat yup, Mitre 10 and Home Hardware are both still around (now the same company that also owns Total Tools). Also, a Bowen’s building supplies opened up in the old Bunnings nearby after they moved out to an even bigger store.
For me:
everytime I’ve been has been fine? except when I look for a small widget that has 10 in stock on the website but there’s none on the shelf because scumbags have stolen them all but 99% of the time it’s fine
It is fine, unless you want a brand that doesn’t have a deal with Bunnings, or unless you want garden furniture that is remotely durable, or unless you want some advice from someone who has experience in hardware.
Back when Bunnings was one of several large chains and small local hardwares were much more common it was easy, even Bunnings was made better by the competition. Monopolies are bad for consumers.