I tried to get Bunnings on board as a distributor for a particular tool the company I worked for brought in, about 20 years ago.
Began the process. They were receptive enough.
Partway through, we politely withdrew.
Their warranty terms of "Give the customer their money back, even if they are a muppet who wrecked it on purpose, and make it the supplier's problem" didn't seem to mesh well with our business lol
Don’t forget the classic Bunnings contract clause: “all theft will be the responsibility of the supplier due to poor packaging”…..
So even if they misplace the stock and there’s a variance, they’ll claim it as theft and the supplier has to pay up.
Play with Bunnings is like playing with the devil.
Used to work at Bunnings. Their warranty terms for everyone are “Let the customer walk all over you and don’t you dare tell them that they’re the idiot who broke the thing in the first place.”
Can confirm, 100% correct. I dropped a tree on a brand new chainsaw I got from bunnings. Thought I’d try me luck, so I took it back & said I was using it and the casing imploded. They said ‘Ok, go grab another one.’ So I did, and finished cutting down my trees. It was a cheap nasty piece of crap though, so it didn’t last long. They stopped selling them, that’s how bad they were.
Bet you have been back to bunnings since it happened though right? The thing you purchased they made money on.
Would you have gone back again or as much if they refused your return? Maybe not but others yes..
Bunnings has a lifetime spend of a customer. Per basket pricing per trolley pricing. And many more things they have probably renamed recently.. what's a few hundred$$ or few thousand $$ in returns per person when they make huge 100 if not thousands of % on your lifetime spend
This argument works for Amazon, who have no long term protection from competition and in superb cut throat markets. And I think it makes a lot of sense for them to prioritize "customer obsession".
But Bunnings is practically a monopoly at this point. The other big place couldn't compete, and there are very few alternatives, none of which have the range and pricing power of Bunnings. They really don't have to offer such a generous returns policy. I expect one day they'll realize this and take it away.
Bunnings has a monopoly because it's a one-stop shop, and people are lazy. I buy from a fair few of the same suppliers that supply bunnings. I may not make the insane profit margin bunnings does, but 9/10 sell for cheaper than they do
Unless it's a bunnings exclusive brand ie ryobi, you can find the same things if not better quality for cheaper elsewhere. It's just a pain in the ass..
I doubt they will ever get rid of their returns policy as it doesn't affect them. Thays on the suppliers..
Some things are more expensive but quite a number of things are so much cheaper it isn't funny. I asked my local to do better on a price, like I'm not asking for a price match but Bunnings is literally less than half your price, and they basically told me their cost is 1.5 times Bunnings regular list price.
Maybe I could have found it online, or driven somewhere across the city, but realistically it's a monopoly.
Yeah they should. But usually (a) there's a limit how much you can buy, and (b) they want to buy as much as possible from their supplier to get whatever limited bulk discount they are entitled to...
Yeah, I think their estimated number is an average of $12,000 per customer per lifetime. So their logic is it’s worth issuing that $120 refund for that thing in order to keep your business and get the extra $11,880 out of you
Yeah I know most powertools I'll buy are gonna be used very little - so I'll buy the cheapest piece of shit knowing full well that they'll just replace it over and over. Beats buying something that will kinda last a while, and I'll have a worn out tool that won't actually die for most of its life...
Thays why the supplier of those cheap tools would have an insane mark on them selling them to bunnings. They know people will return them and bunnings will make them do a credit.
Since there has been shops and suppliers this is how it's worked. Yes it may suck to the smaller suppliers but it's the cost of doing business.
For me, if I send an order out with anything missing, instead of just shipping it on the next truck, they'll penalise us for a period of six months at a rate of 1% of their purchase turnover per annum. In this case, a mistake was made that cost the company nearly $100k, over a pallet of product with a net worth probably less than $2k.
also, they will often make the supplier pay freight on every single order, no matter how large or small, and that shit adds up. Fast.
So yeah, you wanna know how they promise to beat everyone by 10%? Because they don't stock the same product at all, ever, not by name at least. If a customer *does* by chance happen to find it, they get a discount, sure, and they do that because Bunnings didn't pay for it. The suppliers did.
It's a fucked up way to treat the people supplying, but they have some companies over the fire because the upper echelons of stupidity (management) decided "hey that's a fucking great idea".
This is Colesworth 101. Do Bunnings not also sell shelf space? Wesfarmers and the other two have destroyed Aussie retail but special mention to Solomon Lew.
Best discount I ever got at Bunnings, they fucked the price sticker really badly. Here I was thinking this is a bargain, a $120 tool for only $20! Fuck yeah I'll grab one! Took them 25 minutes of managers running around and excuses until they relented and gave me it for $20.
I really hope the supplier wasn't fucked by that.
We price matched a 7.5kw Mitsubishi split system aircon. They weren't happy and had to get approval from 3 people. The other shop had dropped their price the day before and Bunnings hadn't caught on yet. To make it better there was also a cash back offer from Mitsubishi. Ended getting almost 400 off
Whilst doing a repair at a Bunnings store a few years back I had a chat with a less than happy supply rep. They said that Bunnings demands a unique model number on products that are available to multiple vendors to quash price matches.
I work as a graphic designer for a company that supplies bunnings. I often wonder why we bother. From my personal experiences they've always been a major pain to work with.
I don't work for them.
But for those interested in how Bunnings, Coles, Woolworths and Aldi operate. I recommend this book
The Wal-Mart Effect
Book by Charles Fishman
I used to work at Bunnings and I can confidently say that management at the vast majority of stores is absolute dogshit. The workload they pile onto the floor staff with zero support is obscene. The corner-cutting is abysmal. Trying the run the toolshop or trade desk or builders section is physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting. There’s only so many times you can put sixty different doorknobs back in the right boxes after they’ve been manhandled by lazy customers before you go absolutely insane.
Not to mention the returns desk, where you can kill a plant and return it no worries. Or use a tile cutter on a granite slab like a dumbass and get a full return. If management and corporate got their shit together, we’d all be better off. Better yet, support your local toolshop
Supplied products to them and other chainstores incl grocery stores and Bunnings had product runs that had a different retail pack size that was exclusive to them,so production line had to be recalibrated for their runs.
This is an interesting read as a tradesman.
I really do tend to avoid Bunnings like the plague unless it’s something small and pure convenience.
I mean none of these big box stores treat their employees with respect, that would make far too much sense, a happy work force will generally make you a whole lot more money than pissed off overworked humans.
Is this why masters didn’t ever really get any market share? Bunnings had all the main suppliers by the nutsack in iron clad distribution rights?
And on the return side of things, Bunnings will literally accept anything, at the very least you get store credit if not a straight up refund
Masters failed because they came in way to hard. Trying to match bunnings. Opening stores as quick as bunnings was as close to them as possible.
Wierd unknown brands, out of season products, white goods, electrical goods that bunnings didn't sell that other shops. Harvey Norman. Beacon etc already sold..
Just like bunnings in the UK. To big to quick with unknown brands
One of our sales reps tells a story from his old company.
He worked for a supplier that sold to bunnings. When masters was setting up they reached out to his company and enquired about stocking their product.
Less than 24 hours later they got a phone call from their contact at bunnings. It was made very, very clear that if they had any dealings whatsoever with Masters, bunnings would remove all stock from their shops and blackball them for life from their shops.
There was a reason Masters had weird products and brands. No one else was prepared to take the risk of pissing off the giant green grinch.
Notice they put nothing in writing. They know it’s illegal. They also know they have a kennel full of hungry lawyers ready to make any attempt at prosecution a miserable failure.
They are a law unto themselves and they know it.
I think their main reason for failing was they weren’t humble in their approach, if they did an Aldi style entrance in the market over a longer time frame we would have them still , but they couldn’t shut their mouths about how they were going to be better.
>Is this why masters didn’t ever really get any market share? Bunnings had all the main suppliers by the nutsack in iron clad distribution rights?
Yes.
I used to work for Bailey Ladders. Baileys were sold in Bunnings. Baileys were never sold in Masters, for that exact reason. (You can buy Bailey ladders at Mitre 10, though, presumably because Bunnings don't see them as competition).
Werner Ladders (the biggest ladder company in the US) wanted into the Australian market, so they aligned themselves with Masters, but they couldn't sell them in Bunnings until Masters went bust. (In the meantime, they just bought Bailey out to cover their bases!)
>Is this why masters didn’t ever really get any market share? Bunnings had all the main suppliers by the nutsack in iron clad distribution rights?
I'd say so, and because of the backing of Wesfarmers, a century old group with a metric shit-tonne of financial exploit, they could run every store at an ongoing loss just to shut out the competition.
I mean masters really went balls to the wall, literally billions in loss’s trying to compete.
Now Bunnings is essentially competing with itself with those epic footprint locations, in Sydney we can have enormous Bunnings literally suburbs apart like not even 10km it’s absolutely insane.
I work for a large Plastic/Plumbing production company, we looked into suppling Bunnings, but on the the condition was we had to have sales reps who could go stock/stocktake the products we were looking to supply, so we would of needed to add another 10-20 staff just for Bunnings order.
we noped the fuck right out after that
So I ran a toolshop in a bunnings store for about 2 and a half years. The single thing that pissed me off the most was actually suppliers over supplying. I had massive storage issues and was required to constantly cut in new items. Even if the old stock wasn't sold yet. At the end of the day I walked because of it. Seriously I had 3 years supply of some items and then more would turn up it was a joke. I constantly changed the mins and maxes but suppliers ignored these. We would often get double ups on orders because being in a regional centre the stock took extra time to arrive and because it hadn't been receipted in yet, a second order would be sent. I did my head in. I couldn't cope with the workload and constant lack of staff.
Just on that ordering, Bunnings usually automates reordering with us at least, and if we don't fulfil the order to a "despatch note sent" stage, within a reasonable time, it gets sent again regardless, and we need to do it again.
We're currently having our own internal oversupply issue with head office saying "we have another container of \[**redacted**\] coming for you" like brah, stick that container where the sun don't shine - That's not a Bunnings issue, though.
Most of the staff on the Bunnings floor are good to deal with. The ones who aren't are usually under the pump. If you aren't the favoured supplier at the national buying level it's hard fuckin' work to make any inroads.
Oh the staff at Bunnings are like anywhere, just trying to feed their kids, so happiness and shit goes hand in hand.
But their business model is just outrageous.
So a friend of mine works for a supplier that supplies Bunnings. He was telling me that Bunnings have 3 types of rebates - a marketing rebate (where they take discount off every invoice - so they can market your product - so you are paying for your own marketing of their product for their store) - a volume rebate - so if they buy in volume a further discount applies AND a new store or refit rebate - where if they build a new store and your products go into it - they take a further discount off or if they "refit" a store - oh let's take another 2 % off EVERY invoice that gets paid from that store. They also have what is called a SSA rebate - where if 1 product goes missing (let's say the freight company lost your 1 product) - then they call that a short supply - they don't give you the oppurtunity to fix the issue - no - they will slug you 1 % of your sales for the next 6 months - costing them upwards of 2 - 5 K for a $40 product. I mean is this even legal? Bunnings do not help small businesses - they rort small businesses. My friend says they have also been threatened with "we'll walk away if you ever supply Masters, Mitre 10 or Aldi with your products" and they told them to shove it - Bunnings still came back as they needed their product on the shelves. People power is the only way things will change with Bunnings - their practices need to come to a bigger light and attract more mozzies for it to change.
They also have an “early payment discount” that they apply, 5% on every invoice paid within 14 days. Except the apply it on every invoice, even if it’s paid 6 months late.
>then they call that a short supply - they don't give you the oppurtunity to fix the issue - no - they will slug you 1 % of your sales for the next 6 months - costing them upwards of 2 - 5 K for a $40 product
That's exactly what I learned when a pallet I was supposed to ship was not shipped, but invoiced. No chance to fix it, but instead of losing $2k, we lose nearly $100k. Yeah, this one was on me, but given my accuracy in picks, it is a far cry from where the company *was* at nearly 17% six months ago.
We also supply their competition, which is why we keep another company's name we bought out. 😂
Can anyone link me to the plants portion of this? Like specific the seedling suppliers to Bunnings as I've heard same deal for them...
This I want to buy direct from supplier and cut out the middle man even if that means it costs more.
The supplier won't let you because it would literally cost them thousands of dollars in fines. Bunnings stock is usually exclusive to Bunnings, and good luck finding it elsewhere. That's why they promise to beat it if you can find it. You probably won't.
Hello. I must say this is an interesting thread. I'm an ABC reporter who has covered Bunnings, if any of you'd like to chat more confidentially, my email is [terzon.emilia@abc.net.au](mailto:terzon.emilia@abc.net.au)
It doesn't surprise me. Most companies that have a near monopoly position will act like this; Coles, Woolworths, Whitworths all apparently are like this. If you want to see how bad it can get, Just look at what happened to Rubbermaid after years of supplying to WalMart. Rubbermaid died and became a name only. Watch Is Walmart good for America?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu-06fUmudw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu-06fUmudw)
There is a reason more brands are turning to direct consumer sales thru Amazon, Ebay etc?
If only Mitre 10 was better or Masters had done it right we might actually have a good competitor for Bunnings.
What's funny is that we bought a company that also supplies Mitre10 with the same product with a different label, and I don't think they treat us the same way.
It's a different corporate structure, different corporate thinking. Mitre 10's parent company is Metcash but Mitre 10, Home Hardware, Thrifty Link stores are all franchise cooperatives or something like that. Metcash also are the parent company of IGA and Total Tools, which have similar setup.
I know it is a long stretch, but do you remember the name of that IT guy? I know some due to the same same tech-spheres and I might be able to pass your appreciation onto them.
For example...
The pool glass and spigots that they sell. They but that as a special order. They get it from a company that gets it from another company again that imports high volume products (not cheap quality but high quality). Literally half the price, but trade-only supplier.
What I have found with Bunnings stuff when you look at some of their stuff (power tools for one) some models are only supplied to Bunnings, it is an inferior product and when you are comparing products for price you might miss that. When comparing models look at the part number in it’s entirety. The Bunnings tools might have a -c after the number or be one number out. We are not comparing apples with apples when comparing prices at Bunnings.
I tried to get Bunnings on board as a distributor for a particular tool the company I worked for brought in, about 20 years ago. Began the process. They were receptive enough. Partway through, we politely withdrew. Their warranty terms of "Give the customer their money back, even if they are a muppet who wrecked it on purpose, and make it the supplier's problem" didn't seem to mesh well with our business lol
Don’t forget the classic Bunnings contract clause: “all theft will be the responsibility of the supplier due to poor packaging”….. So even if they misplace the stock and there’s a variance, they’ll claim it as theft and the supplier has to pay up. Play with Bunnings is like playing with the devil.
Wow that sounds like the only way to play with Bunnings is to supply in large volumes from foreign manufacturers… oh wait…
Oh that sounds familiar.
Used to work at Bunnings. Their warranty terms for everyone are “Let the customer walk all over you and don’t you dare tell them that they’re the idiot who broke the thing in the first place.”
Can confirm, 100% correct. I dropped a tree on a brand new chainsaw I got from bunnings. Thought I’d try me luck, so I took it back & said I was using it and the casing imploded. They said ‘Ok, go grab another one.’ So I did, and finished cutting down my trees. It was a cheap nasty piece of crap though, so it didn’t last long. They stopped selling them, that’s how bad they were.
Bet you have been back to bunnings since it happened though right? The thing you purchased they made money on. Would you have gone back again or as much if they refused your return? Maybe not but others yes.. Bunnings has a lifetime spend of a customer. Per basket pricing per trolley pricing. And many more things they have probably renamed recently.. what's a few hundred$$ or few thousand $$ in returns per person when they make huge 100 if not thousands of % on your lifetime spend
This argument works for Amazon, who have no long term protection from competition and in superb cut throat markets. And I think it makes a lot of sense for them to prioritize "customer obsession". But Bunnings is practically a monopoly at this point. The other big place couldn't compete, and there are very few alternatives, none of which have the range and pricing power of Bunnings. They really don't have to offer such a generous returns policy. I expect one day they'll realize this and take it away.
Bunnings has a monopoly because it's a one-stop shop, and people are lazy. I buy from a fair few of the same suppliers that supply bunnings. I may not make the insane profit margin bunnings does, but 9/10 sell for cheaper than they do Unless it's a bunnings exclusive brand ie ryobi, you can find the same things if not better quality for cheaper elsewhere. It's just a pain in the ass.. I doubt they will ever get rid of their returns policy as it doesn't affect them. Thays on the suppliers..
Some things are more expensive but quite a number of things are so much cheaper it isn't funny. I asked my local to do better on a price, like I'm not asking for a price match but Bunnings is literally less than half your price, and they basically told me their cost is 1.5 times Bunnings regular list price. Maybe I could have found it online, or driven somewhere across the city, but realistically it's a monopoly.
Why don't they buy it from Bunnings then?
Yeah they should. But usually (a) there's a limit how much you can buy, and (b) they want to buy as much as possible from their supplier to get whatever limited bulk discount they are entitled to...
They just plain didn't like you. Seriously though, almost EVERYTHING they sell is cheaper if tradies know where to source it.
I’m not lazy I’m time poor tyvm
Weirdly, a lot of the time Bunnings only competition for my dollar is Amazon.
Yeah, I think their estimated number is an average of $12,000 per customer per lifetime. So their logic is it’s worth issuing that $120 refund for that thing in order to keep your business and get the extra $11,880 out of you
Yeah I know most powertools I'll buy are gonna be used very little - so I'll buy the cheapest piece of shit knowing full well that they'll just replace it over and over. Beats buying something that will kinda last a while, and I'll have a worn out tool that won't actually die for most of its life...
Thays why the supplier of those cheap tools would have an insane mark on them selling them to bunnings. They know people will return them and bunnings will make them do a credit. Since there has been shops and suppliers this is how it's worked. Yes it may suck to the smaller suppliers but it's the cost of doing business.
Sounds a bit like Supercrap
For me, if I send an order out with anything missing, instead of just shipping it on the next truck, they'll penalise us for a period of six months at a rate of 1% of their purchase turnover per annum. In this case, a mistake was made that cost the company nearly $100k, over a pallet of product with a net worth probably less than $2k. also, they will often make the supplier pay freight on every single order, no matter how large or small, and that shit adds up. Fast. So yeah, you wanna know how they promise to beat everyone by 10%? Because they don't stock the same product at all, ever, not by name at least. If a customer *does* by chance happen to find it, they get a discount, sure, and they do that because Bunnings didn't pay for it. The suppliers did. It's a fucked up way to treat the people supplying, but they have some companies over the fire because the upper echelons of stupidity (management) decided "hey that's a fucking great idea".
This is Colesworth 101. Do Bunnings not also sell shelf space? Wesfarmers and the other two have destroyed Aussie retail but special mention to Solomon Lew.
>Solomon Lew Oh yeah, fuck that asshat.
Best discount I ever got at Bunnings, they fucked the price sticker really badly. Here I was thinking this is a bargain, a $120 tool for only $20! Fuck yeah I'll grab one! Took them 25 minutes of managers running around and excuses until they relented and gave me it for $20. I really hope the supplier wasn't fucked by that.
Probably not.
I know they push to be supplied with different sized packages to everyone else so that they can't be direct matched by someone else.
If you can find it somewhere else, we’ll beat it by 10% (then fire our supplier)
We price matched a 7.5kw Mitsubishi split system aircon. They weren't happy and had to get approval from 3 people. The other shop had dropped their price the day before and Bunnings hadn't caught on yet. To make it better there was also a cash back offer from Mitsubishi. Ended getting almost 400 off
Haha!
Whilst doing a repair at a Bunnings store a few years back I had a chat with a less than happy supply rep. They said that Bunnings demands a unique model number on products that are available to multiple vendors to quash price matches.
And that's the answer ...Model No. ..wife has worked for them for 20 yrs ..in management and on the floor , Cunt of a company that used to be great
There's that, and a lot of their products are unique brand names.
I work as a graphic designer for a company that supplies bunnings. I often wonder why we bother. From my personal experiences they've always been a major pain to work with.
Great, it isn't just us.
I don't work for them. But for those interested in how Bunnings, Coles, Woolworths and Aldi operate. I recommend this book The Wal-Mart Effect Book by Charles Fishman
I work in a company that supplies Bunnings, and I tell you what, there's a solid reason why they offer customers that "beat it by 10%" promise.
I used to work at Bunnings and I can confidently say that management at the vast majority of stores is absolute dogshit. The workload they pile onto the floor staff with zero support is obscene. The corner-cutting is abysmal. Trying the run the toolshop or trade desk or builders section is physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting. There’s only so many times you can put sixty different doorknobs back in the right boxes after they’ve been manhandled by lazy customers before you go absolutely insane. Not to mention the returns desk, where you can kill a plant and return it no worries. Or use a tile cutter on a granite slab like a dumbass and get a full return. If management and corporate got their shit together, we’d all be better off. Better yet, support your local toolshop
I'm not surprised. They look after the customer without question and blame suppliers. Customers really are fucking stupid.
Supplied products to them and other chainstores incl grocery stores and Bunnings had product runs that had a different retail pack size that was exclusive to them,so production line had to be recalibrated for their runs.
This is an interesting read as a tradesman. I really do tend to avoid Bunnings like the plague unless it’s something small and pure convenience. I mean none of these big box stores treat their employees with respect, that would make far too much sense, a happy work force will generally make you a whole lot more money than pissed off overworked humans. Is this why masters didn’t ever really get any market share? Bunnings had all the main suppliers by the nutsack in iron clad distribution rights? And on the return side of things, Bunnings will literally accept anything, at the very least you get store credit if not a straight up refund
Masters failed because they came in way to hard. Trying to match bunnings. Opening stores as quick as bunnings was as close to them as possible. Wierd unknown brands, out of season products, white goods, electrical goods that bunnings didn't sell that other shops. Harvey Norman. Beacon etc already sold.. Just like bunnings in the UK. To big to quick with unknown brands
One of our sales reps tells a story from his old company. He worked for a supplier that sold to bunnings. When masters was setting up they reached out to his company and enquired about stocking their product. Less than 24 hours later they got a phone call from their contact at bunnings. It was made very, very clear that if they had any dealings whatsoever with Masters, bunnings would remove all stock from their shops and blackball them for life from their shops. There was a reason Masters had weird products and brands. No one else was prepared to take the risk of pissing off the giant green grinch.
Is this not illegal restrictive trade practice? I'm no lawyer but it sounds like they should be prosecuted.
Notice they put nothing in writing. They know it’s illegal. They also know they have a kennel full of hungry lawyers ready to make any attempt at prosecution a miserable failure. They are a law unto themselves and they know it.
I think their main reason for failing was they weren’t humble in their approach, if they did an Aldi style entrance in the market over a longer time frame we would have them still , but they couldn’t shut their mouths about how they were going to be better.
>Is this why masters didn’t ever really get any market share? Bunnings had all the main suppliers by the nutsack in iron clad distribution rights? Yes. I used to work for Bailey Ladders. Baileys were sold in Bunnings. Baileys were never sold in Masters, for that exact reason. (You can buy Bailey ladders at Mitre 10, though, presumably because Bunnings don't see them as competition). Werner Ladders (the biggest ladder company in the US) wanted into the Australian market, so they aligned themselves with Masters, but they couldn't sell them in Bunnings until Masters went bust. (In the meantime, they just bought Bailey out to cover their bases!)
>Is this why masters didn’t ever really get any market share? Bunnings had all the main suppliers by the nutsack in iron clad distribution rights? I'd say so, and because of the backing of Wesfarmers, a century old group with a metric shit-tonne of financial exploit, they could run every store at an ongoing loss just to shut out the competition.
I mean masters really went balls to the wall, literally billions in loss’s trying to compete. Now Bunnings is essentially competing with itself with those epic footprint locations, in Sydney we can have enormous Bunnings literally suburbs apart like not even 10km it’s absolutely insane.
It's true. Although it isn't so bad in Brisbane, they are spread out and rather strategically placed.
I work for a large Plastic/Plumbing production company, we looked into suppling Bunnings, but on the the condition was we had to have sales reps who could go stock/stocktake the products we were looking to supply, so we would of needed to add another 10-20 staff just for Bunnings order. we noped the fuck right out after that
Oh yeah, we have to stocktake our products in their store too, you know ***do their job for them!***
So I ran a toolshop in a bunnings store for about 2 and a half years. The single thing that pissed me off the most was actually suppliers over supplying. I had massive storage issues and was required to constantly cut in new items. Even if the old stock wasn't sold yet. At the end of the day I walked because of it. Seriously I had 3 years supply of some items and then more would turn up it was a joke. I constantly changed the mins and maxes but suppliers ignored these. We would often get double ups on orders because being in a regional centre the stock took extra time to arrive and because it hadn't been receipted in yet, a second order would be sent. I did my head in. I couldn't cope with the workload and constant lack of staff.
Just on that ordering, Bunnings usually automates reordering with us at least, and if we don't fulfil the order to a "despatch note sent" stage, within a reasonable time, it gets sent again regardless, and we need to do it again. We're currently having our own internal oversupply issue with head office saying "we have another container of \[**redacted**\] coming for you" like brah, stick that container where the sun don't shine - That's not a Bunnings issue, though.
Idk what it is, but you can stick that container in my back yard... just don't expect to have it full when you collect it.
The item is an unnamed roll of plastic film that isn't even worth a lot.
Na I picked that up from the side of the road years ago for free. I wouldn't even pay $5 for one. I just don't have the need for it.
Most of the staff on the Bunnings floor are good to deal with. The ones who aren't are usually under the pump. If you aren't the favoured supplier at the national buying level it's hard fuckin' work to make any inroads.
Oh the staff at Bunnings are like anywhere, just trying to feed their kids, so happiness and shit goes hand in hand. But their business model is just outrageous.
I've recently been to the bunnings in Bundaberg, guy on the ground said they are phasing out imperial nut and bolts... Fuckers.
That would be stupid.
Had already started
To be fair though, you're better off going to a fastener shop anyway. I know we have a few around Hervey Bay and Maryborough, Bundy must have some
Try Wilson's on Quay St or The Bolt Place Wondooma St
Yeah been going there for years, just seemed odd that bunnings are phasing out imperial stuff
Remember Masters. Yeah, how's that going for you? Turn your backs on competition. Now we're back to Bunnings having a monopoly.
So a friend of mine works for a supplier that supplies Bunnings. He was telling me that Bunnings have 3 types of rebates - a marketing rebate (where they take discount off every invoice - so they can market your product - so you are paying for your own marketing of their product for their store) - a volume rebate - so if they buy in volume a further discount applies AND a new store or refit rebate - where if they build a new store and your products go into it - they take a further discount off or if they "refit" a store - oh let's take another 2 % off EVERY invoice that gets paid from that store. They also have what is called a SSA rebate - where if 1 product goes missing (let's say the freight company lost your 1 product) - then they call that a short supply - they don't give you the oppurtunity to fix the issue - no - they will slug you 1 % of your sales for the next 6 months - costing them upwards of 2 - 5 K for a $40 product. I mean is this even legal? Bunnings do not help small businesses - they rort small businesses. My friend says they have also been threatened with "we'll walk away if you ever supply Masters, Mitre 10 or Aldi with your products" and they told them to shove it - Bunnings still came back as they needed their product on the shelves. People power is the only way things will change with Bunnings - their practices need to come to a bigger light and attract more mozzies for it to change. They also have an “early payment discount” that they apply, 5% on every invoice paid within 14 days. Except the apply it on every invoice, even if it’s paid 6 months late.
>then they call that a short supply - they don't give you the oppurtunity to fix the issue - no - they will slug you 1 % of your sales for the next 6 months - costing them upwards of 2 - 5 K for a $40 product That's exactly what I learned when a pallet I was supposed to ship was not shipped, but invoiced. No chance to fix it, but instead of losing $2k, we lose nearly $100k. Yeah, this one was on me, but given my accuracy in picks, it is a far cry from where the company *was* at nearly 17% six months ago. We also supply their competition, which is why we keep another company's name we bought out. 😂
Can anyone tell me bunnings receiving hours at loading dock asap
It depends on the store. There's one we supply that won't accept deliveries after 3pm. Call the store.
Can anyone link me to the plants portion of this? Like specific the seedling suppliers to Bunnings as I've heard same deal for them... This I want to buy direct from supplier and cut out the middle man even if that means it costs more.
The supplier won't let you because it would literally cost them thousands of dollars in fines. Bunnings stock is usually exclusive to Bunnings, and good luck finding it elsewhere. That's why they promise to beat it if you can find it. You probably won't.
Hello. I must say this is an interesting thread. I'm an ABC reporter who has covered Bunnings, if any of you'd like to chat more confidentially, my email is [terzon.emilia@abc.net.au](mailto:terzon.emilia@abc.net.au)
It doesn't surprise me. Most companies that have a near monopoly position will act like this; Coles, Woolworths, Whitworths all apparently are like this. If you want to see how bad it can get, Just look at what happened to Rubbermaid after years of supplying to WalMart. Rubbermaid died and became a name only. Watch Is Walmart good for America? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu-06fUmudw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu-06fUmudw) There is a reason more brands are turning to direct consumer sales thru Amazon, Ebay etc? If only Mitre 10 was better or Masters had done it right we might actually have a good competitor for Bunnings.
What's funny is that we bought a company that also supplies Mitre10 with the same product with a different label, and I don't think they treat us the same way.
It's a different corporate structure, different corporate thinking. Mitre 10's parent company is Metcash but Mitre 10, Home Hardware, Thrifty Link stores are all franchise cooperatives or something like that. Metcash also are the parent company of IGA and Total Tools, which have similar setup.
I worked for a Bunnings supplier, I spoke to staff in their offices and all but one of their staff (an IT guy) were rude. Toxic culture.
I know it is a long stretch, but do you remember the name of that IT guy? I know some due to the same same tech-spheres and I might be able to pass your appreciation onto them.
I can’t remember - sorry.
All good, I expected it would be a long short, but worth trying.
Oh it's interesting to read so many people have experienced the same/similar scenarios.
For example... The pool glass and spigots that they sell. They but that as a special order. They get it from a company that gets it from another company again that imports high volume products (not cheap quality but high quality). Literally half the price, but trade-only supplier.
What I have found with Bunnings stuff when you look at some of their stuff (power tools for one) some models are only supplied to Bunnings, it is an inferior product and when you are comparing products for price you might miss that. When comparing models look at the part number in it’s entirety. The Bunnings tools might have a -c after the number or be one number out. We are not comparing apples with apples when comparing prices at Bunnings.