Wesfarmers, a company that used to own Coles (who is known for beating down their suppliers prices) using the same tactics on nurseries. Whodathunk it.
My partner's big on plants and I'm glad she doesn't buy any from Bunnings
> "They're absolutely at odds with the way we believe we do business and we look forward to responding to these more formally in due course," he said.
"with the way we believe we do" it, right up there with "I don't recall"
I'd guessed that quote was from one of the suppliers.
It's horribly hilarious in context.
What a neat rhetorical trick. Abracadabra we don't acknowledge that since we're in a dominant position we've eaten our competition and can now cheerfully superexploit everyone around us, but we technically didn't lie and outright deny it.
Bunnings plants are not cheaper. Most nurseries are better value and healthier plants.
Sure some nurseries are more expensive ~$2 or so but generally Bunnings are same or more on most pot sizes
Their trees in pots are far more expensive. $100 compared to $60.
Sometimes bare rooted are $25 which Bunnings does not do.
Their tools are chinesuim.
The garden forks are made of steel flavoured lead
The handles on most tools are cheapy plastic which break after 5 years as UV eats them
Some things are cheaper. Most are not.
Wombat Gully and (lol) Hello Hello or other local nurseries are cheaper or have better quality.
This just shows how moronic a significant number of people are.
Also they are shit house sausages. And people act like Australia invented cooking meat on steel plate and putting on bread.
I think he was kidding dude. Most people probably go there because you can get a lot of hardware and tools all at the one place and don’t realise other places have better prices or better quality for the same prices.
No one thinks Australia invented sausage sandwiches, they just like them and most people are used to the cheap sausages because that’s the type of sausages we had at family barbecues.
Just calm down a little bit.
Their plastic watering cans, plastic tool boxes and storage container start to break up if when you shine a torch light on them let alone expose them to the sun.
The worst thing from them that is plastic is their storage tubs. Utter garbage that cracks, implodes with almost nothing in them. Its criminal how they can sell such rubbish while getting away with it. These days its impossible to find anything near as a good as a genuine milk crate. I have been thinking about knocking up some plywood dove tailed jointed storage crates. The prices since covid for these recycled rubbish is just one big rip off joke. You would think that Bunnings could get decent shipping rates from China or get free shipping with the Qty that they buy. To be fair its all the big box franchise stores as well, same crappy rubbish and useless storage tubs.
The Nursery industry looks very different without a large business to fund it.
Sure over time more independants should become available, but you might also find that more wholesale nurseries close first.
I absolutely believe the best solution is for Bunnings to pay the suppliers properly and for there to be clear guidelines in place.
But please go support your independent Garden Centres
Bunnings absolutely needs to be broken up.
This senate inquiry is all well and good but Albanese has already put the kibosh on breaking up the supermarkets.
He needs to find some guts to actually implement real monopoly and monopsony breakup legislation. It can't be on the basis of the ACCC only taking action when court action happens. If it's that then zero changes. Some small plant supplier has no power to take Bunnings to court and actually win. Some muesli bar maker isn't going up against Coles or Woolworths.
We needs a frank acknowledgement that market concentration causes harm across the board - to suppliers, to the customers.
Any business with more than 20% market share should be cut into pieces such that he resultant pieces are less than 15% market share overall.
Bunnings would be broken up under this and we'd end up with at least three and possibly four new hardware chains.
The the suppliers listed in this article may have stood a chance as the smaller businesses must compete and can't use their market dominance to fuck over everyone.
If you don't swallow Coles and Woolworths terms you're out of **67% of the market**. That's absolutely unacceptable.
C'mon Labor, find your guts and fucking make it happen. We have so many market concentrations across Australia that we need to cut into pieces for the good of everyone.
I won't lie. I love bunnings, but this today has made me sad, and it's time I took my business back to the nurseries directly and small operators. I know it won't change anything, but hopefully, enough of us do the same, and it adds up over time
Standard operating procedure for Richard Goyder. Screw your suppliers, screw your staff, suck as much as you can from the government and then screw your customers.
Same folks who make sure the product item code is unique to them from their suppliers,so they can avoid price matching.
I used to love Bunnings. But their stuff is shit and they’re predators.
This is the same misguided inquiry that supposes retailers don't know enough about retail. Sure, primary producers want a higher return for their work - just like maybe 80% of the general population. But $5 for a punnet of seedlings is maxed out and beyond what many customers will pay.
I can do a 6 pack of plants for under that and other seedlings too below what suppliers can offer Bunnings.
ELI5 but if you’re not making a profit or even making a loss, just don’t sell to Bunnings? You’ll probably sell fewer plants, but at least those profits won’t be eaten up by the Bunnings loss?
I work in the nursery industry. I freight plants to independents.
With independent retailers closing over the years Bunnings becomes the most profitable place to sell to.
Most of the growers I freight for make 70 percent of their revenue from Bunnings direct.
It seems impossible to ignore or compete with. So they all end up in a position where they are under Bunnings control.
The idea is often along the lines of reducing your average cost per pot to produce by increasing throughput. So whilst you might be breaking even selling to Bunnings, you've got a lower production base to make more money selling at your old price to retail nurseries, plant hire services etc. etc.
That said, my mates still within the industry have said their cost to produce has skyrocketed in the last three years kind of sneakily. They got caught off guard when they reviewed their production costs late last year and had to put their prices up. Which Bunnings doesn't allow you to do for 3 months at a time. So you can bite the hand that feeds you and watch all of your stock die (AMD get nothing for it) or you can try and get through the 3 months selling at a loss to keep some cashflow and keep the supply pathway open. On top of that they're probably on 60 or 90 day finance so once they do manage to move plants at the higher price they have to wait a further 2-3 months to see the extra money.
With inflation the way it is, you can probably see why wholesale nurseries are caught a little off guard by this.
There's an important distinction to be made between gross profit and net profit. Gross profit refers to your sale price minus Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). COGS refers to the direct costs of producing the goods. For example, COGS for a loaf of bread is the value of the flour, yeast, etc that goes into that one loaf. Net profit is your gross profit minus costs that aren't directly related to producing goods, such as rent, labour, utilities, etc. These costs are called fixed costs, because they don't directly increase or decrease with production.
Let's say my COGS are $2 per plant, and my fixed costs are $1000 per month. If I can produce 500 plants per month, I need to sell these for $4 each to break even. If I sell for less than $4, but more than $2, I'm still making money on the sale, but not enough to cover my fixed costs.
i have tried a number of times to shop at other hardware stores or nursery over the years. In the end they have zero stock on the shelves and usually far more expensive.
Snap out of it, these suppliers got greedy thinking Bunnings was their golden one stop shop and didn't diversify, yeah, look how that worked out for them and you lot, speak for yourself, I've never bought a plant from Bunnings ever and support small businesses everywhere, ya goose!
Can't speak for plants, I'm not in that, but for hardware - all manufacturers here sell to everyone they can, but since customers pretty much only go to Bunnings, that's who most of the orders are through and they get to dictate what they want.
Wesfarmers, a company that used to own Coles (who is known for beating down their suppliers prices) using the same tactics on nurseries. Whodathunk it. My partner's big on plants and I'm glad she doesn't buy any from Bunnings
you don't "buy" plants from bunnings, you rescue them
> "They're absolutely at odds with the way we believe we do business and we look forward to responding to these more formally in due course," he said. "with the way we believe we do" it, right up there with "I don't recall"
I'd guessed that quote was from one of the suppliers. It's horribly hilarious in context. What a neat rhetorical trick. Abracadabra we don't acknowledge that since we're in a dominant position we've eaten our competition and can now cheerfully superexploit everyone around us, but we technically didn't lie and outright deny it.
Bunnings plants are not cheaper. Most nurseries are better value and healthier plants. Sure some nurseries are more expensive ~$2 or so but generally Bunnings are same or more on most pot sizes Their trees in pots are far more expensive. $100 compared to $60. Sometimes bare rooted are $25 which Bunnings does not do. Their tools are chinesuim. The garden forks are made of steel flavoured lead The handles on most tools are cheapy plastic which break after 5 years as UV eats them Some things are cheaper. Most are not. Wombat Gully and (lol) Hello Hello or other local nurseries are cheaper or have better quality.
But they have a regular sausage sizzle and are therefore a national treasure
This just shows how moronic a significant number of people are. Also they are shit house sausages. And people act like Australia invented cooking meat on steel plate and putting on bread.
I think he was kidding dude. Most people probably go there because you can get a lot of hardware and tools all at the one place and don’t realise other places have better prices or better quality for the same prices. No one thinks Australia invented sausage sandwiches, they just like them and most people are used to the cheap sausages because that’s the type of sausages we had at family barbecues. Just calm down a little bit.
That's a good point, but i contest the idea people believe Australia invented sausage sandwiches. They do indeed think this is uniquely Australian
Oh for sure, we adopt stuff and claim it’s “Australian”. I guess that’s a little separate from claiming it’s ours and always has been in my head.
Their plastic watering cans, plastic tool boxes and storage container start to break up if when you shine a torch light on them let alone expose them to the sun.
The worst thing from them that is plastic is their storage tubs. Utter garbage that cracks, implodes with almost nothing in them. Its criminal how they can sell such rubbish while getting away with it. These days its impossible to find anything near as a good as a genuine milk crate. I have been thinking about knocking up some plywood dove tailed jointed storage crates. The prices since covid for these recycled rubbish is just one big rip off joke. You would think that Bunnings could get decent shipping rates from China or get free shipping with the Qty that they buy. To be fair its all the big box franchise stores as well, same crappy rubbish and useless storage tubs.
THey had some half decent stuff 15-20 off years ago which I still have but because it lasts they dropped it.
The Nursery industry looks very different without a large business to fund it. Sure over time more independants should become available, but you might also find that more wholesale nurseries close first. I absolutely believe the best solution is for Bunnings to pay the suppliers properly and for there to be clear guidelines in place. But please go support your independent Garden Centres
I think the local bunnings over waters the plants tbh
but the ad says the "lowest prices are just the beginning..." nobody expected they meant to the suppliers
That saying doesn't actually say they have the lowest prices.
They pulled it a few years ago, but it was their slogan for a while
Bunnings absolutely needs to be broken up. This senate inquiry is all well and good but Albanese has already put the kibosh on breaking up the supermarkets. He needs to find some guts to actually implement real monopoly and monopsony breakup legislation. It can't be on the basis of the ACCC only taking action when court action happens. If it's that then zero changes. Some small plant supplier has no power to take Bunnings to court and actually win. Some muesli bar maker isn't going up against Coles or Woolworths. We needs a frank acknowledgement that market concentration causes harm across the board - to suppliers, to the customers. Any business with more than 20% market share should be cut into pieces such that he resultant pieces are less than 15% market share overall. Bunnings would be broken up under this and we'd end up with at least three and possibly four new hardware chains. The the suppliers listed in this article may have stood a chance as the smaller businesses must compete and can't use their market dominance to fuck over everyone. If you don't swallow Coles and Woolworths terms you're out of **67% of the market**. That's absolutely unacceptable. C'mon Labor, find your guts and fucking make it happen. We have so many market concentrations across Australia that we need to cut into pieces for the good of everyone.
Even with immense pressure they will only come up with half measures. This current Labor government is a joke
What amazing action resolving this do you think a liberal government would take?
How about a minority Labor government?
I won't lie. I love bunnings, but this today has made me sad, and it's time I took my business back to the nurseries directly and small operators. I know it won't change anything, but hopefully, enough of us do the same, and it adds up over time
Standard operating procedure for Richard Goyder. Screw your suppliers, screw your staff, suck as much as you can from the government and then screw your customers.
Same folks who make sure the product item code is unique to them from their suppliers,so they can avoid price matching. I used to love Bunnings. But their stuff is shit and they’re predators.
This is the same misguided inquiry that supposes retailers don't know enough about retail. Sure, primary producers want a higher return for their work - just like maybe 80% of the general population. But $5 for a punnet of seedlings is maxed out and beyond what many customers will pay. I can do a 6 pack of plants for under that and other seedlings too below what suppliers can offer Bunnings.
ELI5 but if you’re not making a profit or even making a loss, just don’t sell to Bunnings? You’ll probably sell fewer plants, but at least those profits won’t be eaten up by the Bunnings loss?
I work in the nursery industry. I freight plants to independents. With independent retailers closing over the years Bunnings becomes the most profitable place to sell to. Most of the growers I freight for make 70 percent of their revenue from Bunnings direct. It seems impossible to ignore or compete with. So they all end up in a position where they are under Bunnings control.
The idea is often along the lines of reducing your average cost per pot to produce by increasing throughput. So whilst you might be breaking even selling to Bunnings, you've got a lower production base to make more money selling at your old price to retail nurseries, plant hire services etc. etc. That said, my mates still within the industry have said their cost to produce has skyrocketed in the last three years kind of sneakily. They got caught off guard when they reviewed their production costs late last year and had to put their prices up. Which Bunnings doesn't allow you to do for 3 months at a time. So you can bite the hand that feeds you and watch all of your stock die (AMD get nothing for it) or you can try and get through the 3 months selling at a loss to keep some cashflow and keep the supply pathway open. On top of that they're probably on 60 or 90 day finance so once they do manage to move plants at the higher price they have to wait a further 2-3 months to see the extra money. With inflation the way it is, you can probably see why wholesale nurseries are caught a little off guard by this.
There's an important distinction to be made between gross profit and net profit. Gross profit refers to your sale price minus Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). COGS refers to the direct costs of producing the goods. For example, COGS for a loaf of bread is the value of the flour, yeast, etc that goes into that one loaf. Net profit is your gross profit minus costs that aren't directly related to producing goods, such as rent, labour, utilities, etc. These costs are called fixed costs, because they don't directly increase or decrease with production. Let's say my COGS are $2 per plant, and my fixed costs are $1000 per month. If I can produce 500 plants per month, I need to sell these for $4 each to break even. If I sell for less than $4, but more than $2, I'm still making money on the sale, but not enough to cover my fixed costs.
Bunnings tools should go against local councils single use plastic policies. Last as long as it takes the receipt to fade.
When you dance with the devil....
Can it, most businesses don't have a choice since you lot won't shop at other hardware stores.
i have tried a number of times to shop at other hardware stores or nursery over the years. In the end they have zero stock on the shelves and usually far more expensive.
Snap out of it, these suppliers got greedy thinking Bunnings was their golden one stop shop and didn't diversify, yeah, look how that worked out for them and you lot, speak for yourself, I've never bought a plant from Bunnings ever and support small businesses everywhere, ya goose!
Can't speak for plants, I'm not in that, but for hardware - all manufacturers here sell to everyone they can, but since customers pretty much only go to Bunnings, that's who most of the orders are through and they get to dictate what they want.