I went to Bunnings Monday night as I needed some washers to fix a couple of dripping taps. For those of you who don't know, Bunnings is a huge hardware store chain owned by Australian company Wesfarmers. They also own Kmart, Coles, Target and several other companies; Sixteen in total. In 2016 their annual revenue was $65.98 billion dollars.
The Bunnings I went to is not too far away from my home and I go past every couple of weeks either to Bunnings, the car wash near it or on the way to other locations. Each time for the past couple of months I've commented to my wife about the amount of rubbish around the building. The rubbish consists of plastic wrap and nylon strapping (used to wrap pallets of stock), paper, cardboard and other packing related rubbish. It's quite obvious it's the waste left over from their staff unwrapping incoming pallets of stock. Unfortunately my image does not show the true extent of the rubbish left strewn around but you get the idea.
The business advertises the catchphrase, "Lowest prices are just the beginning, " however I'm not quite sure what they mean. Quite possibly, and judging by the contempt they have for the environment, they could mean the beginning of the end for the local marine life or maybe even what they mean is the beginning of the end for the environment as a whole because our profits are more important to us than the environment and containing our own waste then disposing of it responsibly.
Anyway, it's pretty disgusting that the rubbish is simply left like that and it's not just a random thing. It's always like that. I think it's time to shop elsewhere. Today I took a drive by the closest Mitre 10 hardware store and was pleased to see it was all nice and tidy with no garbage and filth blowing free in the street. Sure, they don't have the range of items Bunnings have but I will be shopping there from now on.
I'm hoping to see Bunnings clean up their act however I doubt they will. There's less staff each time I go there and they become more and more of a cash and carry type establishment in that one can't get advice from an expert. There's a few shelf-packers around here and there but ask them a question and blank stares is about all you get. I have heard good things about Mitre 10 so I'll shop there until they start throwing their rubbish into the street like Bunnings.
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