Sunday, May 21, 2006

Just whinging about something, for a change...

I think that if I see one more Bunnings commercial I might go down there and get homicidal in all 34 of their aisles.

What gets me is the kinds of ‘real honest to goodness staff member’ that they’ve started to use in the advertisements.

For example, “Len – Qualified Carpenter” tells us about the 15 different types of bucket they have on sale for 2c a pop at the moment.

I’m sure they think that using these ‘salt of the earth’ types will make us forget they are a mega-corporate monolith.

I tell you who isn’t forgetting that fact, Len, the qualified carpenter who at the age of 54 is working for $10.50 an hour trawling up and down a windowless warehouse showing Brett and Kim where the extension chords are.

I don’t know about you, but the folksy charm of a qualified tradesperson reduced to working retail shifts (not that there's anything wrong with retail...) isn’t about to make me forget about the smaller, but more conveniently located hardware shop which went out of business last year in the face of the crushing competition of Bunnings (didn’t they used to just make lawn food?)

I’d like to boycott them but I can’t seem to find any other hardware outlets around the place these days…

8 comments:

Georg Hibberd said...

I'm glad someone else hates those f**king ads. I hate the one where the guy thinks it's funny that someone is still in the shop hours after he helped him (perhaps he couldn't find the exit) but he wasn't about to tell him to leave cos then he would have to stay longer and spend more money. It's not as annoying when you explain it like that...but trust me, it is.

So SCH, will you be watching the MINERS tonight? Thought not.

ThirdCat said...

csh you are a hero after my own heart. Everyone I know is sick of me banging on about it, but yeah. You are spot on. And plus, there is always a reason things are cheap.

Zoe said...

HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU!

Magnet Mart in Gungahlin is totally the bomb, for so many reasons. I don't think their staff get paid much more, and they work in a big unheated barn in winter, but it is THE BIGGEST HARDWARE STORE IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE!!!

And it's fun to walk among the Gungahloids sometimes.

Anonymous said...

i just love the cheap stuff from china

i just love bunnings

cristy said...

I tried to go to my local hardware store recently (in Braddon) and it was gone. It had clearly been recently taken over by Bunnings and then relocated out to cheaper land in Belconnen. Since I don't drive, this meant that I had to wait quite some time to acquire my hardware stuff - some of which I have yet to find locally.

That hardware store had been there for as long as I can remember and was always easy to navigate and friendly. I painted my bedroom with paint from that shop when I was 6 (well, I chose the paint and tried to help paint). I purchased my first heater there when I moved out at 18. It had history and it was LOCAL.

I was so annoyed to see the impact of the mega-chain. Thank you for sharing your rage.

comicstriphero said...

Georg - miners? what miners? Never heard of 'em.

Thirdcat - is it a victory for them that we are talking about their ads in our free time? I hope not.

Zoe - Of course! Magnetmart! How could I forget them? Maybe I'll go there one day and ask about the origins of the name. As for the Gungahloids, we like to call them 'Gungaylords', only because it is fun to say. Try it!

Cristy - that was precisely the shop I had in mind when I referred to the death of conveniently located hardware outlets!

Ah Braddon, so conflicted. So convenient.

ThirdCat said...

Yeah, prob'ly is a victory for them. But I'll say it again anyway even though you've already said it and I've already said it: there's a reason things are cheap.

Zoe said...

The one in Braddon had become a Bunnings before it's demise.

Tks on the Gungaylords. The husbang will be thrilled with that one.

(and in my view cduwmxbf is too long a word verification)