r/Bunnings

I’ve been noticing something at my local store for the past few months and it’s starting to really bug me.

All of the self-serve checkouts are completely blocked off … not just temporarily closed, but like properly shut down with merchandise stacked in front of them. It honestly looks like they’re never coming back.

Instead, everyone is forced through just two manned registers… which means the lines regularly back up down the aisle. Every time I go in, it’s the same situation.

Last time I went, the queue was so long I just gave up and walked out.

I genuinely don’t understand the reasoning behind this.

Is it theft? Staffing changes? Corporate policy? Something else?

It feels like a huge step backwards in terms of efficiency and customer experience.

Has anyone else seen this happen at their local stores, or does anyone in retail know why a store would do this long-term. This is in northern Launceston Bunnings store.

Are all customers supposed to be scanned?

Asking because I picked up on some racist vibes when exiting yesterday and watched only non-white customers get asked for receipts and scanned.

I (a white woman) offered my receipt and got waved through with my trolley of stuff.

So I'm waiting at special orders desk to be attended to. 20 bloody minutes. I witnessed at least ten employees wandering around like a scene out of Shaun of the dead. Not one of them willing to make eye contact. I approached two of them asking for assistance, they said they will "get someone", I even phoned and told the girl that answered, guess what she said? Yep, " I'll get someone".

So what is it with all of the space cadets mindlessly wandering around not doing anything?

Mine would honestly be better quality apartment-friendly storage and organisation stuff that doesn’t look flimsy or ridiculously expensive

I don’t want to sound like I’m whining but it might.

Not going to mention the exact store/s I worked nor specific people.

If you’re looking for a job, I’d highly suggest staying away from Bunnings, especially stores in east/south-east Melbourne.

I worked for Bunnings for half a dozen years.
Initially starting out as a team member in a department, then worked as a department supervisor for multiple years, then continued into a niche role on top of supervisor. From the start I was warned to stay out of the politics in that specific store - gosh was that person right!

The store went through several complex managers in the span of a few years; one’s transferring from other stores in hope of fixing the one I worked at.

One complex manager specifically stated to me quote “I’m here to get rid of bad eggs”.
Well that’s great.
My store had issues with older people (50ish - 60ish age range) as team members, and way to
Young inexperienced supervisors and coordinators (some put in the role at 18).

I saw a massive change in the store for the worse, especially over the lockdown period in 2020. The store prioritised financial gain, and shifted drastically away from a friendly work place, to profit profit profit.

Older workers were bullied out of work. I had a great relationship with majority of my colleagues at the time, and saw many of them extremely stressed, mistreated and under appreciated.

Many of these people had worked in Bunnings for 15 plus odd years, had great work ethic and great experience.
Sadly, most of these workers were bullied so bad and exploited.

They were given impossible tasks, forced to work isolated from colleagues. They were specifically set up to fail, so they could be moved on.

At this point, I had taken on a supervisor role under a fairly young coordinator. I had worked alongside him from when he was my supervisor, then he took the department coordinator role, and then he transferred me to his old role.

He was such an incredible, gifted coordinator. Unfortunately, like what I saw for a lot of people, he quickly became burnt out and treated horribly by other coordinators and the operations and complex managers, to the point he decided to transfer to another store.

In weekly meetings held for all supervisors and coordinators, the entire hour was spent gossiping and talking extremely poor of members on the floor. I was so disgusted. Like actual school yard level shit talking.

At this point in time, I was working under the pump 5 days a week, staying back more than 10 hours. The workload given to me was insane, especially if I wanted to meet KPI targets and goals set by the managers. At some points I was staying back and doing 14 hour shifts just so I could keep up and finish the workload.

Wasn’t even paid as we were strictly told not to clock out after 10.5 hours as we would be paid double time. So I was clocking out at 10 hours, and doing an additional few hours on top of that.

I was there opening the store, and there till just about closing time a lot of the days.

Eventually, I had extreme pressures and circumstances happen in my private life where I had to step away from specific duties and roles to focus on my health.

Here there was a massive shift in treatment towards me. I was pressured into talking about my current medical treatment and listing specific medications I was on.

I had been on these medications for over a year at this point and experienced 0 side effects from them.

However, they stripped me of responsibilities, took away my ability to use tools like pallet jacks and WAVES (those things we drive around on and get up high). And put me back on the floor.

This made it much more difficult to do even simple tasks safely and reliably. Like putting away stock above the shelf or moving pallets. Soon I was moved once again to front end support. WHAT I HAD SEEN FOR YEARS WITH OTHERS WAS HAPPENING TO ME.

I was also told to uphold the supervisory role, even though I was no longer under that title or even getting paid for it.

Eventually I cracked it. Left in 2025.

Of course this still has had a massive impact. I’ve been doing job interviews and every time I get to reference checks at the last stage, I’m either ghosted or denied the job position. It’s pretty obvious what they’re doing.

I’ve worked a few jobs now and by far this was the most toxic environment I had worked in. I’m still in contact with workers and they continue to say nothing has really changed since I left.

Also I wasn’t exactly the perfect employee. Especially during times where I had significant pressure in my personal life. I had times I was late, got angry in the workplace and eventually started just skipping shifts due to treatment.

I was to anxious and depressed to go into work, because of how I was treated there.

Dear Bunnings,

GFY

Where else do you go for hardware, tools etc that's better than Bunnings?

I visit different stores all over Melbourne daily for work and the toilets are almost always dirty. I can think of one store that uses urinal mats, the rest stink. They need to do better and spend money on maintenance

I’ve been using cordless tools for about 5years but I’m starting to question it after running through three batteries mid job on Sunday, then grabbing an old corded Bosch drill from the garage and getting consistent full power straight away, which made me realise I’m usually working close to a power point anyway and might be overpaying for batteries and chargers just to avoid a lead, so now I’m wondering if it makes more sense to keep cordless for smaller stuff like an impact driver and go back to corded for things like a circular saw, grinder, or sander

I was at my local regional store yesterday and the sign said $3.50 for a sausage in bread. I remember when the "price hike" to $3.50 happened back in the day, but I’ve heard rumors that some metro stores are hitting $4.00 or even $4.50 depending on the charity. What’s the price at your local this week? Also, are we still strictly "onions under the snag" for safety, or has that rule finally been relaxed in the 2026 guidelines?

I don’t want to sound like I’m whining but it might.

Not going to mention the exact store/s I worked nor specific people.

If you’re looking for a job, I’d highly suggest staying away from Bunnings, especially stores in east/south-east Melbourne.

I worked for Bunnings for half a dozen years.
Initially starting out as a team member in a department, then worked as a department supervisor for multiple years, then continued into a niche role on top of supervisor. From the start I was warned to stay out of the politics in that specific store - gosh was that person right!

The store went through several complex managers in the span of a few years; one’s transferring from other stores in hope of fixing the one I worked at.

One complex manager specifically stated to me quote “I’m here to get rid of bad eggs”.
Well that’s great.
My store had issues with older people (50ish - 60ish age range) as team members, and way to
Young inexperienced supervisors and coordinators (some put in the role at 18).

I saw a massive change in the store for the worse, especially over the lockdown period in 2020. The store prioritised financial gain, and shifted drastically away from a friendly work place, to profit profit profit.

Older workers were bullied out of work. I had a great relationship with majority of my colleagues at the time, and saw many of them extremely stressed, mistreated and under appreciated.

Many of these people had worked in Bunnings for 15 plus odd years, had great work ethic and great experience.
Sadly, most of these workers were bullied so bad and exploited.

They were given impossible tasks, forced to work isolated from colleagues. They were specifically set up to fail, so they could be moved on.

At this point, I had taken on a supervisor role under a fairly young coordinator. I had worked alongside him from when he was my supervisor, then he took the department coordinator role, and then he transferred me to his old role.

He was such an incredible, gifted coordinator. Unfortunately, like what I saw for a lot of people, he quickly became burnt out and treated horribly by other coordinators and the operations and complex managers, to the point he decided to transfer to another store.

In weekly meetings held for all supervisors and coordinators, the entire hour was spent gossiping and talking extremely poor of members on the floor. I was so disgusted. Like actual school yard level shit talking.

At this point in time, I was working under the pump 5 days a week, staying back more than 10 hours. The workload given to me was insane, especially if I wanted to meet KPI targets and goals set by the managers. At some points I was staying back and doing 14 hour shifts just so I could keep up and finish the workload.

Wasn’t even paid as we were strictly told not to clock out after 10.5 hours as we would be paid double time. So I was clocking out at 10 hours, and doing an additional few hours on top of that.

I was there opening the store, and there till just about closing time a lot of the days.

Eventually, I had extreme pressures and circumstances happen in my private life where I had to step away from specific duties and roles to focus on my health.

Here there was a massive shift in treatment towards me. I was pressured into talking about my current medical treatment and listing specific medications I was on.

I had been on these medications for over a year at this point and experienced 0 side effects from them.

However, they stripped me of responsibilities, took away my ability to use tools like pallet jacks and WAVES (those things we drive around on and get up high). And put me back on the floor.

This made it much more difficult to do even simple tasks safely and reliably. Like putting away stock above the shelf or moving pallets. Soon I was moved once again to front end support. WHAT I HAD SEEN FOR YEARS WITH OTHERS WAS HAPPENING TO ME.

I was also told to uphold the supervisory role, even though I was no longer under that title or even getting paid for it.

Eventually I cracked it. Left in 2025.

Of course this still has had a massive impact. I’ve been doing job interviews and every time I get to reference checks at the last stage, I’m either ghosted or denied the job position. It’s pretty obvious what they’re doing.

I’ve worked a few jobs now and by far this was the most toxic environment I had worked in. I’m still in contact with workers and they continue to say nothing has really changed since I left.

Also I wasn’t exactly the perfect employee. Especially during times where I had significant pressure in my personal life. I had times I was late, got angry in the workplace and eventually started just skipping shifts due to treatment.

I was to anxious and depressed to go into work, because of how I was treated there.

Dear Bunnings,

GFY

I spent ages today trying to find a specific type of drill bit and even the staff member I asked wasn’t totally sure which aisle it was in. Feels like everything is organised differently depending on the store, and what used to be a quick in-and-out trip now turns into a bit of a treasure hunt.

I feel like a fraud every time I have to check the app on my phone to tell someone where the door stops are

Does anyone know if they’re still doing those free workshops for kids? My lot are starting to get properly bored on weekends and I remember hearing Bunnings used to run them pretty regularly

I saw a post from a former employee saying the management culture has become pretty toxic lately. Has anyone else noticed this, and is it usually just down to individual stores and managers, or does it tend to be a wider issue across the whole chain?

Hey everyone!

Has anyone picked up the Costway 6-tier shelves from Bunnings Marketplace? Would love to hear your thoughts on the quality and build. Also wondering if Bunnings handle the warranty on marketplace products?

https://preview.redd.it/lfseyvnbx8zg1.png?width=1387&format=png&auto=webp&s=2432b77cb6d2aebdde7360380f30b896b0429d74

Thanks

I’m looking at buying about a dozen lengths of the 2.4 90x45 glulam , which is special order only, and I’d need to get it delivered

Wondering if anybody has any experience regarding the quality, specifically straightness? I’ll be using it to make a large heavy duty workbench and was hoping it would be of better quality than the horror stories I’ve head about the normal framing timber