To Kmart Australia,

We are writing to you as a group of several Australian Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) communities, representing thousands of dedicated players, collectors, and parents of disappointed children. Our goal with this letter is to ensure that Pokémon TCG products remain accessible to genuine fans and customers.

The Current Challenge

The kmart.com.au online shopping experience for high-demand Pokémon releases is compromised and unusable. When Kmart lists new Pokémon TCG products, they frequently appear "in stock" on your website, yet human users are consistently unable to complete a purchase. These products are often completely sold out within seconds, all purchased by software robots, leaving genuine customers frustrated and unable to participate in the hobby.

The latest examples: 

• Today, 12th of May: Pokémon TCG Pokémon Trading Card Game: First Partner Illustration Collection Series 2
• In previous weeks: Ascended Heroes Booster Bundles, Elite Trainer Boxes - highly popular products and systematically purchased by bots, not humans

Technical Exploitation

This issue is driven by the use of automated "bot" software. This software does not navigate your website like a standard customer; instead, they utilise techniques to bypass the standard Kmart website or app. These methods include:

• API-Direct Checkout: Bots send data requests directly to your backend checkout and payment servers, skipping the "Add to Cart", shipping information and payment pages entirely, even if the product is not meant to be orderable yet. This means bots buy the products, owned/run by scalping opportunists, not real buyers.
• Fake order details: Bots cycle through names, credit cards, email and physical addresses, to maximise the amount of stock they can order automatically.
• Inventory Monitoring: Automated scripts scrape your servers at millisecond intervals to detect stock changes before they are even visible to the public.
• Automated browsing: Multiple automated instances act simultaneously to overwhelm the system and secure all available inventory before a human can click a single button.

Proposed Solutions

To level the playing field and ensure a fair distribution of products, we urge Kmart Australia to implement robust bot-mitigation strategies. Specifically, we recommend:

1. Advanced Captcha Systems: Implementing a challenge-response test (such as hCaptcha, reCAPTCHA v3, or Cloudflare Turnstile) at the point of adding items to the cart or at the final checkout stage.
2. Queueing Systems: Utilising a "waiting room" or queue for high-demand releases to process transactions in an orderly, human-verifiable manner. Cloudflare can offer you this capability.
3. Account limits: Ensure that TCG purchases require a one-pass subscription and enforce an account limit for each product.
4. Lottery: If you can’t invest in better technical systems like other stores have, stop selling online and ensure all stock is sold in-store, with a fair numbering or lottery system.

For the best successful examples of solutions, please refer to: JB-Hi-Fi and EB Games.

Call to Action

Facebook marketplace Australia is full of products that were purchased from Kmart, via bots run by scalpers, thereby taking advantage of collectors. We call on Kmart to implement a solution as soon as possible, with potential options outlined above. We call on Kmart to please stop helping scalpers profit. 

We are calling on the wider Australian TCG community to share this letter across social media platforms and community forums. By raising awareness, we hope to demonstrate to Kmart Australia that there is a significant demand for a secure, fair, and bot-free shopping environment.

We look forward to seeing Kmart take proactive steps to support the local Aussie TCG community.

Sincerely,

The Australian Pokémon TCG Collector Community

To the Management of Kmart Australia,

We are writing to you as a group of several Australian Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) communities, representing thousands of dedicated players, collectors, and parents of disappointed children. Our goal is simple: to ensure that Pokémon TCG products remain accessible to the genuine fans and customers who support Kmart and its stores.

The Current Challenge

Currently, the kmart.com.au online shopping experience for high-demand Pokemon releases is compromised and unusable. When Kmart lists new Pokemon TCG products, they frequently appear "in stock" on your website, yet human users are consistently unable to complete a purchase. These products are often completely sold out within seconds, all purchased by software robots, leaving genuine customers frustrated and unable to participate in the hobby.

The latest examples: 

• Today, 12th of May: Pokemon TCG Pokemon Trading Card Game: First Partner Illustration Collection Series 2
• In previous weeks: Ascended Heroes Booster Bundles, Elite Trainer Boxes - highly popular products and systematically purchased by bots, not humans

Technical Exploitation

This issue is driven by the use of automated "bot" software. This software does not navigate your website like a standard customer; instead, they utilize techniques to bypass the standard Kmart website or app. These methods include:

• API-Direct Checkout: Bots send data requests directly to your backend checkout and payment servers, skipping the "Add to Cart", shipping information and payment pages entirely, even if the product is not meant to be orderable yet. This means bots buy the products, owned/run by scalping opportunists, not real buyers.
• Fake order details: Bots cycle through names, credit cards, email and physical addresses, to maximize the amount of stock they can order automatically.
• Inventory Monitoring: Automated scripts scrape your servers at millisecond intervals to detect stock changes before they are even visible to the public.
• Automated browsing: Multiple automated instances act simultaneously to overwhelm the system and secure all available inventory before a human can click a single button.

Proposed Solutions

To level the playing field and ensure a fair distribution of products, we urge Kmart Australia to implement robust bot-mitigation strategies. Specifically, we recommend:

1. Advanced Captcha Systems: Implementing a challenge-response test (such as hCaptcha, reCAPTCHA v3, or Cloudflare Turnstile) at the point of adding items to the cart or at the final checkout stage.
2. Queueing Systems: Utilizing a "waiting room" or queue for high-demand releases to process transactions in an orderly, human-verifiable manner. Cloudflare can offer you this capability.
3. Account limits: Ensure that TCG purchases require a one-pass subscription and enforce an account limit for each product.
4. Lottery: If you can’t invest in better technical systems like other stores have, stop selling online and ensure all stock is sold in-store, with a fair numbering or lottery system.

For the best successful examples of solutions, please refer to: JB-Hi-Fi and EBGames.

Call to Action

Facebook marketplace Australia is full of products that were purchased from Kmart, via bots run by scalpers, thereby taking advantage of collectors. We call on Kmart to implement a solution as soon as possible, with potential options outlined above. We call on Kmart to please stop helping scalpers profit.

We are calling on the wider Australian TCG community to share this letter across social media platforms and community forums. By raising awareness, we hope to demonstrate to Kmart Australia that there is a significant demand for a secure, fair, and bot-free shopping environment.

We look forward to seeing Kmart take proactive steps to support the local Aussie TCG community.

Sincerely,

The Australian Pokémon TCG Collector Community

Has anyone here ever done this before or for Kmart staff, seen it happen? And if so how did it go? I can imagine the Kmart managers may not have been too happy to see the enemy be represented

What is with this? I absolutely hate it on the app. I want to buy stuff from Kmart on the KMART APP not Officeworks or Target and especially not marketplace.

You also can't even return the stuff from marketplace at a store.

What is this BS.

Does anyone know why it was added?

Why aren’t facilitators/ team leaders for decant paid extra when we have to do all the cleaning and teaching new people stuff, and when stuff goes wrong we get the blame when in reality they make us sort most the time to make sure cages are good and the cutters are to slow? We should be paid on facilitator rates no? We do more work then most managers plus make the life easier when loads come in

So I havent been working at Kmart long, but its been around 5 weeks and I've only been on pres. Its good for after school but I'd like more hours on the weekend so more flexible roles would be better. I've asked 2 managers if I could be trained in other areas (including the store manager, who said yes) but 2 weeks later and I've been rostered for more pres shifts. Also, it seems other newbies/more recently hired team members have done sco shifts and stuff already...

hi everyone!! i got rostered for a 6 hour service desk shift, but i have never been trained on the desk nor has any manager mentioned training or me being put there at all. could it be a mistake? do i say anything? or do i just wait!! thank you so much!!

How does it make you feel when a manager is super close to a group of people on Pres/ day staff that are like 4-5 years younger? I’m meaning close as in going out to clubs, dinners, each other’s house etc. But those people make complaints about others to that manager (over Snapchat/ facebook) but when spoken to by said manager, they defend them and don’t hear you out?

Just want to hear other people’s opinions? I feel like it’s kinda inappropriate?

I got a job at Kmart with the start date of yesterday. I haven’t recieved the welcome email to download any apps or anything yet. But have recieved my employee details through text. I’m a little confused though as the email I got with the welcome pack says if I haven’t heard anything in 48 hours to contact store but the email says I will hear from the store in two weeks. Which one is accurate?

I desperately need this job and need to start asap as I have no income coming in currently. I’ve never worked in a shop like this where there’s no clarity on starting and I hate waiting. Why are they like this??

like other companies like Cole’s and Woolworths they do like daily stock takes on about 60 items (woolies) and Cole’s do 3 daily SOH checks, Kmart does 1 a year. that’s it. most managers just clear an online exception by typing in the same amount so it turns it back to in-stock and people order it then it gets put back in exceptions then they clear it again and it’s an endless cycle.

How much better would online be if SOH was accurate

How bad is it that when you have smaller boobs you get a cute pretty bra from Kmart, but if you have bigger boobs the only options are white, black and sometimes a weird green! It’s honestly so unfair like I just want a pretty bra that won’t break the bank but that’s not possible. While talking about this I have to bring up the terrible sizing range a 16 size bra goes to like F cup but an 18 only goes to DD? If you’re bigger chances are your boobs are going to be bigger! It’s honestly really unfair and rather upsetting.

Recently applied and I’m really trying not to get my hopes up but I’ve also wanted to work at Kmart for several years so I also have my hopes up lol I honestly believe I would be a really good fit but how do I show that too then and what are they looking for?

Anyone else recently had shifts cut? I have had around 30 hours of shifts removed over the past two weeks. I do understand that as a casual, you have no expectation of hours, and i do understand needing to fit budgets... but I feel like removing 30 hours is ridiculous. No notice either. I work another job and have availability aligned, but was offered more shifts there and i said no (because I had work at kmart) and then the manager just cancels it a couple days before. Just a sign of really poor management imo.