Major change at Bunnings as hardware store cleans up
Bunnings is going head-to-head with Coles and Woolworths in the cleaning aisle – which should be a great win for consumers.
Bunnings has entered the bulk cleaning product market and the supermarket giants have been put on notice.
From this month, the hardware store will be upping its stock of cleaning items to more than 1,000 products including dishwashing tablets, laundry liquid and hand wash. The cleaning section will now take up four aisles of warehouses across the country, while big brand names including OMO, Finish, Dettol, Sukin and Sunbeam will dominate the shelves.
The move has been heralded as “wonderful” news for shoppers.
“Competition benefits consumers so it means consumers now have more choice on where they get their cleaning products,” Professor Stephen King from Monash University told Yahoo News Australia. “Certainly Bunnings has a reputation for low prices that they'll be wanting to maintain and I'm sure that will flow across to cleaning products.”
Supermarkets forced to take action
With cheaper cleaning products on offer at Bunnings, King said “the supermarkets should be worried”, and will need to take action to keep up.
“If Coles and Woolworths don't respond by matching or beating Bunnings’ prices, then yes, I expect quite a few customers will decide ‘let's go and get our cleaning products from Bunnings and save a bit more’,” he explained.
He said this is competition in action and consumers "should be cheering".
“The last thing we want as consumers is to have supermarkets or any other sellers who are enjoying a very comfortable life and don't have to compete hard to get our business,” King said. “Competition is what keeps prices down, drives quality up and means that we get more accessible products right across the range."
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In announcing the move to scrub up on cleaning supplies — which covers 200 new products across eight categories including laundry, dishwashing, hand wash and irons — Bunnings claimed it would save shoppers time as they wouldn’t have to wait for prices to drop at supermarkets.
“Customers will no longer need to wait for their favourite cleaning products to go on sale at the supermarket as Bunnings will deliver customers with an even wider cleaning range with bigger quantities and better everyday prices,” Jen Tucker, Bunnings Director of Merchandise said, “which is of course backed by our price beat guarantee".
The hardware giant also pointed to the popularity of cleaning on social media. “Last year a video we shared of crazy paving being pressure washed received over 1 million views and more recently a tutorial on how to use all-purpose cleanser Bar Keepers Friend has nearly 150,000 views and more than 1,600 saves in 48 hours,” Tucker said.
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