Bunnings confirmed customers will ‘occasionally’ see price differences between its stores. (Source: Getty/Supplied)
Hardware giant Bunnings has defended its pricing tactics after a customer discovered the exact same item he’d purchased was available for a cheaper price at a different store location. While Aussies might assume pricing is consistent across all stores, Bunnings has clarified this is not always the case.
A Bunnings customer shared his surprise after he purchased a tin of decking oil from Bunnings Ulladulla for $141.45, only to check online and see the exact same product was being sold at a different price elsewhere. When looking at the Bunnings Rockdale store, it was sold for $119.54, nearly $22 or 15 per cent cheaper.
Thinking it was a mistake, the man told Yahoo Finance he went back into his local Bunnings only to be told the higher price was due to a “temporary sale” at the metro stores and “regional pricing” differences.
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“I thought that sort of disadvantages people from regional areas. It’s not something that Bunnings has made particularly transparent either,” he said.
The man also asked whether he could use Bunnings’ 10 per cent price guarantee on the item, but was advised it excluded items sold by other Bunnings stores.
He said he was “caught off guard” by the exclusion and labelled it “disappointing”.
“Most people would naturally assume that if one Bunnings is selling something at a lower price, the policy would still apply. It feels like a technicality rather than genuine,” he said.
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The decking oil was offered for $141.50 at one Bunnings store and $119.54 at another. (Source: Yahoo Finance/Supplied)
It’s not the first time Aussie customers have called out the issue, with a Bunnings customer in Queensland’s Gladstone spotting a $100 difference for the same Bunnings picnic table across two different stores.
Another Bunnings customer shared online he had found there was up to a 30 per cent difference on the same products depending on which store he looked at.
A Bunnings spokesperson told Yahoo Finance customers may “occasionally” see price differences between stores.
“This happens because temporary price reductions are applied in response to local competition and can vary by region, or because of considerations like regional differences in freight and transport costs,” a Bunnings spokesperson said.
“These adjustments ensure we remain competitive where other retailers offer the same product. Regardless of location, our Price Guarantee means if a customer finds a lower price on the same stocked item at a competitor, we’ll beat it by 10 per cent.”
It’s understood that a temporary price reduction was applied in response to local competition to a cluster of stores in the Sydney metro area, including the Rockdale store.
This price reduction did not extend to Ulladulla, which is roughly 200 kilometres away. Regional freight and transport costs may also have impacted the price of the product.
Bunnings confirmed its Price Guarantee does not apply to items sold by other Bunnings stores and group businesses, only to lower-priced items stocked by competitors.
Bunnings’ Price Guarantee has come under scrutiny, with a Four Corners investigation in May finding the hardware giant had more than 9,000 home-brand products.
Many of these products are sold alongside signs with their 10 per cent price promise, despite the products not being available cheaper anywhere else because they are made for Bunnings.
Bunnings denied this was misleading and noted it used a mix of owned and exclusive brands.
“We do not use them to exclude operation of our lowest prices policy or as a reason to not apply our price guarantee,” Bunnings said in a statement.
“Our lowest prices policy applies across like-for-like products, and we reduce prices on our exclusive products where we identify a competitor’s similar product which may be at a lower price.”
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