home automation

Bunnings is a day-spa for fellas. Satisfying our desire to make or fix things - real things, not sit-on-your-arse-in-an-office things, the place lets you think you're saving money too through DIY (although this is a fallacy - see below). The stores are cold and industrial looking, giving them instant cred in a world where every other shop is decked out like a funky bar and you feel pretty tough as you stride the gigantic aisles with shelves holding every kind of widget imaginable, almost literally like a kid in a lolly shop. But while the massive range of stuff is probably Bunning's greatest asset, not far behind would be the staff and their attitude to customers. Where else does your standard-issue office guy get a chance to have a hardware-related conversation with (an apparently) real tradie? Certainly not with the ones who come to your house who seem to love confusing you with jargon, and even take delight in shaking their heads as they tell you the problem is much, much bigger than you thought.
Nope, the Bunning's guys are almost always friendly and helpful, and happily talk to you as if you're one of them as you choose your 1/4" self-tapping holster bolts. For the 80 odd percent of us guys out there who earn money by doing stuff with Microsoft Office, a trip to Bunnings is a psychically nourishing experience.


* You don't save money at Bunnings: you end up going there 5 times to get 'just one more thing' for your pet project, and you end up with a whole lot of unused leftovers that are the result of impulse buying before you know what you actually would need if you had a clue. Some examples from my recent trips include:

Useless	Useful
A bucket of tile grouting	Cans of WD-40
Half-used cans of Liquid Nails	Wrenches
Dozens of super-glue tubes - dried hard	Nails of varying sizes