For many years the advertising tag line for Bunnings Warehouse was ‘Lowest prices are just the beginning…’ – but it doesn’t apply any more.
In 2013 ‘Lowest prices are just the beginning…’ was still front and centre on their brand new stores.
But by 2018 they had added a cheeky ‘Our Policy’ disclaimer in front of it.
And then in 2021 they got out the paint brushes.
Painting it over.
Until it was gone.
!['Lowest prices are just the beginning [Our Policy]' sign gone from outside the Bunnings Warehouse in Sunshine](jpg/52299588231_007ab8451b.jpg)
Turns out the slogan was quietly dropped in early 2020 – from news.com.au.
It’s one of the most well-known and high profile advertising slogans from one of Australia’s most loved retailers – but not for much longer.
Bunnings is quietly pulling the pin on its famous tagline.
“Lowest prices are just the beginning …” is, well, ending. At least for now.
The home improvement giant has confirmed to news.com.au the slogan has been slowly removed from the side of its stores, uniforms and its advertising.
Bunnings confirmed to news.com.au the slogan had vanished from TV screens and the airwaves last month and was progressively being painted over on stores, where it has been seen for 25 years. New stores built since 2018 haven’t sported the tagline.
Footnote
In October 2021 a print advertisement in the Adelaide Advertiser happened to reinstate the ‘Lowest prices are just the beginning’ line.
It’s only the slogan that’s gone.
Bunnings continues to keep prices below those of its competitors and offer the 10% guarantee.
https://www.bunnings.com.au/policies/price-policy
I took advantage of their price policy the other month when I found that a surge protection powerboard stocked by Centrecom cost more at Bunnings – so I got them to beat the price. And since then Bunnings now stock it for 10 cents less.
I didn’t even notice they phased this out. Sneaky!
It’s actually also worth noting that the smaller Bunnings stores (e.g. Lilydale, Collingwood, Brunswick) actually used a different policy/slogan to the warehouses. Instead of “Lowest Prices are Just the Beginning”, they simply used “Lowest Prices Everyday”. I think it might be down to the fact that the smaller stores lack some of the facilities that the warehouses have, like the cafe and kids playground, but not fully sure though.
There was a court ruling in NZ which found that they can only use the word “lowest” if they can actually demonstrate that they make a reasonable effort to monitor the competition and stay below them (like the grog shops do).
I wonder if even Dan’s are de-emphasising this? At our local store, most of the “Lowest price guarantee” signs seem to have gone (not sure when), and the one that remains has an asterix stating “T&C’s apply”.
“Bunnings continues to keep prices below those of its competitors and offer the 10% guarantee.”
Bunnings has no competitors. They have a monopoly. Lowest prices is meaningless, so they dropped it.
Mitre 10 and Home Hardware still exist, though nowhere at the scale that Bunnings is.
Through to be honest, the handful of times I’ve gone into a smaller hardware shop I’ve always been able to find the random thing I was looking for – which makes me wonder that actually fills a giant Bunnings Warehouse.