Page 8 - Rotary Matters - September 2020

Bunnings BBQs

Bunnings restarted their BBQs on 25 July much to the relief of Rotary clubs that use these events as their
major fundraiser. RCs Eastwood, Edwardstown, Prospect, Regency Park and Seaford have already held one
under quite different Covid-19 restrictions. There may be others as well.

The onions underneath the sausage controversy a few months ago was nothing compared to changes
required now. With social distancing, two marquees have to be used with a marshal lining up people,
contactless payment option is compulsory, hand sanitizer has to be used after each cash transaction,
a different method used to serve the food and sauce has to be applied by the server. Bunnings require
a captain to be appointed as well and they have to attend a Bunnings briefing before the start of the day.
While Bunnings prefer only one shift of five Rotarians per day, clubs have been able to negotiate two and
three shift options and even changed captains as long
as they have all been briefed at the same time that day.

At this stage only weekends are allocated so revenue
to clubs will remain constrained this year. Clubs that
have already been allocated a day will not get another
in 2020. Clubs that have not yet been allocated will
hopefully get a day this year.

Those clubs that got a $500 voucher as compensation
because their allocated day was cancelled in March
because of Covid-19, were put to the bottom of the list.

Clubs that had BBQs at smaller Bunnings stores, which have not restarted their service, have been
reallocated to the nearest large store.

While clubs look forward to weekend shifts because the revenue is so much higher, most clubs have
reported that revenue did not quite meet expectations. Clearly customer numbers are still not quite
recovered although wintry weather may also be a reason.

Clubs are indebted to Bunnings for restarting the BBQs and giving priority
to Rotary for the early shifts.

The company is also allocating one staff member to each BBQ as well for
the day which will be an added cost to Bunnings.

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