At Canberra's largest DIY store chain, re-purposing product from the stock racks has helped to gear up for the most awkward customer management program Bunnings has ever faced.
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The community fund-raising sausage sizzles in the car park are long gone.
At the entry to the giant, olive green warehouses are plastic bollards hooked with rope and orange flags to create a staggered entrance with a staff member positioned to observe every walk-in with a friendly but careful manner.
On the surface, it has the appearance of business as usual at Bunnings but the busier aisles carry a warning sign of four people only.
In communicating with the public, Bunnings' managing director Mike Schneider has kept his tone cautious but cordial.
Canberra has four Bunnings warehouses and all still remain open and relatively busy, despite the government's steadily increasing pressure on retailers in the ACT to ensure they are following the new protocols.
While cafes and restaurants a stone's throw from its stores remain shuttered and its own in-house coffee shops closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Schneider says "a number of changes [are] in place in stores over the last few weeks as we continue to follow government advice".
Easter is traditionally one of the franchise's busiest trading periods.
Due to the higher demand for specific products, one-per-customer restrictions are applied to respirators and face masks, gas bottles, turpentine, methylated spirits, and only four per customer for household batteries and garden sprayers.
People are being encouraged to shop on their own, plan ahead to limit their time in the store, and make cashless payments. Clear, anti-droplet screens are set up in front of the service desks.
"We are limiting customer numbers in stores and in busy aisles at any one time, we've also placed trestle tables in front of service areas to create more distance, installed acrylic register guards for registers and counters, taped floors to mark 1.5m [social distancing] and opened up space at the front of the store," he said.
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Stores are cleaned each day, a daunting prospect given the floor space.
The company has launched a new online service on Instagram called DIY Live focussing on "affordable and simple projects, activities for kids, and Q&As".
Topics include planning renovation projects, saving money, gardening and landscaping advice, and keeping the kids busy at home.
Over at Magnet Mart in Queanbeyan, manager Melissa Donnelly said that the weekend trading had been been "very busy" with a rush on paint and paint products, and garden plants.
Magnet Mart has placed a limit of 10 customers in its store at any one time, calculated on the floor space.
"Customers on the whole have been quite patient and understanding," she said.
She said that people who were "close talkers" found it the most challenging.
"There are a few people who are finding it difficult to adjust. We had one customer who was talking and stepping closer to our staff member who kept stepping back, trying to maintain the proper social distance.
"In the end, our staff member had to just put his hands up and say: 'whoa, please stop and speak to me from there'."
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