It has been a textbook example of a public relations disaster. Bunnings made a poor decision to remove the defibrillator from its Dunedin store, and then compounded matters through its intransigence.
It dug itself a hole and then kept digging.
Even in its U-turn this week, there is a twist which rings false.
Bunnings NZ marketing manager Valerie Staley said: ‘‘Whilst we have been criticised for not making comment on this subject earlier, it was important to ensure we were clear on our position and able to make an honest, informed response.''
Really? The Otago Daily Times published the first report about Bunnings removing a defibrillator from its Dunedin store on March 11. That is 20 days ago.
First Union organiser Shirley Walthew said the store's social club had raised funds to pay for the $1300 defibrillator about three years ago after one of their colleagues died from a heart condition.
In an email leaked to the Otago Daily Times, Bunnings New Zealand manager Jacqui Coombes said the defibrillator was removed because ‘‘as a group, we do not hold defibrillators at our stores ... There are a number of reasons for this including maintenance of the units and the availability of a trained team to operate the units.''
She said the likelihood of a store needing one was very low.
Not surprisingly, those remarks prompted outrage among online comments on the ODT website, especially because it was staff themselves who raised the money. It was pointed out by more than one reader that a major advantage of defibrillators was they did not require training.
A recorded voice tells the user what to do and fail-safe devices prevent mistakes. Further, because as a ‘‘big box'' retailer Bunnings stores are frequented by many people at any one time, the risk of a heart incident is higher than at most businesses. And maintenance costs are just a new battery each year and new pads if the defibrillator is activated.
Ms Staley dug the hole deeper by saying Bunnings stores are in well-populated areas with easily accessible medical and ambulance services.
The public response was to note every second counts with heart attacks. In Dunedin, for example, it is going to take considerable time for an ambulance to speed from the station in York Pl to the Strathallan St store. One ex-ambulance officer estimated the time from the cardiac arrest to arrival to be nine minutes, too long to save many patients.
Mr Staley also said, in that first statement, each store had qualified first-aid staff able to provide CPR until medical assistance and an ambulance arrived.
Readers were quick to point out CPR, with all its limitations, is no substitute to a jolt from a defibrillator. The machines save minutes and they save lives.
Perhaps Bunnings management thought its offer to give the equipment to a local community group might ameliorate this public relations debacle.
But the heat on Bunnings continued to be turned up, with threats of boycotts, and a report Ms Coombes visited the Dunedin store and forced the removal of the defibrillator despite a petition signed by most staff.
Claims were made Bunnings insisted on the removal of the devices from outlets in Gisborne and Nelson, and then came a report from a widow whose 62-year-old husband died after a heart attack in Bunnings Naenae, Wellington, in 2005.
Bunnings' main competition in Dunedin, Mitre 10 Mega and Placemakers, both have on-site defibrillators, and one wonders how far out of touch management in Auckland and Melbourne are.
Do they understand the dynamics of Dunedin and, for that matter, the place of this newspaper in the community? Bunnings has now tried to staunch its bleeding by saying it will put defibrillators in five of its stores, including Dunedin's, following ‘‘constructive feedback'' from customers and staff.
Constructive is a polite way of putting it.
