BUNNINGS MIGHT BE WELCOME IN THE LOCKYER VALLEY IF IT DOESN'T SEND OTHER HARDWARE STORES BROKE

A lot of speculation, suspicion and contention surrounds the imminent and almost certain go ahead for a new Bunnings in the Lockyer Valley region. 

That could be seen as extending to controversy to do with where the new Bunnings will be situated, and the very detrimental impact it will have on the viability of existing much smaller hardware stores in the Lockyer, namely one at Plainland and one at Laidley. 

Logically, the only responsible decision the Lockyer Valley Regional Council can make and the only responsible approval it can give is for a Bunnings in the actual town of Gatton, where there hasn't been a hardware store for a long, long time.

The irony is that Gatton hasn't had a hardware store ever since the Mitre 10 proprietor in town some years ago got "cold feet" over increasing speculation at the time that Bunnings was essentially above to move in and take over, and didn't renew the lease and closed up shop. 

But in the end, Gatton was overlooked and instead the Bunnings popped up in Toowoomba. If the Lockyer Valley Regional Council is both pro-small business and wants to also promote larger business to set up shop in the region, then the only "balanced outcome" there can be is for Bunnings to be in Gatton, which hasn't got an existing hardware and has the population in its own right to make a new Bunnings viable, and leave the other few smaller existing hardwares have their own turf, so they are not sent to the wall by being unable to compete with a much larger competitor like Bunnings.

The existing smaller hardwares in the region are and have been valuable contributors to the local economy for many years. They and Bunnings can co-exist in the Lockyer Valley provided they are spread out and some strategy is applied by the Lockyer Valley Regional Council to position the new Bunnings where it fills in a void, where a hardware is actually desperately needed. That place is the town of Gatton.