Retailer cops spray

By Jade Lawton
BUNNINGS Pakenham has raised the ire of some shoppers with the storage of their aerosol spray cans.
A reader of the Pakenham-Berwick Gazette was disappointed that the retail giant did not store the aerosol cans, the tool of choice for graffiti vandals, in cages.
“All paint retailers in Cardinia Council must apply to these laws yet the big national hardware chain doesn’t. This is the big guys pushing the council around and I won’t stand for it,” he said.
The council’s local-laws manager Alan Giachin said the council passed a local-law in January that restricted the sale of spray paint to people under the age of 18 and required retailers to store and display stock ‘away from direct customer access.’ “Retailers have accepted the changes and many have gone out of their way to ensure cans can still be seen by customers but are locked away to prevent minors taking them off the shelves,” Mr Giachin said.
Council local-law 45B states that any person who offers for sale aerosol paint must not ‘store on display, cause to be stored or displayed, or allow to be stored or displayed any aerosol spray paint container in an area which is accessible to the public.’
Despite some retailers choosing to cage their aerosol products, cages are not mentioned in the law.
A Bunnings spokeswoman said the retailer did not believe that the caging of spray paint addressed the ‘real issue’ of chroming and graffiti.