Coronavirus: The Bunnings sausage sizzle is coming back

Bunnings sausage sizzles have been out of action since March 18. Picture: Instagram

BREAKING NEWS — the Bunnings sausage sizzle is coming back!

Chief Operating Officer Deb Poole confirmed to Strewth that community sausage sizzles will return in Tasmania and the Northern Territory this weekend, as part of a carefully phased reintroduction.

“The return will start off at selected stores in Tasmania and the Northern Territory this weekend where we will trial a new layout that promotes physical distancing and includes increased personal hygiene processes, above and beyond the normal processes,” Polle said.

The store plans to have BBQs up and running in Queensland, NSW, the ACT, South Australia and WA towards the end of June, pending the latest government restrictions in each location.

The new socially distanced snags will include separate ordering and pick up points to allow for 1.5m spaces; increased cleaning and hygiene requirements, plus rostered staff on duty to encourage physical distancing.

The store has spent the last few months consulting with community groups, government and health authorities on how they can ignite their BBQs safely.

Poole said they plan to use the feedback from NT and Tasmania to refine the process.

Bunnings made the tough decisions to suspend sausage sizzles on March 18, donating over $1.2 million of $500 gift cards to community groups who had to cancel BBQ bookings across Australia and New Zealand.

Local groups that had pre-booked during lockdown are being prioritised – including sporting clubs, Rotary, Lions Club and youth groups.

“We know our customers have missed being able to show their support for local community groups by stopping by the sausage sizzle and we know the important fundraising role they play for thousands of community groups across Australia. So, we’re really excited to be starting the process of bringing them back in places where restrictions have eased,” Poole said.

“We’d like to thank our customers for how patient they have been over the past few months with all the additional measures we have in place across our stores. While we know they will be excited by this return, as are we, we’d just ask everyone to continue to be patient and respect the guidelines in place.”

The first community sausage sizzle was run 26 years ago in Sunshine, Melbourne. Typically more than 40,000 sausage sizzles are run each year.