DEVONPORT MITRE 10 OUT OF ZIP TIES, LOCALS GATHER ON FORECOURT IN QUIET DESPAIR
Staff say a fresh shipment is due Thursday. Several customers have stayed anyway, just to be near the empty hook.
The Devonport Mitre 10 has been out of zip ties since Saturday afternoon. A small crowd of North Shore tradies and yachties have been drifting through the doors ever since, hoping it isn't true.
It is true. Aisle four, hook number 12: empty. A handwritten sign reads "sorry team, shipment Thurs". Underneath, someone has added in biro: "this is a disaster".
Local yachtie Hugh Marwick, 61, said he'd come in for a packet of 200mm blacks and left with nothing. "You don't realise how much of Devonport is held together by zip ties until they're gone," he said. "My bimini. My fender lines. The letterbox. The dog's lead, technically."
A staff member, who asked to be called Pricey because that's his name, said the run started Friday. "Bloke from Bayswater bought every bag on the rack. Didn't say what for. Paid cash. Left in a Hilux. We've been picking up the pieces since."
Annette Forsyth, from Cheltenham, said she'd been coming back twice a day to check. "Not for zip ties. Just to see how everyone's holding up. Lorraine from the cafe brought scones down yesterday."
Thursday's shipment is, per the Mitre 10 system, "on the truck". The truck, per the driver, is "on the bridge". The bridge is not really moving at all.
It is true. Aisle four, hook number 12: empty. A handwritten sign reads "sorry team, shipment Thurs". Underneath, someone has added in biro: "this is a disaster".
Local yachtie Hugh Marwick, 61, said he'd come in for a packet of 200mm blacks and left with nothing. "You don't realise how much of Devonport is held together by zip ties until they're gone," he said. "My bimini. My fender lines. The letterbox. The dog's lead, technically."
A staff member, who asked to be called Pricey because that's his name, said the run started Friday. "Bloke from Bayswater bought every bag on the rack. Didn't say what for. Paid cash. Left in a Hilux. We've been picking up the pieces since."
Annette Forsyth, from Cheltenham, said she'd been coming back twice a day to check. "Not for zip ties. Just to see how everyone's holding up. Lorraine from the cafe brought scones down yesterday."
Thursday's shipment is, per the Mitre 10 system, "on the truck". The truck, per the driver, is "on the bridge". The bridge is not really moving at all.