A Kmart shopper has revealed the unexpected dilemma she encountered while shopping online at the popular retail store.
The Victorian woman sought advice on how she could potentially purchase products from Kmart Australia’s online store – but without it being shipped out in tell-tale giveaway packaging.
The reason? She wanted to keep the nature of her online Kmart purchases under wraps from her housemates. Later, she revealed the surprising reason why.
Taking to Reddit, the woman shared a post to the Kmart Australia subreddit accompanied by the headline: ‘I don’t want my housemates seeing what I buy.’
She cryptically wrote in the original post: ‘I want to order some things from Kmart online and have them delivered, but I don’t want anyone to see what I buy.’
The woman proceeded to ask if anyone in the online customer forum knew whether Kmart typically ships items out ‘in plain cardboard boxes’ with only a Kmart logo on the side – which would be her preference.
However, she expressed concern that the particular Kmart purchases she wanted would be delivered in their ‘original product packaging’, whereby the item name and possibly even a product image would be fully visible on the side of the box.
It was at this point in the post that the woman revealed the surprising twist that explained the secrecy behind her online shopping purchases.
A Kmart Australia shopper asked whether larger items purchased online were sent out in a non-descript brown box, as above, or if they were sent in the original shelf packaging with the product name and item clearly visible
‘Asking because I don’t want my housemates seeing what I buy before I get home,’ she wrote.
The woman then revealed the exact items she was hoping to quietly acquire without her housemates knowledge.
‘They’re relatively large items, more specifically, a cat litterbox cabinet and a pet enclosure.’
A further update on the post by the woman confirmed: ‘And yes, for those who are wondering – I’m hiding a pet in my bedroom.’
But there was still one more twist yet to come.
‘It’s not a cat, it’s a rabbit,’ the pet owner revealed in a second update to the post.
Several responses brushed past the unusual circumstances of the woman’s query and instead offered practical information about how online Kmart purchases are shipped out – and whether it would reveal what she had purchased.
One person replied that while smaller items are generally sent out in a Kmart branded cardboard box or plain satchel, in their experience large items were more likely to be sent out in their original packaging with a label affixed to the side.
Both Kmart shoppers and staffers confirmed that larger items bought online, like the Pet Enclosure $60 (left) andCat Litter Box Cabinet $65 (right) were likely to be sent out in their original packaging with a label affixed to the side of the on-shelf box
‘Pet crates, Christmas trees or rubbish bins all just came in the shelf packaging,’ they confirmed.
Another Kmart shopper agreed that this had similarly been their experience with ‘larger items’.
‘It won’t fit into a box and then they will send it as is,’ another reply confirmed.
A person who claimed to be a Kmart store worker offered further explanation for why these items would be delivered in their original boxes.
‘The cabinet and pet enclosure are too big for any of the shipping boxes so they will be sent as item cartons… so it will be visible what it is. The cabinet in particular is quite heavy,’ they explained.
The Kmart staffer also suggested some workarounds. ‘Your best bet is Click & Collect so you can unpackage them yourself, or send them to the Post Office for pick up there.’
Another Kmart staffer who claimed to specialise in online orders replied: ‘For the large bulky orders we just stick a label on the box of the product.’
‘But for smaller items we put them in cartons or satchels so it’s not visible until you open them.’
The comments section of the Reddit post was also littered with baffled and worried replies, questioning why the woman was going to all the trouble of hiding her furry roommate from her housemates.
‘Why are you hiding the pet?’ one asked.
‘They’re gonna figure out you’re hiding a pet at some point,’ added another.
One commenter responded that the woman should ‘be more worried about the smell and sounds from the pet you are hiding’ – rather than worrying about how to secretly get their Kmart online shopping order delivered.
