Sausage sizzle at a hardware store (Bunnings, Mitre 10)
- Outdoor: weather matters
Run the store's community BBQ for a day, selling sausages in bread and drinks to weekend shoppers.
Typically raises
$600
$250–900 per eventest.
About $60 per organiser hour
Based on one store BBQ for one day
Is it right for us?
- Money
- $500–2,000
- Work
- A few evenings
- Helpers
- 7–15 people
- Lead time
- 2–4 months
- Red tape
- Light
Everyone’s done it: the Bunnings sizzle is a weekend institution
- People
- 6-12 across 2-3 shifts of 3-4 (cook, assembler, money)
- Organiser time
- 8-12 hours incl. booking, shopping, roster and banking (estimate)
- Lead time
- Bunnings slots are 'typically booked out up to six months in advance' (Touch NZ); Mitre 10 often 4-8 weeks
- Up-front cost
- $400. About $1.00 per serve for sausage, bread, onion and sauce; 400 serves is about $400 before drinks (estimate). Bunnings supplies BBQ and gazebo at most stores.
- Risk
- Low-medium: unsold sausages and bread if weather or foot traffic is poor; freeze leftovers.
How it works
The money, as an example sum
Take about $1,000, pay about $400 of costs, and you keep about $600 per event: the typical result for one store BBQ for one day.
From the typical figure on this page. Your result will differ.
Where the money figure comes from
One NZ fundraising guide says a busy site 'commonly raises $400-$900' and that the same BBQ raises about $250 at a quiet store vs $800 at a busy one. Supporting signal: Bunnings gave each group whose sizzle was cancelled in the 2020 lockdown a $500 gift card (Stuff). Typical $600 is an estimate between these.
Last checked October 2026. Ran this? Tell us what you raised and we’ll use real results to improve the figures.
Step by step
- Pick two or three stores and ask each for their community booking process; Bunnings asks for a letter on your group's letterhead to the store Activities Organiser explaining who you are, what you are raising for and local contacts (Touch NZ).
- Ask to go on the cancellation list as well as the waitlist.
- Confirm in writing what the store supplies (BBQ, gazebo, gas) and its food-safety sheet.
- Ask a butcher and supermarket for donated or discounted sausages and bread, with a specific quantity and date.
- Build a roster of 2-3 shifts with cook, assembler and cashier roles.
- Buy in bulk from a butcher or cash-and-carry, not retail on the morning.
- Set a price ($3 is traditional, $4 increasingly normal in NZ) and add cold drinks.
- Bring a $50+ coin float (Red Cross toolkit) plus a phone card reader or tap-to-pay.
- Cook through, keep raw and cooked separate, use gloves and sanitiser.
- Count takings in pairs, bank the same day, thank donors publicly.
Getting the word out
Even a well-run plan fails if nobody hears about it. There are two asks, and the first one goes out first.
- Ask for help
- Families to bake, give stock or take a shift on the stall.
- Ask people to buy
- People to come and buy on the day.
- When to start
- Ask for helpers first, as soon as the date is set. Start the public ask about 6–8 weeks out, and book newsletter and paper notices before that: small newsletters close early.
Where to put it
- School, club and church newslettersYour own newsletter is free and read by the families most likely to say yes. Check when it closes.
- PostersPosters at the school gate, the clubrooms and shop windows, with the date, place, price and how to pay.
- Local Facebook pages and community groupsPost in your town’s community page and local groups (check their rules), and share from your group’s own page.
- Billboards and roadside signsYour school’s or club’s own sign by the road, a banner on the fence, or a sandwich board on the day for passers-by.
The full guide to getting the word out: every channel from flyers to the evening news, with lead times and costs.
What you’ll need
- Place
- NeededA business’s site (shop front, store BBQ)
- Landowner’s permission
- NeededYes, in writing
- Council permit
- Not needed
- Food rules
- CheckNo registration if you sell food to fundraise for a good cause up to 20 times a calendar year. It must still be safe and suitable, and your council may need a stall permit
- Alcohol
- Not neededNo alcohol sold
- Gambling rules
- Not neededNot gambling
- Health and safety
- CheckA simple risk check and briefing
- Insurance
- CheckCheck your cover
Food Act fundraising exemption applies under 20 times a year. The store sets its own rules (letter of request, food-safety sheet, gloves, sometimes a set price and minimum hours); ask whether they need proof of public liability cover.
Make more from it
$100-300 (estimate)
the same shoppers, different craving
Ask a butcher for donated or at-cost sausages
saves $200-400 in stock (estimate)
stock is the main cost
Entertainment membership flyers at the stall
$15 per sale (estimate)
weekend shoppers are in a buying mood
Cold drinks bought at wholesale
$50-150 (estimate)
a hot day sells as many drinks as sausages
Stack it: on its own, about $600. With the 4 priced add-ons above, roughly
$1,200est.
What you can get donated
Sausages, bread, onions, sauce, drinks from a local butcher, bakery or supermarket. Woolworths says it supports 'a local school with a sausage sizzle'; New World stores are locally owned and take sponsorship requests at store level.
Tips
- Drinks are high-margin with no cooking: a can bought in bulk for under $1 sells for $2-3.
- Ask for a specific donation ('20 kg of sausages for our BBQ on the 14th'), not general 'support'.
- Mitre 10 and MEGA stores are individually owned, so the store manager decides; MEGA and garden-centre sites draw stronger weekend traffic.
- Supermarkets (New World, PAK'nSAVE, Woolworths) host community BBQs at manager discretion; approach the store, not head office.
Watch out for
- Buying retail on the day cuts profit by about a third.
- Rain or a quiet store halves takings; have a freezer plan for leftovers.
- Cash-only stalls lose card-only customers.
Sausage sizzle at a hardware store (Bunnings, Mitre 10): checklist
0 of 17 done
Before
On the day
After
Food Act fundraising exemption applies under 20 times a year. The store sets its own rules (letter of request, food-safety sheet, gloves, sometimes a set price and minimum hours); ask whether they need proof of public liability cover.
* General fundraising information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Money figures are examples and estimates, not promises. Check current official requirements before you commit. About this guide