I’m the proud owner of a $2 store and I’ll NEVER stop selling Australia Day merchandise. Here’s my brutal message for the big supermarkets who’ve turned their back on our …

The owner of a suburban discount store says he’s been flooded with requests for Australia Day gear as he hit out at massive corporations for using the national day as a ‘political football’. 

Woolworths, Big W and Aldi announced this week they were ditching Australia Day merchandise in their stores in the wake of controversy over January 26 – long slammed as ‘Invasion Day’ by some Indigenous advocates. 

Woolworths’ announcement put the supermarket giant, which also owns Big W stores, in the sights of Opposition Leader Peter Dutton who called on Aussies to boycott the chain.

Discount shop Silly Solly’s in the NSW Central Coast town of Tuggerah – where nothing sells for more than $5 – has sparked praise online after owner Scott Burgess posted a photo of its Australia Day merchandise proudly on display.

‘Is this controversial now???’ the photo was captioned. ‘Can’t we just all get along!!!!!’ 

Silly Solly’s Tuggerah owner Scott Burgess says Australians are sick of the national day being used as a political football

Mr Burgess said he was ‘pushing back’ against making Australia Day political and divisive. 

‘We just want to celebrate Australia and not make it a political thing,’ Mr Burgess told Daily Mail Australia.

Mr Burgess said he’d been overwhelmed with demand for Australia Day T-shirts but unfortunately he had none on the shelves. 

‘I’ve had many inquiries just today if I have any Australia Day t-shirts, which I don’t have any at the moment,’ he said.

Mr Burgess said he understood that some people believe January 26, which celebrates the arrival of the First Fleet, was not appropriate because of Indigenous dispossession but he called for the national day to stop ‘being a political football’.

‘The majority of people will turn around and say no worries “give us a date” if we agree on that then let’s still have Australia Day so we can come together,’ he said.

‘Everything we do is divisive and we would like to see the possibility of us all coming together one day. I don’t know if that will ever happen.

‘My read on it is the majority of people still love Australia Day.’  

The Silly Solly’s Facebook post having a shot at a Woolworths generated largely positive reactions

The response to the store’s Facebook post had been overwhelmingly positive, with Mr Burgess saying he had only seen one negative comment about the goods being made in China. 

The first comment under the post read: ‘There you go Woolies we don’t need you any way we have Silly Solly’s for our Australia Day goodies’. 

Mr Burgess said that the debate over creating an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, which was resoundingly defeated in last October’s referendum, had been particularly divisive. 

‘People don’t say much because they don’t want to get their head chopped off for having an opinion,’ he said.

Woolworths justified its move by claiming Australia Day items had declined in popularity. 

Mr Burgess said Mr Dutton’s call to boycott Woolworths was ‘a pretty bold thing to say’ but as a politician the Opposition Leader had recognised a sentiment in the community he was ‘going to ride the back of’.

He doubted Woolworths would lose much business over the longer term, at least from its most frequent customers. 

‘We are creatures of habit and if you go there nine times out of 10 the chances of you never going back there is pretty small,’ he said.

‘But it’s better to have them (the wider public) talking in a positive way about you than a negative one because you might turn someone else away,’

Mr Burgess said he believed not all of Woolworths leadership was on board with the decision to axe its line of Australia Day gear.

More Australia Day items on sale at a Silly Solly’s shop in Deception Bay, south east Queensland

‘I heard there’s quite a few people in senior management at Woolworths who did not support the decision,’ he said. 

‘When these corporations decide to get involved in things that are out of their space that’s got a political base people get upset about it and especially if you are shareholder and in theory you have ownership of this business.’

‘I think the average Aussie finds it all a bit much. They are running a retail shop why are they making political statement on behalf of their shareholders?’

He likened the Woolworths decision to the overwhelming support corporate Australia gave to the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, which was not reflected by the general populace where over 60 per cent of people voted against it. 

 ‘That probably bit a few people on the bum especially Qantas who had a bad run,’ Mr Burgess said.

He thought top executives were making decisions that had fuzzy appeal to ‘the greater good’ in mission statements or board announcements but might not be in the best interests of the companies they run 

‘They are like politicians, they have smaller cycles and they can make a decision but five years later they get paid out and they’re gone to another company so they don’t always necessarily feel the pain of their decisions, like politicians,’ he said.

Mr Dutton made the call to boycott Woolworths during a radio interview on Thursday morning.

‘It’s up to customers whether they want to go in and buy the product or not… I think people should boycott Woolworths,’ he said.

Mr Dutton also dismissed the claim the merchandise was not selling and accused CEO Brad Banducci of trying to ‘follow in the mould of Alan Joyce’ and impress Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Mr Joyce stepped aside as CEO of Qantas in 2023 amid several controversies, including questions about his close relationship with the PM and strongly advocating for a Yes vote in the Voice to Parliament referendum.

Until we get common sense out of a company like Woolworths, I don’t think they should be supported by the public,’ Mr Dutton said.

‘As we saw with Alan Joyce and Qantas, it seems these CEO’s are out to try and please the Prime Minister with these stupid decisions, and it doesn’t make sense to me.

‘For Woolworths to start taking political positions to oppose Australia Day… is against the national spirit. I think most Australians just want to go to Woolies, get groceries at the cheapest possible price because most are struggling to pay the bill when they get to the checkout at the moment.’

Mr Dutton called on Mr Banducci to step up and reverse the Australia Day merchandise ban, calling it a ‘bad call’.

Woolworths on Wednesday confirmed no additional Australia Day-themed merch would be sold in its supermarkets or Big W stores for this year’s public holiday.

‘While Australian flags are sold within BIG W all year round, we don’t have any additional themed merchandise available to purchase in-store in our Supermarkets or BIG W ahead of Australia Day,’ a spokesperson said.

‘We know many people like to use this day as a time to get together and we offer a huge variety of products to help customers mark the day as they choose.’

Woolworths, which also owns the Big W chain, joins Kmart that announced it was no longer stocking Australia Day items last year.