I purchased a kitchen mixer repair set on-line from Bunnings.
It arrived yesterday in this box:
The set I ordered is very small and 50 or maybe a hundred could have fitted in that box:
The part I wanted is a small horseshoe washer:
This is to anchor the kitchen tap mixer where the old washer has disintegrated.
I went to Bunnings, Mitre 10, Plumber's World and other trade stores but was unable to buy a single washer. The kit that I eventually bought from Bunnings on-line cost $23. The same kit at Plumber's World, after a trade discount that the embarrassed salesman offered, was $70. I only need the little washer not the whole kit but relented and paid the $23.
Somewhere in the word is a factory pumping out millions of these washers that are sitting in boxes on shelves in their warehouse.
Go figure.