Aussie bakery flooded with 1 star reviews after boss accused of 'horrible' staff remark: 'They asked us'

Yahoo

14-03-2025

A Queensland bakery has been hit with a bevy of one-star reviews after a social media storm followed hot on the heels of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred. Wayne McCrae runs the Main Beach Bakery on the Gold Coast and said the area wasn't hit nearly as hard as Brisbane when the cyclone made landfall on the weekend.
He was quoted in a Nine Newspapers article claiming staff were 'petrified' about the cyclone and gave 'every excuse' not to come in, which forced him to close for one day. His remarks were widely interpreted online as a lack of empathy for his employees.
But McCrae told Yahoo Finance he didn't put any pressure on them.
'Two of them had push bikes and we said, 'Look, you can't ride your push bikes in the rain. We'll come and pick you up if you want to come to work',' the former Queensland mining executive said.
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"There's no restriction on them. They could come to work, and if they didn't want to stay they could go home again.
'I told the staff, I said, 'Look, if you're rostered on and you want to come in and you feel safe, no problem.'
McCrae closed on Saturday when Alfred was meant to make landfall, but he described it as a bit of a non-event where he was.
Coles and Woolworths had to close hundreds of stores in the effected area.
McCrae called in his bakers late on Saturday night to make bread and pastries anticipating an opportunity to reopen on Sunday.
He said it was lucky he did as all the supermarkets around him were shut.
'Energex had hundreds of people out there working with all the SES, and they asked us to supply them with all the food,' he told Yahoo Finance.
'So we said, 'no problem, we'll do that'. And then the phone started ringing off and then the cops all started knocking on the doors. And so we said, 'we'll f**king open'."
Despite the conditions, McCrae said there were hordes of workers trying to nab a seat outside his store.
"People were sitting out there eating their pies," he recalled.
A spokesperson for Energex confirmed to Yahoo Finance that Main Beach Bakery was one of several locations that helped provide critical food supplies over the weekend.
'If it wasn't for people like that, who came out and supported us, we would have struggled to cater for our crews who are out there 12 hours a day and then working through the night,' they said.
But McCrae's actions have not gone down well on social media.
A screenshot of the article that mentioned he 'ignored authorities" calls to close his doors at the height of the storm but was forced to close 'because his staff refused to come to work' was posted on Reddit.
McCrae has been heavily criticised.
'I'm sorry but am I the only one who thinks this is horrible?' the person who shared the screenshot asked.
'I like Main Beach bakery but now I have to boycott,' one person said
The Main Beach Bakery Google page has been hit with a flood of one-star reviews of people saying the same thing.
'Treat your staff better,' said one reviewer.
McCrae told Yahoo Finance there had been a pile on to his business based on very little information.
'I've heard about this, how they go crazy on the internet, but this is the first time I've ever felt it myself,' he said.
He said there were several other small businesses open all around him when the storm hit on the weekend, while many of the big supermarkets and stores remained closed.
But he didn't stay open for 'corporate greed', as many angry internet users claimed, but more to help the community during a difficult period.
They normally serve around 500 customers on any given day, but Sunday saw him plate up double that number.Sign in to access your portfolio