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Builders' Merchants

I too use Screwfix for many products, but a builder's merchant is still needed for basic heavier products. eg Cement, Bricks, roof tiles, etc.

Reply to
charles
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What I meant was, presumably because the business is closed, these days are probably taken from the staffs holiday leave anyway.

So if the business was open, and they were working, they would take those days leave at some other time

Reply to
chris French

In message , Capitol writes

Really, it's a different country to the one I live in then.

The law restricts the opening times/hours of larger stores.

Smaller shops are not restricted by the Sunday trading laws.

So about the same as here then The DIY sheds seem to be closing about

4-5 on xmas eve, all the big shops, not just sheds seem to open again on boxing day morning
Reply to
chris French

As soon as you impose things like "law" to make sure everyone works their normal hours, you also tend to make people say "stuff it" if anything extra is required. My boss would have been shooing us out of the door shortly after 15:00 today - but an emergency failing server needed attention. I volunteered to handle it without hesitation at least partly because I know that I am treated decently. (And had great fun with alarms that wouldn't switch off!)

Reply to
polygonum

Not my idea of style!

Reply to
polygonum

Style can be good, bad or indifferent. ;-)

Reply to
John Williamson

My son has turned up tonight (Happy new year BTW) he's off tonight, having done his 5-in-a-row 2000-0800 shifts.

You're all mad!

Andy

Reply to
Vir Campestris

How would you define 'normal hours'?

You can't expect trade outlets to be open just to cater for the odd DIY nutter who hasn't planned ahead and wants to spend three quid, when all the normal high spending trade customers are at home drinking beer.

Bill

Reply to
Bill Wright

When I used to work in London at weekends it was fun on Friday afternoons driving the length of the M1 south, unimpeded, and seeing the northbound chock-a-block from j30 to j1.

Bill

Reply to
Bill Wright

Look guys, all this boasting about the hours you work. OK, calm down, calm down, you aren't boasting, you're just telling it like it is. I know, I know... But look, honestly, it isn't big and it isn't clever. I know sometimes you have to do it. There are emergencies, and offers so lucrative you'd be a fool to refuse, but you shouldn't be doing it routinely. Once in a while, for a week or two, that's fine. But not otherwise, and I'll tell you why. What follows is based mostly on my own experience.

  1. A general principle If you can't earn enough in 40 hours a week to be comfortable then you're doing something wrong. Either you're in the wrong job or you waste money.

  1. The extra money Years ago I did a job for a bloke who worked on the oil rigs. The house was full of expensive toys and gadgets, many of which were clearly disused. Every kid had a colour telly and a VCR in his room and this was in the days when a lot of people had black and white. The garden had a lot of large-scale play equipment, which was covered in moss from disuse. There was a very expensive car for her, which she used to go to the shops in every now and then. A Ford Focus would have been just as good. OK, I'm not saying you are like that. This was an extreme example. But the fact is, beyond a certain point those extra quids are mostly wasted. Firstly there's the taxman, then there's the fact that you and your family won't value money so highly, so a lot will be wasted. So those last few quids, the ones that it's agony to earn because you're totally knackered, are only going to be pissed away. If you are very high earning (and can't do anything about it!) I suggest you keep the family on a normal budget and save the rest.

  2. The family If you have a family you should make the members of it a priority. It is one of my greatest regrets that when my kids were little I was always out working. I missed so much. Believe me, the kids will appreciate having a dad who isn't always too tired to play, a lot more than they will appreciate you chucking the occasional £100 in their direction, when they've already got every damn thing a kid could sensibly need. When you have young kids you should normally be available at the weekends for swimming, sport, riding, whatever. You should not work weekends except very rarely.

  1. Your health Yes I know, you're tough; you can do it. You just shrug it off. OK, we can all do it for so long, maybe for months. But not for ever. If you haven't yet encountered that sudden overwhelming feeling of stultification, when you can hardly think at all, then you need to know that one day, if you keep on with the 70 hour weeks, you will fail, and it will be like driving through fog and meeting a brick wall. Don't let it happen because recovery is costly in time and effort. Overwork is also a major cause of depression and uncontrolled anxiety, both of which can creep up on you and seem completely unrelated to work; in fact it can seem that work helps. That's the psychological side. The physical side is that if work doesn't provide exercise and doesn't leave time for exercise then you're heading for trouble. The same applies to meals. You must take the trouble to eat healthily and you must not rush your meals, or work through mealtimes.

  2. Your safety You're a star. You can drive for hours and not lose concentration once. You can drive for three hours, work 12 hours, then drive for three hours to get home, no problem. You're fooling yourself. It will only be a matter of time before you will make a mistake. Do you operate machinery or fiddle around with bare wires? If so the same applies.

Bill

Reply to
Bill Wright

All builders?

Bill

Reply to
Bill Wright

Four on, four off twelve hour shifts. Did seven days the week before. However, I cannot compare to your obviously superhuman capabilities ;-)

Reply to
Richard

I think that's a bit unfair on the "lower" achievers of the world

not everybody has the nous to move up the management chain and if you're stuck in a low skilled minimum wage job you can't be "comfortable" without extra hours, even if you aren't wasteful and/or profligate

tim

Reply to
tim.....

Exactly the same hours as the average DIY person works themselves so zero chance of obtaining anything outside their hours of work.

We could go back to the bank opening hours of a few decades ago, 9 to 3 and closed Saturday and Sunday.

Reply to
alan

And those Amazon drones will soon be delivering a ton of building sand.

Amazon are morphing into an advertising portal for third party companies. Amazon will not be delivering the truck load of building supplies - it will be the builders merchant that uses Amazon for advertising/admin that will deliver the goods. You may be able to order

24/7 but they may only deliver 9 to 5 Mon-Fri. This is not much difference on relying on the postal or carrier service to get the goods.
Reply to
alan

Which brings us back to my original gripe about them being closed at 3 pm (or earlier) on what to me was a perfectly normal working day, Monday of this week. The hardware shop was open, Greggs was open, Martins and Smiths were open, in fact all the shops in the High Street were open, why not the D-I-Y suppliers? Even one of them? Poundland was open, but they don't sell the tape I wanted. I checked.

Reply to
Davey

But we don't know if that was a 5 on 5 off rota or indeed how hard the work was.

Reply to
ARW

I believe you are wrong. The materials will be supplied by the source, not a BM middle man. Sand/Ballast are already ordered from the transporter and same day/next day delivery already exists in some areas. My neighbour bought his new roof direct from Marley, no BM involved. A ton of building sand comes from Wickes off the shelf if you are prepared to collect it. Soon the source will be offering to deliver it the same day.

It was mentioned that BMs were closed because tradesmen are not working. My reaction is that neither are hungry enough. I can recall doing postal deliveries on Xmas day as this was part of the job. I managed to retire financially sound as a result of being prepared to work whenever possible, even if it didn't suit my desired lifestyle.

We have too many people who do not know how to work. I've not had anybody in the UK selling me a "put up/down the Xmas decorations" service, or gardening services or car washing services etc (unless they are immigrants or gypsies). In the US and many other countries, people are prepared to work and know that the state (taxpayers) doesn't owe them a living.

Reply to
Capitol

In message , Davey writes

Because they aren't really DIY suppliers. Imagine the DIY takings of atypical BM are tiny compared to the trade and most of their trade customers probably aren't wanting stuff.

Reply to
chris French

In message , Capitol writes

Ok, not seen anybody advertising xmas dec services, probably because the market is small, as most people will do their own. however, I'm pretty sure they exist.

But we have a number of people offering gardening services, a mobile car valet service, a couple of handy man services etc. in our village. not run by recent immigrants AFAIK

Reply to
chris French

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