OT: Handyman Stats;

[John Rumm]

Any that are having the goods delivered directly to the client, one presumes. Or any that have a significant other at home in the day who can receive deliveries.

[George]

Doesn't your local PO counter offer a service for accepting parcels? I think its 50p or a £1? and you pick it up when you're available to do so.

[Frank Erskine]

Service in there's very slow?

[Stuart Noble]

Calling customers "punters" is the first step to becoming a cowboy.

[EricP]

It's a very interesting bit of info from someone with their nose on the grindstone, so to speak.

Does suggest that the proper traditional trade outlets might need to urgently overhaul their approach to the smaller trade customer.

[Anna Kettle]

The big advantage of my Jewsons account is free delivery which is very useful to me when I buy timber as I too have a small van. Other perks are - if the counter queue is too long then I can go in to the office to 'pay' and on the odd occassion that I spend hundreds of pounds then I get extra discount but tbh if if weren't for the free delivery then I wouldnt bother with a Jewsons trade account and I dont bother with one for any of my other trade suppliers. As you say it is more trouble than advantage for a sole trader. I think a trade account comes into its own with a slightly larger company with several employees - you can send Joe Workman to pick up stuff without needing to deal with the money

Anna

[nightjar]

In the sheds, the price you see is the one you pay. In the wholesalers, it is the starting point for the discount calculation. Depending on the product, I get between 15% (for special order stuff) to 75% off list price (electric cable), with 40-50% being fairly normal. You also get to talk to staff who know something about the products they are selling and you don't have wasted journeys. If you are doubtful whether they will have something in stock, you telephone, they tell you when they will get it in and some will even call to say when it has arrived.

Colin Bignell

[nightjar]

My trade accounts are with chains, like Wolseley, TP and Newey & Eyre, who usually have a branch that is just as close as the nearest shed.

Colin Bignell

[George]

A good % of your next kitchen units for the house :-) only problem with some trade accounts your bill is likely to be every six months?

[Steve]

You might have spent more if they had all the bits you needed. Not often the case IME. My local B&Q has been out of the 'rarely asked for Sir' bags of ordinary portland cement for over a week now ;-)

Then there is the queuing up when only one till is manned and you join a snake of customers half the length of the store before they wake up and tannoy for till trained staff to go to the checkouts!

I suppose that if the customer is paying, it is not so bad :-)

We haven't got a Wickes nearby but when I have been to our nearest, they seem to be a bit more switched-on with a lot less staff hanging about chatting to each other and ignoring customers.

Homobase are there as a last expensive resort and even then no good!

Screwfix are the best IMO. Good for most things and much less time spent standing around in queues moaning about the staff with the others in the queue.

I'd wager that if you could analyse the wasted time spent in each store, B&Q would be far ahead in wasting your time!

Steve

[The Medway Handyman]

I have a very good neighbour who takes parcels in thankfully.

[The Medway Handyman]

Wahoo! Just seen in the local rag that Screwfix are opening a trade counter in Gillingham! 15 mins away! Two weeks time!

[dmc]

If it's like the canterbury one, then it'll be out of stock of loads of stuff for ages.

The Canterbury one has been open for quite a few months now and finally appears to be settling down and actually having stock of stuff. Dunno if they try to match stock levels to local demand or what but it's a lot better now than it was.

Go on opening day and get a free burger ;-)

Darren

[tim.....]

If that loses you an houy of working time it sounds like an expensive burger

tim

[Owain]

Only for Royal Mail parcels - might or might not include ParcelForce. And given the opening hours and lack of parking at many post offices, one is often better off collecting it from the despot and saving one's 50p.

Owain

[Steve]

That is exactly what happened when Crawley first opened. They seem to have sorted it now out but there is still, rarely, the odd thing or two out of stock.

Steve

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Not if it's your lunch hour. ;-)

[Owain]

Do self-employed people have lunch-hours?

Owain

[Bob Eager]

One interesting possibilty I found out about only this week (because they now operate in my area):

there's still the problem of places that only send to the card address.

[Bob Eager]

The guy at the collection desk is *that* bad?