Two large DIY stores near here (Beeston, Notts) have closed in the past few months. One replaced by a Wicks - which is fine if you want 600 tons of something but not much use for just a few screws or a drill bit - or even a pot of PVA, as I just found out! What's going on? Is this happening elsewhere? (OT anyone know if there's a good diy place in the above area?)
I'm sure Dundee is a great place - but a bit far for me to go :-) Seriously though I just had some chap hunting around for PVA - "nope we don't do it". It's a new store and maybe just getting up to speed. Our partuclar one seems a very meagre place after the Focus that was there before.
Indeed so - I was being figurative.
There is certainly a rationalisation in the Focus/Wickes group right now. In a town with both, close the smaller store and make the larger/better placed one a Wickes. Mind you the Focus stores must have been losing money hand over fist judging by the emptyness/unhelpfullness of the place. Even our local MFI and B&Q swapped sites about a mile apart to give B&Q the larger site. I'll drive past two competitors to get to the large Depot, because I'll know there's a better chance of getting what I'm after.
It seems bigger/fewer is better, if Home Depot in the US is anything to go by.
Toby.
Well I've never been to Bristol, but a Bristolian student of my aquaintance says its much better than Dundee. Me, I think Dundee's problem is that people think about it how it used to be, instead of what it is becoming.
It sounds like a problem with both being new and with undertrained staff. Ours is getting a minor facelift at the moment and I couldn't find what I wanted the other day. I wouldn't dream of asking the staff for much in a Wickes though they do try to be helpful. Our nearest Focus is in Arbroath and I have to say that having been there twice I was distinctly underwhelmed. The only good thing I have to say about Focus is that having taken over Wickes they are leaving it pretty much alone to occupy its market space.
Peter
that's not what the Americans over in rec.woodworking say. They call HD the Borg for its habit if assimilating local independents and turning them all organge. Yup, B&Q borrowed the livery lock stock and barrel.
Peter
OK they don't sell absolutely everything, but they sure ease the hassle with most of the day to day stuff.
They are trying very hard to get it right while others appear to be sitting on their laurels!
Hope this helps.
Take Care, Gnube I don't want to win the lottery I just want to win a barn full of seasoned timber! ;O)
If I were orgasmically-inclined over DIY stores, then Home Depot in the US would be the place to give me one. You could easily spend half a day looking round one and trying to stop yourself buying half the stuff.
MJ
wrote | If I were orgasmically-inclined over DIY stores, then Home Depot in | the US would be the place to give me one. You could easily spend half | a day looking round one and trying to stop yourself buying half the | stuff.
Yeah, but you still wouldn't come out with what you went in for.
Owain
I know what you mean, although in reality you may have noted that B&Q Warehouse have tried to copy HD in as many details as they can including the colours, the signage and even the plastic buckets that they have at the door on the way in to use instead of baskets.
I think that part of the attraction is that there are a different set of products available because of the different construction techniques compared with the UK. For example, a lot more timber products used in various ways, and a good selection of tools. Then there are the appalling electrical fittings and archaic water heaters, so it's not all good.
I also quite enjoy the specialist tool stores and the woodworking places like Rockler and Woodcraft - they really do have interesting stuff.
.andy
To email, substitute .nospam with .gl
d>
OTOH the delivery charge will kill for small orders. (even if they want to call it a handling charge). A quid for 200 screws might look OK, seven quid is another matter.
So there is still a big role for shops you can walk in to.
That would seem to me to imply that those shops should be moving towards supplying those odds and ends.
Mind you, what would I know, I never worked out why B&Q sells timber. It's crap, expensive and comes in any size you want so long as it is one of these three. If they used the space to stock more types of weird fixing, odd tools etc. ISTM they'd be onto a much better bet.
You are spoilt for choice ! There is the infamous 'shed run' along Riverside way which has a new large Homebase, Wickes and B&Q Depot all within a couple of miles (and on the same road) of each other - perfect !!
Steve
N.B. Most of the following is written with a certain amount of tongue in cheek! I may digress here and there too as I write! There's the odd point worth thinking about too hopefully. ;O)
Delivery is not free when I go to the shop either; Additionally I figure the vehicle delivering to me will cost about the same to travel to me no matter what I order. It's nice that delivery is free on orders over 45 of course. I tend to save it up and do it in batches that fit with their scheme on that aspect.
I don't own a vehicle (being house bound it's like a fish needing a bicycle!) However those people I know who do own and use one, often and increasingly complain that fuel is unreasonably priced, insurance and road fund license are no better, servicing costs are apparently pretty diabolical too, and now getting fined for the slightest speeding error is easier than it ever was before, parking is scarce and inconvenient as well as being rather pricey in places. By the time you add all that up, I'm not sure which is the more attractive proposition.
If one adds the time one spends stuck in traffic, and the time finding the item you want (coz they have moved everything about in the store again!) and waiting in line to pay for it, then it's hard to see why anyone might find it as useful as some seem to.
Heaven forefend you need to ask a member of staff about something, I understand that getting their attention to start with can be a black art more or less! (flooof went the big clear plastic flexidoors doors, and they were never seen again; or so I hear quite often from others going through that particular wringer!)
I'd be the first to concede that in my position I have no trouble "being in when it arrives" and that could be more of a problem for some! (probably out, in a queue, in a shed, waiting to pay a lot of the time:O) I've noted they have provision for alternate delivery address details too, although I've never needed to use that facility, I just know it's there rather than knowing how effective it may be to use.
Oh yes, you can see it and I can see it, but why can't they see it? and by all accounts they don't!
Sure, but will they? The need we are discussing has been around for many years, but here we are discussing that fact that it still could do with being addressed properly. Not an overly hopeful track record on dealing with the issue so far, surely?
I've found a couple of timber yards not so far from me and they cut (and finish to final size - not to length though, obviously!) before delivering if asked, and I've never been overcharged by them in my view. Also, I've never spotted a direct charge for any of that so far. The wood I've had so far has not been any worse than sheds offer, and often a fair bit better (certainly fewer knots and splits, fewer or smaller machining marks too)
I'm sure it wouldn't suit everyone to work this way, but I have to say I've found it more acceptable than many might imagine it to be.
Take Care, Gnube I don't want to win the lottery I just want to win a barn full of seasoned timber! ;O)
But he could go back in and see if it will grow on him.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.