Yesterday morning I were in my local TLC depot picking up some of them flour essence lights.
Large queue at the trade counter. Bloke in front of me was 'tutting' and exchanging raised eyebrow's with people. Spose we waited 5 mins, but it always feels like 10.
Finally his turn to be served, he produced a list;
That's not so bad - I usually get stuck behind someone who it is selecting everything for a house rewire bit by bit from the catalogue. ;-)
I've got into the habit for a large order of doing an online order - but not sending it, just print it off, and taking that in. You would too if your writing was anything like mine.
The same thing works for Screwfix and probably other suppliers too. Just make sure they don't charge a delivery charge. Ctrl + p on your keyboard does the printing.
I've not tried it yet but the chap at toolstation counter said I could make up my next list on line and just make a note of the reference number and they could call it up at the counter and create a pick list. Saves farting around with their silly little forms a la Argos stores. I must confess to becoming quite a fan of Toolstation over screwfix. Prices better and - so far - stock levels better. Bob
In the Argos case, it actually reserves the stock until the end of the next day. Not 100% foolproof but it's only failed me once. You get a reference number, key that into the machine when you get there, swipe your credit card and that's it.
I'm near four Argos stores, so I can pick the one that has it all in stock too!
Right - that must be fairly new. What they could next do with are the consumer terminals in the branch like Argos use. Would save having to queue up twice. ;-)
Sorry Dave, I was just confirming the Argos bit. Should have made myself clearer and yes it would be good if they all worked in a similar way, even allowing you to pay online.
Create an account on line and as you make up the order you'll see the local stock levels. If everything is in stock when you've finished adding to your basket instead of going through the checkout process hit the print this order option. I'll print you out a copy of the order with a magic code on the top right.
They type it into their computer at the trade counter and it all comes up on their screen.
Fantastic. And just one reason Toolstation gets most of my trade instead of Screwfix now (who appear to be stocking less and less for higher and higher prices now!)
I found the prices better until they opened up Plumbfix and Sparkfix, which are generally a bit cheaper than Toolstation's prices on stuff in the plumbing and electrics range.
The Medway Handyman coughed up some electrons that declared:
Mine's Orpington.
SF are pretty helpful in T Wells (100% good customer service).
TS's website tells you the stock level in the local stores, but at the same time is actually nearly useless without the paper catalogue.
Try searching for Speedfit. You get some flexi connectors.
Now search for push fit. You get waste pipes.
Now search for pushfit. You get amongst a few things, one elbow. Now you notice that the category up top is Plumbing -> Pushfit.
Select that.
Now you get every make of pushfit, but, helpfully, no confirmation in the description that it's JG, Polyplumb, maybe tectite or whatever,
Mostly the pics are good enough, but sometimes, you have to rely on the catalogue page number being the same as another item where the picture is clearer.
Or use the paper catalogue.
It's actually pretty awful. Or is it me?
SF have a much more descriptive website IMHO.
But TS's prices do see better.
I do wonder what thee companies are doing though.
All they have to do is look at each other and replicate the obviously good bits, add their own sugar and hey presto.
Which I usually only do to print off some "price match" evidence before going to the builder's yard.
Again, for a simple example of what works: Sainsburys' website. You can search for "bog roll" (I kid you not) and get 3 pages of toilet paper. Of course, all other sane search terms, including typos seem to work too.
It's a classic case of British disease. I often wonder, why, when something clearly works, why all organisations in the same domain do not at least attempt to emulate the good and solid parts.
Same with government. There are lots of little things I've seen done abroad and in different boroughs here that make me wonder: why doesn't Kent or T Wells council simply solve problem X with solution Y, especially where solution Y is simple and cheap (or self funding)?
Like Munich: they leave bicycles everywhere. You phone up with your bank card and pay a rental charge. They give you an unlock code. You ride bike anywhere in the city. When you've finished, you lock the bike up wherevere you please (sensibly of course). Perhaps that would be lethal in London but there are plenty of UK cities that are largely traffic calmed where it would be a great idea. Self funding too (at a level the council can choose). Capital cost - bugger all.
Take Harrow council in London. 2 recycling bins: one for garden and blue for
*everything* else bar food. One other bin for remainder.
OK - that takes a concerted effort to set up the council end of things for mixed recyling, but it is patently such a bloody obviously good way of getting people to recycle (ie make it EASY for the customer, and take everything) instead of this fannying around with "here's a bin for paper, but don't put gift wrap in it, or the wrong sort of cardboard", "here's one for plastics, mostly", "here's a bin for gardening waste - oh, now you can put food waste in - but only types X, Y and Z", "as for glass - that's heavy and bulky - you can f*ck off and carry that yourself to Tescos".
To an extent we are just seeing two different stages of evolution of a similar species. TS is after all run by the people who created SF. Over time the catalogue is grown, which means the trade counters tend to get ever less complete coverage of the product range, and what they do cover they hold only in small stock quantities in order to save space for the rest of the large inventory.
It will be interesting to see if TS learn when to stop adding stuff!
I expect its a case of cost. Doing a web site that really works is not cheap or easy. Many businesses selling "online" seem to have convinced themselves that online should be cheap and easy and that is what they expect to pay for!
Not invented here syndrome probably...
Depends on how many bikes end up in the canal I suppose.
Our local scheme seems to be working better than many. Three wheelie bins - full size grey one, slightly narrower one with purple lid, and smaller green one. Food and garden stuff in the green one - collected every week. Rubbish in the purple lid one, and recyclables in the grey one (these two collected in alternation). Aside from a couple of funnies like not putting sticky tape or envelope windows in the recycling it works reasonably well. They take enough quantities of material for recycling (including cardboard, plastic, and glass) that you can stick most packaging in the recycling bin. The bulk of the collected stuff is now recyclable (at least in theory - what thy actually do with it once collected I don't know - as with many such schemes it was designed when commodity prices were high). The only real problem with it is the bulk of the three bins.
Coz an engineer inverted a way of keeping time at sea, and we could out navigate all the other trading nations. It only goes pear shaped when you let the administrators run the show ;-)
John Rumm coughed up some electrons that declared:
I did not know that. Explains a lot.
Yes. As I commented a long time ago - too many screws. Or too many serving almost the same purpose. Is it really necessary to sell turbo/quick/silver/plus single/twinthread in what seems to be a meaningless array of permutations of name? Then have a poor selection in brass.
It's good to sell a wide range of truely different base types, like Screwtites (they really are in a class of their own), but sometimes it's a bit too much like the supermarkets: 3 makes of herbs in full ranges. Swartz (sp?), someone else and own brand. Do I really need 3 makes of chives?
SF are weird like that. I went looking for frame packers - none. Zero. Only one size of blowtorch gas (long cyclinder, not always the most helpful for plumbing). Bandsaw blades but no Bosch jigsaw blades. WTF?
I think they have a good model and a good descriptive website bar the lack of "Argosness" which is obviously an upgrade waiting to happen, but they'd do well to put more effort into lines control (with a simple way to request items not on offer - that would make improving lines almost automatic - wait until lots of people voted for something, then stock it).
And stop opening up Bigbangfix, Bendytubemongerfix, Fatbloketea-n-biscuitsfix and just keep the prices in Screwfix keen.
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