B&Q new store plans

[Peter Johnson]

[Brian Gaff]

Well, its hardly surprising given the economic conditions that non essential purchase will drop, is it? Shops need to base their profit forecasts on the real world of normal people, not on attempting growth all the time. So why don't they use Screwfix as click and collect for BE/Q?

Also in my view they did not give the Asda idea anywhere near long enough for people to realise what they were doing. One has also to remember that far from everyone being on line hanging on their every word, people tend only to go there for things they already know they want. They still want to inspect stuff up close and personal before making a significant purchase. Brian

[alan_m]

Possibly they want to keep the price differential between SF and B&Q outlets for people who only shop at B&Q. SF don't tend to sell the bulkier items and therefore can operate in much smaller premises. When I went into the warehouse of my local SF there wasn't any spare room. I backed my car into the delivery doorway to pick up a heavy radiator.

I went into B&Q last week for a bag of sharp sand and the majority of customers were buying gardening items like bags of compost and plants or white van man using the trade exit with various building materials- sand, cement, plaster, plasterboard etc.

I have never found B&Q to be that competitively priced apart from when I purchased a large plastic storage shed and they had an offer that was

30% cheaper than I could find eleswhere. I tend to use it for one off items such as a single bag of sand or plaster where the cost of petrol to drive to another retailer would probably exceed the cost of the savings.

[Andrew]