B&Q prices

[Chris French]

In message , michael adams writes

Yup.

[Mark]

albeit larger x overheads (retail park/stock/staff v industrial unit/stock/staff ) = ?

[cl]

Trained chickens collecting orders now? Amazing! :-)

[Scott M]

Not sure about that. Had a whole load of M6 x 70 coach screws in the blue/white packaging from TS that lost their heads while I was screwing them in.

[David Lang]

525% more?

[michael adams]

That can depend on the number of customers as well.

Go into one of the sheds midweek and its often a case of one or two customers wandering around and the checkouts all being deserted

That's an awful lot of space to keep lit and heated up to the required standards nowadays - basically the punters should be able to walk round in their pyjamas straight out of the car - for very little or even a negative return a lot of the time.

With supermarkets and maybe other retail the measure is ?1 profit generated per square ft. It would be intersting to see how the sheds shape up against TS/SF on that measure

michael adams

...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Interesting that Wicks are giving over part of their sheds to TS.

[michael adams]

Wickes have never made sense to the extent that all the timber and boards they store and sell indoors in heated sheds, (to the detriment of a lot of it) have always been sold in unheated, but well covered outdoor sheds, in traditional timber yards. Presumably at much lower cost. The same goes for most of their building materials as well.

michael adams

...

[David Lang]

When they revamped the Chatham Wickes I hoped they would open a TS counter as the real TS is at the other end of town.

They opened a Wickes counter instead. Some stuff on the shelves, some stuff behind counter, but still at silly Wickes prices. PITA.

[Theo]

Around here Wickes prices are similar or slightly lower than the traditional timber merchant (Ridgeons). That is, the rack rate if you go in and ask for the price for one. I'm sure I could get it down if I gave them the secret 'trade' handshake, but nothing is priced and life's too short to mess about going to the enquiry desk and asking them to make up numbers, when I can just look at the Wickes website and see what they (don't) have before I go out.

Wood quality at the timber merchant didn't impress me either (though this was splitting, rather than the bananas you get at Wickes), though they keep more in stock. I think it's a draw, but Wickes wins on ease of use.

Theo

[David Lang]

I use a local timber merchant & their prices are 25% lower than Wickes & the quality is streets ahead. Also Wickes PAR finishes at 18mm instead of 21mm.

• I can use the local merchants radial arm saw and they have a good off cuts rack.

[stuart noble]

My local (Champions Timber) do joinery softwood and studding quality (at half the price or less). One area of life where you get what you pay for

[ARW]

Hope you had some lube.

[charles]

They both have the same owner, so it's presumably head office policy

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yes. But there is a great deal of crossover stuff between them. With the Wicks stuff being at a higher price. Seems odd.

[simon mitchelmore]

"and the girl said "why don't you go round the back?" you're lucky we only get donuts and a drink at our S/F trade counter.

[ARW]

If only the the 99p store had thought of opening a store inside Poundland then they would had not been bought out by Poundland.

I love the following quotes from the link

"David Harrison, ward councillor in Totton, said: "I am under the impression that Poundland will be taking over the 99p store so it will be much the same shop with a different badge except that it will be a pound rather than a

99p."

Cllr Louise Cerasoli, a Conservative councillor for Totton Central, said: "At the end of the day they are really the same shop except one is a pound and the other is 99p.