B&Q robbing bastards

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Just bought a new lawnmower online. ?134 free delivery. If I had ordered it yesterday it would have been here today. Same mower at B&Q - ?162. Bastards!

[stuart noble]

You're expecting retailers to price match Amazon? Well, good luck with that . Just off to Maplins for a button battery.....:-)

[alan_m]

Retailers may sell the same mower but often each large retailer is given a unique model number that differs from the competitors so that price matching guarantees do not have to be met.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

It was not Amazon.

[Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp]

I did the same a year or so back with a Soveriegn. Similar saving also.

Reading your post though, the staff overheads will be higher at B&Q, probably the rent if it's in town and you also have to pay for the stuff thats lifted from the shelves.

I was also reminded that most hardware stores have gone from the high street, their products, advice and convenience being rejected in favour of the likes of B&Q.

I suppose the result will be the same for B&Q, unless we are prepared to support them, they will not stay open, they are a business.

Which although true is a lot of sanctimonious rambling, because if I wanted another lawnmower tomorrow, I would head to Amazon or Ebay.

On the plus point, the unemployed B&Q staff will have a whale of a time selecting a suitable food bank to get their next meal from.

A bit like trying to select a restaraunt for a night out, without the hassle of opening Ones wallet.

AB

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Do you always rage on like this?

[alan_m]

I don't recall seeing any small "high street" hardware stores in the past 4 decades. There are still a few small hardware retailers close to where I live but they have been in the sub-prime locations as long as I can remember.

These days if you want advice or instruction you will have to watch a number of Youtube instructional videos.

[Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp]

It isn't raging. Just an observation.

I used to have a hardware shop within 400 metres of my house. It was damned useful, I didn't support it, it's gone now.

I dont often miss it, but people stopping there used to use other shops in the locality, so it played its part in sustaining the local network.

My point is that when you scan the lists in Ebay and Amazon, there may be other parameters worthy of consideration before hitting the buy button.

But of course you are not interested are you? You only want a lawnmower:-)

AB

[Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp]

The last one I used was Tilleys in Crewe, Cheshire a nice little Alladins cave.

Closed about a year back.

Not everything comes in instructional videos. I remember buying my first set of drills from the AA tool shop on Hanley[Closed], many years back.

The shopkeeper had some very sound advice that probably wouldn't make it to a you tube video. He said, "never take a second drill out of the box, if you have one out already".

I thought that was marvellous, simple profound advice, and ignored it totally.

You dont get to ignore advice like that with Ebay kit.

AB

[soup]

But with B&Q.

1) you get to touch the item before buying it 2)You have it in your hand before you part with any money 3}They are fairly sure to still be there a week later when you snap the starting cord (other defects are available) and have to get a new one under warranty.

I agree some of their staff are real duffers (some of them I wouldn't trust to sit on the toilet the right way round) but some of them are absolute fonts of knowledge having retired from a lifetime of mechanicing/being handymen etc.

[Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp]

Totally correct.

What I wouldn,t do incidentally, and some make almost a career of the practice, is go to the retailer for advice, fondle the goods, and then order from Ebay.

Lowlifes!

Incidentally on a slightly different tack, I was in Screwfix in Aston a few months back and saw a returned Evolution Saw. As I have a lot of theire gear and have thought that it was maybe slighly plasticky but none the less very robust, I asked what the problem was with the "return"

"Nothing", was the reply, apparently it's not uncommon for people to buy tools for a job and return them on completion citing a ficticious fault.

This too has to be paid for by the genuine customer!

AB

[Brian Gaff]

How do you justify that comment. Most shops have business rates which are much higher if in areas where a lot of people go, and the prices often reflect this aspect. Also, to be honest for something like a mower, I'd really want to go and look at the build quality before laying down my notes for it. Its up to the buyer to decide on the trade off here. There is nothing that says you cannot sell a box of matches at 200 quid if you want, or indeed a silly 'special' mains cable at stupid money either, as Russ Andrews does. Its up to the buyer to decide on value.

Brian

[Brian Reay]

We had an excellent one locally until a few years ago.

They weren't cheap but had all kinds of odd things and you could, for example, go in with an bolt/nut of unknown thread etc and they would search there stock for a nut/bolt to match it- even sell you just one nut. I saw people doing it nearly every time I went there.

For some things they were cheap but they couldn't compete on most products and closed several years back.

[tim...]

It's all to do with the additional costs of sale when having a chain of retail stores

And having all the excess stock to fill them

And the fact that delivery costs have been artificially reduced by stripping the delivery driver of his employment rights (unlike the driver who works for B&Q who will still have them)

etc

etc

etc

welcome to the new world

tim

[tim...]

"Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp" wrote in message news: [e-mail]...

and people will no longer be able to browse a shop to decide what to buy

They will have to buy sight unseen

so there will be more returns that the supplier will need to build into his business model

so remote sales prices will have to go up to cover this

Be carful what you wish for

tim

[charles]

I was in Screwfix last weekend and an assistant was saying firmly to a customer. "We are not allowed to give advice, it might open the company to legal procedings"

[tabbypurr]

it's still far cheaper than staffing bricks & mortar stores

NT

[Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp]

Sounds like they had a few comebacks.

I have been in the queue many times in Toolstation and Screwfix, while some customer asks a barrage of inane questions.

I stand there in line wondering why the hell they buy something they are totally clueless about.

Mind you, they may just have had complaints from other users having to wait half an hour while the merits of an M5 washer over an M6 are thrashed out.

AB

[spuorgelgoog]

Like the days of free telly rental from Argos for cup finals and Wimbledon.

Owain

[tim...]

but more inconvenient for me

tim