Exorbitant prices at B&Q

[MM]

I happened to go to Boston (Lincs) this morning so popped into the B&Q for the first time in several years. I was gobsmacked by the high prices. For some years now I have bought all my DIY materials locally, from family-run businesses. The other day I bought some sawn (not planed) planks locally for £2.55 each (2.4m x 100mm x 22mm). However, the B&Q price today was £5.74 per plank!!!

Another example: I needed keyhole fixings, the kind used on mirrors. The local hardware shop sells them individually, just like hardware shops of yore. Smallest size was 20p each. B&Q on the other hand are charging £1.98 for two, albeit including 4 tiny fixing screws. The mark-up for putting these items into a little plastic bag to hang on the peg board along with all the other rip-off price goods works out at roughly 296%. Colron wood dye at B&Q (small tin) was £7.98.

I won't be going back to B&Q anytime soon! And I thought everyone said small high street shops are expensive.

MM

[Hepcat]

My experience id that small shops can be remarkably competetive.

What B&Q actually offer is that you can drop in late/early/Sunday and get: 2 fence panels 3 2-gang power sockets 200 tiles + Adhesive small tin colron new lawnmower 20 metres 4*2

All in one go. With rarely a problem parking. Sure, you pay for that convenience, but you can make your own call on where to buy from.

It is like supermarkets are not that cheap, but they offer the option to buy fruit, veg, meat, bread, toiletries and a new suit all in one stop with a conenient car park, often with a nice convenient petrol station as well.

P.

[Mathew Newton]

And therein lies the problem... I only popped in for a bag of screws (which they'd ran out of)... ;-)

Mathew

[The Medway Handyman]

Tell me about it! Worst example I've come across is a mortice latch; £5:46 in B&Q, £1:99 in local BM, £0:70 from Toolstation.

Homebase are even worse.

[Moonraker]

Why is anyone surprised? Many food items are cheaper from local shops, meat and eggs being two, and far higher quality. Peeps are too lazy to shop around, they want everything in one location, fine but you pay for it.

[Robin]

Can you please point me to some of these wonderful local shops in Hackney? Eg which offer at a price lower than local supermarkets eggs which are of "far higher" quality than the supermarkets' free range, British Lion eggs? It'd be a bonus if I could also be reasonably confident the eggs were not really gathered 2 weeks ago at some barn in Romania.

[The Natural Philosopher]

That trend reversed some years back and has never really been true for the small items in the sheds.

a supermarket still remains the cheapest place to buy cornflakes, baked beans and milk but frankly we are using local shops more and more - including hardware - or the builders merchants, or increasingly, online.

Meat and veg is half the price that the S/market charges. We bake bread at half the price in the ever present aga.

Its not teh end of te suopermaret/shed by any means but it may be the beginning of the end.

I havent been in B & Q for years..and only peruse Homebase for the odd fitting

[The Natural Philosopher]

Fine if you have little time and plenty of money.

These days who has the latter? and te firmer eans you have a full time job...who has that?

[Mathew Newton]

I am genuinely surprised by your experience as I am sure that whenever I've been into local hardware shops they've been relatively expensive. I must admit though it is few and far between - and if something's available in Toolstation or Screwfix I'll go there rather than B&Q - but perhaps I ought to give the high street another chance and pop in one day.

Thinking about it, perhaps the items I'm comparing are those that are easiest to do so with such as branded tins of paints etc?

Mathew

[ARWadsworth]

As you seem the be the bloke finds out everything, what was the TV programme set in a local DIY store that was shown on TV around 10 years ago? I must buy a DVD copy (or download it for free). ISTR the actor that played the manager in the DIY store used to be be in a s**te comedy where he was a supermarket manager.

[Owain]

I must

Martin Freeman was in The Office and Ken Morley was Reg Holdsworth in Coronation Street and advertised Safestyle double glazing.

Owain

[MM]

Why do people always assume that cheaper eggs means they're imported rubbish? Why not just accept the fact that supermarkets charge over the odds for many goods, especially eggs? When I buy eggs locally I can see the chickens in the field nearby whence they came. You won't get that in Hackney!

MM

[Bob Eager]

Pack of ten picture hooks. £0.40 in local DIY shop, £7.99 in B&Q.

[Bob Eager]

I'm intrigued as to how the spelling error has crept into the Subject: in your followup, and no-one else's. Do you have a dyslexic news client?

[ARWadsworth]

Hardware.

That's the one. Pirates Bay at the ready:-)

Thanks.

[Robin]

Phew. Thanks from me too as I didn't have a clue.

[The Natural Philosopher]

nah..it was an experiment in psychology

[The Natural Philosopher]

well the 9 eggs my FIL dropped off were straight out of his chickens' bums.

[Hepcat]

Hardware with Peter Serafinowicz.

[The Natural Philosopher]

no reason not to. You can fit chickens is a really small back garden - feed them on scraps. Yummy!