Product range in 2-3 grades only.
- Pro - Good - Disposable
- Screwdrivers from CK, Stanley & cheap clone
- Not a store sprawling in screwdrivers
Product range based on solutions.
- Marmox in various thicknesses
- Kingspan/Celotex in various thicknesses and half-sheets
- Prices to match the best online without 10-min order & =A320 delivery
More cable options.
- BS7211 1.5mm for lighting re insulation level (50m & 100m)
- BS8436 1.5mm & 2.5mm (50m & 100m)
- If you extend a non-RCD circuit you a) need to add a RCD spur or b) use BS8436 cable yet sod all places carry it
- If you want a circuit without RCD protection for freezer, boiler, storage heaters, alarm you need BS8436 cable yet sod all places carry it
PVC coated copper pipe.
- I suspect water regs require pipe buried to be PVC coated
- Whatever, many houses use clinker block which in 20yrs trashes copper pipe (ask me how I know)
Less product breadth, more best of breed in quantity.
- Get rid of tower oval crap, it compresses if you look at it, stock MK Egatube oval & conduit
- Cable by the metre is now viable because you have electronic weighing scales - it's now possible!!
- Get rid of "every kind of tape except the good stuff", Asda duck masking tape was good, now rubbish and falls off everything. Stock a few good products vs a wall of every solution except the right one
Supermarkets have woken up to a smaller range, in quantity, at better prices. Screwfix do carry decent stuff - but even their range is actually quite limited.
Monitor the group for a list of all DIY jobs. Then ask Pro's how to do them, since many DIY stores employ such after they are physical wrecks(!). Then stock parts to achieve it, rather than a lot of tat which sits there forever.
It might be worth breaking the bigger stores down into "sub- companies". Why have wandering idiots when the electrical area could be a counter like screwfix manned by 1-2 people and back-end onto the warehouse carrying *everything*, like an electrical factor. Basically ElecCentre, PlumbCentre, TileCentre, ConstructionCentre. Disintermediate out the specialist factors. Why do I see a warehouse on the back of B&Q warehouses? It should be done as "multiple factors under one roof" and get the economy of scale and footfall in one place that used to trudge to CEF, N&E, Edmonson, Screwfix - only to find they have 1 screw, not that bit, wrong make of that bit, that bit is special order, that bit will be 3 days, that bit will be 2 days.