How expensive do B & Q think they can get?

For screws and other odds and sods like that , Screwfix is about half the price of B and Q . You can buy a box of screws for the same price as the B&Q micro packets. Oh and who owns Screwfix.........non other than B & Q !
With Wilkos , builders merchants and a good woodyard or two you dont need B&Q , except as stated late on a Sunday afternoon.

 

Screwfix open on Sundays here:gnthb:

 

Pssst - Homebase are the same.

Near me, Homebase and Wickes are but metres apart and you see them all trooping into the former and coming out with bits of wood, fence panels, Homebase 'powerbase' tools, etc., and I think .... why? Wickes are a fraction of the price, the quality is far better and they'll still have it next week if you need more, their fitted kitchens are far superior too and what's more, I don't have to buy screws in stupid little packets of 10.

As for B&Q, their plants usually look half dead, they never seem to have what I want and their staff can usually be located by following the noise of knuckles scraping along the ground - I once spent 10 minutes explaining to 3 different members of staff what a 'cleat' was (and no they didn't have any). Not for nothing, in this house at least, is B&Q known as 'Bodge it and Quick'!

 

B&Q doesn’t own screwfix, Kingfisher does.

What I do is if I need something like screws and I am not going to be pasting a Screwfix or Toolstation I just pop in to my local B&Q show them the same screws but cheaper in one of the catalogues they match the price and give you 10% off!!!

I remember the shock I got for how much they wanted for 4 mirror screws. I think they wanted about 4 quid!!s00k Toolstation wanted £1.98 for 10! Ended up paying about 72p for the 4.:D

You can get some really good bargains from B&Q. Like recently picked up a couple of gardena hose repairers for 10p each!

Keep an eye out in Tesco, I picked up the up to date hozelock hose connectors both the normal and stop ones. I think they were about £1.25 and £1.50 each :D

djrock

 

djrock, who owns B&Q?0)

 

Wilkinsons I find great for gardening during the spring and summer, but now the displays are being cut back for toys and I couldn't get a replacement line there for my strimmer, as they were half the price of those in B&Q.

A friend went in B&Q the other day for a length of wood, he'd measured how long a piece could be to fit in his car, but the only length he could find was a foot too long and they said they no longer cut timber.
So he took the wood, found a saw on one of the displays and took them both down the end of an aisle and sawed a foot off, (not his!) put the saw back and took both bits of wood to the checkout!

 

Kingfisher does.:D

 

:gnthb::yez::yez::hehe:

 

I was in B&Q in Altrincham today buying some compost. There was only one check-out open but two staff hanging around the new self-service tills. A lot of people like me don't like self-service. My attitude is; "if they gave me a ten percent discount for 'playing check-out operator,' I'd use one."
There was a couple in front of me, probably in their eighties trying to buy half a dozen rolls of turf which seemed to be a bit of a problem. An assistant walked down and politely asked me if I'd like to use the self service tills. I smiled and said; "Never in a million years love, I'd rather wait."

The problem seemed to be that the check-out girl had "wanded" in the code of the turf from the catalogue they keep under the till had taken the money, but couldn't find someone to take the turf to the customer's car. The same assistant who spoke to me then started to tell off the check-out girl, as the turf which is always kept on a pallet outside the entrance "should have been brought to the till."
I'm afraid I put on "my (retired) superstore general manager's hat" and said quietly, "Do you really expect someone of that gentleman's age to lift up six rolls of turf and put them in a trolley? Now stop messing about, do something useful and go and find an assistant who can take six rolls and put them in the boot of his car."

After she got over the initial shock, she did just that.

"It would never happen in Waitrose."

 

Love it!:lollol:No wonder she looked shocked - probably not used to it!

I detest those self check outs, regardless of where they are. Was in Sainsbury's yesterday and they only had three normal checkouts open, although the queues were horrendous and the self checkouts were relatively unused. It seems I am not alone in my dislike of them.

 

I refuse point blank to use them. If they are prepared to pay me the going rate for a checkout operator, or offer a good discount, then fair enough.:gnthb:

 

I don't use self check outs either.
When I go into a store I pay for goods and service.
I think we would all faint if we saw how much of the charge was for service and I expect to get some.
I don't think B&Q are any worse than anybody else.
In fact, most of the shops and stores round here are pretty good.

 

If I were a shoplifter, i'd be rubbing my hands together at the thought of self service checkouts. I've already worked out ways of getting stuff through them. Not that I would though.

I'm sure that criminals are already abusing them, they always work out how to get ahead of new technology.

 

The policy amongst a lot of retailers is to increase the number of these self-serve checkouts. Our local Sainsbury have just put in another bank of eight.

As has been said, a lot of people don't like them. If I see a queues at the normal checkouts I leave my wife queuing and go to customer service and tell them to "Get the manager down here as I want to complain about the checkout queues."
That doesn't get the manager (it wouldn't in my stores if it happened and my staff made sure it never did as they knew I wouldn't be best pleased about them letting the situation occur) but it does get someone off their backsides to get a few more check-outs open.
Many check-out staff get pulled off the line to do other jobs and some drag the time out as they'd rather do anything other than serve.

It also seems that in some stores they put the slowest operators next to the self -service tills so if a queue forms people are tempted to start using the self-serve ones.

Conversely, Aldi staff seem to be able to get three customers through a check-out in the time it'd take Tesco, Sainsbury, or M&S staff to serve one.

 

I don't use B&Q, simply because all of thier products can be bought for a lot less if you know where to go.

I have been involved in custom bike building for over 20 years. That kind of experience gives you the means to find what you need a hell of a lot cheaper. I make most of the parts I need for bikes and trikes. I do all my own welding, turning, grinding, painting, polishing. I buy all my nuts and bolts from a trade fasteners company. Those that I cannot buy I make.

B&Q have set themselves up based on the fact that most people will not adapt, improvise and overcome a problem during any project. Think outside the box guys. Look for solutions to problems rather than running off to the shops for a ready made solution, that is prepacked. Change your thinking guys.

I have also always found B&Q staff to be pretty unhelpful and badly lacking in product knowledge. The company has forgotten that the customer pays the wages.

Start looking at you local builders merchant, plumbers merchant, on-line tool companies. Talk to local builders and get to know them. You would be amazed at what they throw out simply because they do not have space to store things like wood offcuts, second hand doors and windows. If you chat to a guy on a building site, chances are he will let you have half a dozen bricks for a quid in the tea fund.

Chopper.