Bunnings

[dickm]

So have they bought all of Homebase? No sign of any changes in the branches up here.

 

[Geordie Joe]

So have they bought all of Homebase?

Yes, all of it.

No sign of any changes in the branches up here.

What, none at all? No boxes of stock piled in every aisle so you can't get down them, no stock piled on shelves so high the staff need aircraft stairs to reach them. No staff running round looking for things because the Bunning rule is you can't have stock in the warehouse, it has to be on the shop floor, so someone has just put the stock wherever they could find a space for it?

None of that in your stores?

 

[dickm]

Nope! At least nothing in Inverurie last weekend; just the same stock as ever with a few sale items that noone would want!

 

[MrDavidRoberts]

WOW, are they really going to import all of their stuff from Australia? That's just Nuts!
can't wait when they will open near me =D>

 

[Biliphuster]

The Homebase near me has changed noticeably, mainly lower prices but also the tool aisle seems to have expanded.

I noticed the prices because a lot of stuff was marked "2 for £10" on the packaging, but the individual price ticket underneath was less than a fiver. Obviously the prices must have dropped a long way after the items had already been packaged.

 

[Geordie Joe]

WOW, are they really going to import all of their stuff from Australia? That's just Nuts!
can't wait when they will open near me =D>

Not all of the stuff, but a lot of what sells well down under is coming here. My store is already full of it, mainly tools and tool boxes, but there is a lot of it.

I don't know what is nuts about it, most stuff comes from China anyway. After I wrote it might be cheaper to import from Australia than China I did a search and found a page with import tax charts (don't know how up to date or accurate the charts were). It said tax on imports from China is 16% but from Australia it is only 5%. As they are buying from China for their Australian stores, it must make sense to increase the order and forward some of it to the UK and pay less tax on it.

 

[themackay]

So have they bought all of Homebase? No sign of any changes in the branches up here.

Was in the Bridge of Don one the other day stacks of metal shelving with Bunnings on the boxes

 

[Gebbly]

Was in a local homebase last night and there is a massive Ryobi section now.

More annoyingly I wanted a sheet of melamine chipboard to just add an extra shelf to some kitchen units. They only had lengths 2440mm in length which wouldnt fit in my car. Normally I just take it to the cutting section and get them to cut wood to lengths I can fit but the cutting section had gone.

Asked an attendant who said Homebase as a whole has got rid of the cutting service in all their stores. Is that a Bunnings influence? Bit of a nuisance as I couldnt get the wood I needed. I'll have to start rough sawing wood down in the car park with a handsaw

 

[transatlantic]

Was in a local homebase last night and there is a massive Ryobi section now.

More annoyingly I wanted a sheet of melamine chipboard to just add an extra shelf to some kitchen units. They only had lengths 2440mm in length which wouldnt fit in my car. Normally I just take it to the cutting section and get them to cut wood to lengths I can fit but the cutting section had gone.

Asked an attendant who said Homebase as a whole has got rid of the cutting service in all their stores. Is that a Bunnings influence? Bit of a nuisance as I couldnt get the wood I needed. I'll have to start rough sawing wood down in the car park with a handsaw

This is one of the annoying things I find about the stores that sell full sheets of material with no instore saw, then charge almost twice as much for the precut pieces. Wickes sell full 8x4' sheets of ply for £28, and then charge £13 for each 4x2' of the same ply. I once asked if they would sell me 4 of the smaller sheets for the same price as the larger sheet so I could fit it in my car (as it would come to the same size). The mananger smirked and told me where to go, not even a discount ... is that such an unreasonable request?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The only one anywhere near me with a saw is B&Q ... and they stopped stocking whole sheets. :?

 

[Gebbly]

A couple of years back I bought some bitumous sheets for a shed roof from Wickes. Just went to get them late in the evening when most people had gone home and then set up a couple of saw horses in the car park by the car and sawed them all down to size there. Bit of a nuisance, how are you supposed to fuel the saw without access to mugs of tea?

 

[pcb1962]

This is one of the annoying things I find about the stores that sell full sheets of material with no instore saw, then charge almost twice as much for the precut pieces. Wickes sell full 8x4' sheets of ply for £28, and then charge £13 for each 4x2' of the same ply.

Then why not find a local timber yard or builders' merchant with a cutting service for your materials where you will find that the quality is better, the price is lower and they're happy to supply exactly what you need. I never even look at timber in the sheds.

 

[transatlantic]

This is one of the annoying things I find about the stores that sell full sheets of material with no instore saw, then charge almost twice as much for the precut pieces. Wickes sell full 8x4' sheets of ply for £28, and then charge £13 for each 4x2' of the same ply.

Then why not find a local timber yard or builders' merchant with a cutting service for your materials where you will find that the quality is better, the price is lower and they're happy to supply exactly what you need. I never even look at timber in the sheds.

This was before I looked into timber yards, but even then, I find they're not helpful unless they know you're going to spend a lot, which for me is always small quantities.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

None of our local builder's merchants or timber yards have a saw anyway. It used to be the only reason for going to B&Q.

 

[Gebbly]

I've always found Champion Timber near me very good. They have quite a large saw setup and are always happy to cut anything up. I think its something like 2 cuts per sheet for free and then you might have to pay for further cuts. But 2 is usually enough to get me in the ball park and fit in the car.

Sadly on this occasion I had to go to Homebase for the melamine as I wanted it in a brown wood colour to try and match the cupboard and Champion didn't sell it.

 

[slate1234]

I worked in oz for two years all I can say is they better be doing the sausage sizzle on friday's

 

[Geordie Joe]

Was in a local homebase last night and there is a massive Ryobi section now.

More annoyingly I wanted a sheet of melamine chipboard to just add an extra shelf to some kitchen units. They only had lengths 2440mm in length which wouldnt fit in my car. Normally I just take it to the cutting section and get them to cut wood to lengths I can fit but the cutting section had gone.

Asked an attendant who said Homebase as a whole has got rid of the cutting service in all their stores. Is that a Bunnings influence? Bit of a nuisance as I couldnt get the wood I needed. I'll have to start rough sawing wood down in the car park with a handsaw

My store has never had a cutting service, as it's too small, so I can't say who got rid of them or when they went. Having said that, we have always cut wood for customers, on the understanding that who ever does it will just take it into the warehouse, throw it onto a stack of pallets and cut it with a hand saw, so no guarantee it will be accurate or straight (except when I do it). I love cutting wood for customers because I always forget we keep a cheap homebase saw in the tool box for such jobs, so have to go onto the shop floor and take my pick from the stock.

 

[Geordie Joe]

If anyone's interested...........

A customer asked for a dibber today, which I couldn't find, although we did used to sell them. So I went into the warehouse and asked the young lad if he had any left. All I got was a blank look, seeing he didn't have a clue what a dibber was I gave him a clue and said "orange pointy thing". His little face lit up and he proudly said "There's a box full of orange pointy things in a box upstairs, right at the back next to the fire escape. I don't know what they are but they have been there for months and months".

So I went upstairs, found the box and opened it. No dibbers in it, it was full of welding magnets, orange ones, 100mm 22kg in packs of two. Result, I thought, not what the customer wants, but just what I want. So I went off to tell the customer we didn't have any dibbers left then went to a till to find out how much the welding magnets were. £4.26, so I went back into the warehouse and got another pack.

They must have come in in the first batch of Bunnings stock, and being new stock and him not knowing what they are he has just stuck them in a corner and left them.

 

[Bodgers]

None of our local builder's merchants or timber yards have a saw anyway. It used to be the only reason for going to B&Q.

A timber yard without a saw...that is just bizarre.

 

[pcb1962]

I've always found Champion Timber near me very good. They have quite a large saw setup and are always happy to cut anything up. I think its something like 2 cuts per sheet for free and then you might have to pay for further cuts. But 2 is usually enough to get me in the ball park and fit in the car.

The best thing about Champion is that they're open till 5 on a Saturday, a very rare thing amongst trade-oriented suppliers. On the downside, if you want a sheet of birch ply you're best going elsewhere! http://www.championtimber.com/sheet...0-x-18mm-bb-wbp-latvian-russian-birch-plywood