On 2007-05-17 00:01:43 +0100, "The Medway Handyman"
said:

Andy Hall wrote:
On 2007-05-16 18:47:51 +0100, "The Medway Handyman"
said:

SoWeezy wrote:
3x2x8'

B&Q Culverhouse Cross £1.78
B&Q Bridgend £2.18
Jewsons Bridgend £3.63
Wickes Bridgend £1.99

I was seriously cheesed off after loading 40 onto a trolley before
noticing the price at B&Q Bridgend
I just left the trolley, drove to Culverhouse Cross and saved £16

Is Culverhouse Cross one of the B&Q Warehouse stores? I've noticed
their prices do seem lower than the ordinary B&Q stores. No
surprises at the Jewsons price - why does anyone buy from them?

Who said anything about paying list?

So what sort of discount can you get from Jewsons? In the above example it
should be 51% approx to equal B&Q's best.

If they are in the habit of marking up stuff by 100% in order to offer a
'trade discount' of 50% then they are a bunch of cowboys living in the
distant past. The world don't work like that anymore.

It's called negotiation and needs to be done in the appropriate way and
at the appropriate level.

I actually did quite well with them on one project by going with a
materials list to several timber and builders merchants and telling
them that they were being asked for pricing along with other suppliers.
I also told them that I was expecting good quality materials and that
any crap would be returned. The overall spend was in the region of
£1k5. Among the trade merchants, they weren't the least expensive
- there was one lower - but I wasn't satisfied that the cheapest would
deliver good product.

I also did a sanity check against B&Q and they could have supplied
about 80% of the materials wanted. On that 80%, they were 25% more
expensive than Jewsons. The materials were of good quality and were
delivered on the days agreed without problems.

Following that, one of the area business development managers contacted
me wanting me to set up an account. I'm not really interested in a
monthly credit account but did let them set up a cash one.

There is also a Travis Perkins sawmill place close to me. Normally I
wouldn't use TP for anything much at all, but this place has a good
turnover in constructional timber and delivers good quality materials -
at least it does now after the first delivery that they attempted that
I rejected. We had a "conversation" after that one.

In a different trade, I have done quite well with WF Electrical as a
supplier, again beginning with a project quote.

So I think it really depends on scenario. If one wants to buy
materials piecemeal here and there then places like B&Q serve a
purpose as long as one doesn't mind wasting half an hour each time
sorting through the timber and setting the rubbish to one side. One
can also get a variety of different goods under one roof, so I can see
that it's interesting to be able to do that under some circumstances.

The trade suppliers aren't really looking for that type of business, by
and large and price accordingly.