On 2007-06-19 18:16:04 +0100, Owain said:

Andy Hall wrote:
What's wrong with Wicks?
- Most of what they sell is mediochre at best (e.g. tools)
- Limited selection - often only one type of each thing. Paint is
mainly own brand for example, and a poor selection.
- Timber quality is appalling.

- expensive.

Last time I compared like for like, B&Q were cheaper.

Owain

I think so.

More to the point is that if I am going to visit a DIY store to buy a
mixed set of items then I only want to go to one. This tends to be
when the total expected spend is £50-100 or less. More than that and I
select suitable trade suppliers. That being the case, I want to look
across a typical set of purchases at the pricing, and certainly not
dick around buying one item here, another there and so on.

B&Q is further from me than Focus but almost always has the items on
this basis, usually a selection and overall across a basket of
purchases generally better prices. Added to this, they seem to
employ students at the weekends and quite a lot of staff from eastern
Europe. I've always found them courteous and helpful and willing to
put in the effort to help find things. Focus, OTOH, seems to employ
mainly slobby teenagers at the weekends and I find them rude, unhelpful
and generally with a DGAS attitude.

The market will decide.