G.Mo wrote:
I'm working with a big DIY retailer to create a better home
improvement store, kind of like a B&Q of the future. The question is
what's the best/worst thing about DIY stores today??

Biggest deal for me is probably range of stock. It seems to be more and
more common that I go to B&Q or Wickes and come home empty handed or at
least not with everything I went to get. That might be them getting
worse or me getting more adventurous or more likely both.

Don't waste space on scatter cushions, carpets and fitted kitchen
displays like B&Q is currently doing. I want to buy ironmongery,
plumbing fittings, electrical parts, timber, building materials and so
on. When I want furnishings (and it's not that long since I had a whole
empty house to furnish) I don't go to a "DIY" shop.

Have a decent website which displays all your products. There's no need
for an online sales facility (for me, anyway), I just want to see what
you have (and at what prices) before I go, so that I can plan the
project. Decent pictures, dimensions, etc, not just a one-liner cribbed
from the supplier's catalogue. Live stock figures for my local branch
(it's 2010, don't tell me your stock-control system can't talk to your
Web servers) so I know I won't have a wasted journey. A search facility
that doesn't suck (get a Google appliance in if you can't do it yourself).

A few kiosks around the shop where I can (probably on a lightly-modified
version of that same decent website with good search) search the
catalogue to find out whether an item is stocked and where it is (ie
shelf number). I seem to spend a fair bit of time wandering around
looking for things, before I can find a member of staff to tell me where
it is (or that they don't stock it; see above).

Reasonable opening hours. B&Q's are ok; if you close at six you won't
get much custom from me, since I tend to drop in on the way home from
work during the week, acquiring the materials to do the job at the
weekend. Decent opening hours all weekend would be good, so lobby the
government to stop restricting everyone's activities based on some
people's religion :-)

I don't really need advice from staff - I get that here :-) True experts
could be handy I guess, but that's hard to achieve and any less is not
really useful. I don't go to a shop to find out how to do something
anyway, I go to buy the materials (and occasionally tools) that I need.

It would be nice to be able to buy more in the way of timber, eg a nice
length of beech or oak as well as carcassing softwood and MDF, but to be
fair that might be a bit specialised for a general "DIY" store.

I do occasionally find automatic checkouts handy as an "express lane"
when I've just nipped in for a packet of screws or whatever, but for any
more than that they're a waste of time and highly annoying. Keep the
staffed checkouts and limit the auto kiosks to perhaps two, with nowhere
to put piles of stuff plus suitable signage, so that they just get used
by people with a couple of small items in hand.

....and just to cap it all off it would be good to match TLC et al in
prices. If you did everything else I've suggested but weren't the
cheapest I would still use it for "everything in one place, right now"
convenience, but you'd miss out on my big orders like bathroom refits,
workshop wiring, etc.

Pete