Popped into the Screwfix trade counter in Folkestone yesterday - only to find
it now closes at 12:30 on a saturday. It's also not open at all on Sundays.

Toolstation around the corner seems to be getting increasingly busy, and
is open 7 days a week...it's also rare they don't have things in stock.
Screwfix however it's becoming normal to have a load of stuff out of
stock.

Have screwfix got too large too quickly? Prices are going up with opening
hours going down - doesn't look great. I know I only use them for stuff
I can't get at toolstation - maybe I'm not the only one doing that!

I did email them pointing out that according to their trade counter page on
thier website ( http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/hlp/TradeCounter.jsp ) the
counters are "Open 7 Days a week". Just got a reply from them"

"I can confirm that over the past year there has been a review in relation
to Trade Counter opening times. I appreciate your comments in regards
to confusion that may arise. I have requested that the details and images
used are updated to avoid future inconvenience. Please not that I cannot
provide a date when this will be carried out."

So, check out the opening hours before making a trip to your local. Oh well,
another reason not to use them any more I guess.

Darren

D.M.Chapman dmc@puffin. wrote:

Popped into the Screwfix trade counter in Folkestone yesterday - only to find
it now closes at 12:30 on a saturday. It's also not open at all on Sundays.

I order a lot from Screwfix, as do a number of my mates, and none of us
go to the store to collect anything (other than as a last resort).
We always get it delivered to where we are working, or to home if
someone is in. They are very good at delivery - I ordered at 17:45 on
23rd December, and it arrived 9:15am 24th.
It takes me a hour round trip to get to their store (and probably £3 in
petrol), so paying the £5 delivery charge saves me time.

Add in the people who want a light fitting they have seen in the
catalogue, but want to inspect it first, then they dont like it, so lets
have a look at this one, and the Screwfix store experience is very
trying when you dont want to hang around.
Alan.


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On Sun, 7 Feb 2010 18:41:05 +0000 (UTC), dmc@puffin. (D.M.Chapman)
wrote:



Popped into the Screwfix trade counter in Folkestone yesterday - only to find
it now closes at 12:30 on a saturday. It's also not open at all on Sundays.

Toolstation around the corner seems to be getting increasingly busy, and
is open 7 days a week...it's also rare they don't have things in stock.
Screwfix however it's becoming normal to have a load of stuff out of
stock.

Have screwfix got too large too quickly? Prices are going up with opening
hours going down - doesn't look great. I know I only use them for stuff
I can't get at toolstation - maybe I'm not the only one doing that!

I did email them pointing out that according to their trade counter page on
thier website ( http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/hlp/TradeCounter.jsp ) the
counters are "Open 7 Days a week". Just got a reply from them"

"I can confirm that over the past year there has been a review in relation
to Trade Counter opening times. I appreciate your comments in regards
to confusion that may arise. I have requested that the details and images
used are updated to avoid future inconvenience. Please not that I cannot
provide a date when this will be carried out."

So, check out the opening hours before making a trip to your local. Oh well,
another reason not to use them any more I guess.

Darren

I see the Folkestone opening hours on their website are shown as you
say,half day Saturday ...Closed Sunday but my local one Glasgow is as
before so perhaps it is just selected stores that they are changing
the hours depending on the business they do .

D.M.Chapman wrote:
Popped into the Screwfix trade counter in Folkestone yesterday - only to find
it now closes at 12:30 on a saturday. It's also not open at all on Sundays.

Toolstation around the corner seems to be getting increasingly busy, and
is open 7 days a week...it's also rare they don't have things in stock.
Screwfix however it's becoming normal to have a load of stuff out of
stock.

Have screwfix got too large too quickly? Prices are going up with opening
hours going down - doesn't look great. I know I only use them for stuff
I can't get at toolstation - maybe I'm not the only one doing that!

I did email them pointing out that according to their trade counter page on
thier website ( http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/hlp/TradeCounter.jsp ) the
counters are "Open 7 Days a week". Just got a reply from them"

"I can confirm that over the past year there has been a review in relation
to Trade Counter opening times. I appreciate your comments in regards
to confusion that may arise. I have requested that the details and images
used are updated to avoid future inconvenience. Please not that I cannot
provide a date when this will be carried out."

So, check out the opening hours before making a trip to your local. Oh well,
another reason not to use them any more I guess.

Darren

B&Q have started Trade-Point counters in about a dozen stores at the
moment, trade only, seperate checkout and prices are good, oh yes and
opening hours match store opening hours, so one near us is open until
9pm weekdays, very handy. It would not suprise me if the Screwfix
"brand" goes back to internet only, with these Trade-point B&Q stores
replacing them.

In article ,
Usenet Nutter wrote:

I see the Folkestone opening hours on their website are shown as you
say,half day Saturday ...Closed Sunday but my local one Glasgow is as
before so perhaps it is just selected stores that they are changing
the hours depending on the business they do .

Maybe. It's always been busy on Saturday afternoons when I've been in
there before - but I don't know how much cash they actually take. A lot
of the weekend trade appeared to be people wanting to look at something
etc etc.

It's always been much busier than toolstation which is stuck up around the
back of the estate - screwfix is on the main road. Saying that, toolstation
was busy on sat pm. Wasn't just me annoyed to find that screwfix was shut
(I wanted something that toolstation don't stock - chances are screwfix
wouldn't have had stock anyway on recent experiences).

Darren

In article ,
Vernon wrote:

B&Q have started Trade-Point counters in about a dozen stores at the
moment, trade only, seperate checkout and prices are good, oh yes and
opening hours match store opening hours, so one near us is open until
9pm weekdays, very handy. It would not suprise me if the Screwfix
"brand" goes back to internet only, with these Trade-point B&Q stores
replacing them.


So these are trade only? That sucks :-(

Saying that, Folkestone screwfix is next door to the B&Q which doesn't
appear to have a Trade-Point counter anyway (it's not a warehouse one).

Darren

On Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:04:11 +0000, Vernon
wrote:

D.M.Chapman wrote:
Popped into the Screwfix trade counter in Folkestone yesterday - only to find
it now closes at 12:30 on a saturday. It's also not open at all on Sundays.

Toolstation around the corner seems to be getting increasingly busy, and
is open 7 days a week...it's also rare they don't have things in stock.
Screwfix however it's becoming normal to have a load of stuff out of
stock.

Have screwfix got too large too quickly? Prices are going up with opening
hours going down - doesn't look great. I know I only use them for stuff
I can't get at toolstation - maybe I'm not the only one doing that!

I did email them pointing out that according to their trade counter page on
thier website ( http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/hlp/TradeCounter.jsp ) the
counters are "Open 7 Days a week". Just got a reply from them"

"I can confirm that over the past year there has been a review in relation
to Trade Counter opening times. I appreciate your comments in regards
to confusion that may arise. I have requested that the details and images
used are updated to avoid future inconvenience. Please not that I cannot
provide a date when this will be carried out."

So, check out the opening hours before making a trip to your local. Oh well,
another reason not to use them any more I guess.

Darren

B&Q have started Trade-Point counters in about a dozen stores at the
moment, trade only, seperate checkout and prices are good, oh yes and
opening hours match store opening hours, so one near us is open until
9pm weekdays, very handy. It would not suprise me if the Screwfix
"brand" goes back to internet only, with these Trade-point B&Q stores
replacing them.

I thought B+Q have had those for years ...certainly the big B+Q near
me has a Trade Section Checkout ..anayone can buy the same stuff but
need to use the normal checkout and pay the normal prices .

B&Q have started Trade-Point counters in about a dozen stores at the
moment, trade only, seperate checkout and prices are good, oh yes and
opening hours match store opening hours, so one near us is open until
9pm weekdays, very handy. It would not suprise me if the Screwfix
"brand" goes back to internet only, with these Trade-point B&Q stores
replacing them.

I thought B+Q have had those for years ...certainly the big B+Q near
me has a Trade Section Checkout ..anayone can buy the same stuff but
need to use the normal checkout and pay the normal prices .

No they appear to have evolved, for example the other week my neighbour
picked up a bathroom fan for me, it came in a plain white cardboard box,
same item on shelf in store had fancy packaging and a higher price. I
presume some of the trade items are kept out of sight of general public?

So, check out the opening hours before making a trip to your local. Oh well,
another reason not to use them any more I guess.

Darren

My reason that I hate Screwfix is that there is no indication on their
website that for example

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/83694/...00mm-Pack-of-2

is an internet only product and they do not make it easy to check
this

This sort of crass behaviour means it is Toolstation every day for me.

HTH Phil