I happened to go to Boston (Lincs) this morning so popped into the B&Q
for the first time in several years. I was gobsmacked by the high
prices. For some years now I have bought all my DIY materials locally,
from family-run businesses. The other day I bought some sawn (not
planed) planks locally for £2.55 each (2.4m x 100mm x 22mm). However,
the B&Q price today was £5.74 per plank!!!

Another example: I needed keyhole fixings, the kind used on mirrors.
The local hardware shop sells them individually, just like hardware
shops of yore. Smallest size was 20p each. B&Q on the other hand are
charging £1.98 for two, albeit including 4 tiny fixing screws. The
mark-up for putting these items into a little plastic bag to hang on
the peg board along with all the other rip-off price goods works out
at roughly 296%. Colron wood dye at B&Q (small tin) was £7.98.

I won't be going back to B&Q anytime soon! And I thought everyone said
small high street shops are expensive.

MM

On 07/03/2012 13:53, MM wrote:
I won't be going back to B&Q anytime soon! And I thought everyone said
small high street shops are expensive.

My experience id that small shops can be remarkably competetive.

What B&Q actually offer is that you can drop in late/early/Sunday and get:
2 fence panels
3 2-gang power sockets
200 tiles + Adhesive
small tin colron
new lawnmower
20 metres 4*2

All in one go. With rarely a problem parking. Sure, you pay for that
convenience, but you can make your own call on where to buy from.

It is like supermarkets are not that cheap, but they offer the option to
buy fruit, veg, meat, bread, toiletries and a new suit all in one stop
with a conenient car park, often with a nice convenient petrol station
as well.

P.

On Mar 7, 2:08*pm, Hepcat wrote:

* * * * 2 fence panels
* * * * 3 2-gang power sockets
* * * * 200 tiles + Adhesive
* * * * small tin colron
* * * * new lawnmower
* * * * 20 metres 4*2

All in one go.

And therein lies the problem... I only popped in for a bag of screws
(which they'd ran out of)... ;-)

Mathew

On 07/03/2012 13:53, MM wrote:
I happened to go to Boston (Lincs) this morning so popped into the B&Q
for the first time in several years. I was gobsmacked by the high
prices.

Tell me about it! Worst example I've come across is a mortice latch;
£5:46 in B&Q, £1:99 in local BM, £0:70 from Toolstation.

Homebase are even worse.



--
Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

On 07/03/2012 15:39, The Medway Handyman wrote:
On 07/03/2012 13:53, MM wrote:
I happened to go to Boston (Lincs) this morning so popped into the B&Q
for the first time in several years. I was gobsmacked by the high
prices.

Tell me about it! Worst example I've come across is a mortice latch;
£5:46 in B&Q, £1:99 in local BM, £0:70 from Toolstation.

Homebase are even worse.



Why is anyone surprised? Many food items are cheaper from local shops,
meat and eggs being two, and far higher quality. Peeps are too lazy to
shop around, they want everything in one location, fine but you pay for it.

--
Residing on low ground in North Staffordshire

Many food items are cheaper from local shops,
meat and eggs being two, and far higher quality. Peeps are too lazy to
shop around, they want everything in one location, fine but you pay
for it.

Can you please point me to some of these wonderful local shops in
Hackney? Eg which offer at a price lower than local supermarkets eggs
which are of "far higher" quality than the supermarkets' free range,
British Lion eggs? It'd be a bonus if I could also be reasonably
confident the eggs were not really gathered 2 weeks ago at some barn in
Romania.

--
Robin
reply to address is (meant to be) valid

On Wed, 7 Mar 2012 17:08:14 -0000, "Robin" wrote:

Many food items are cheaper from local shops,
meat and eggs being two, and far higher quality. Peeps are too lazy to
shop around, they want everything in one location, fine but you pay
for it.

Can you please point me to some of these wonderful local shops in
Hackney? Eg which offer at a price lower than local supermarkets eggs
which are of "far higher" quality than the supermarkets' free range,
British Lion eggs? It'd be a bonus if I could also be reasonably
confident the eggs were not really gathered 2 weeks ago at some barn in
Romania.

http://www.visitlondon.com/attractio...kney-city-farm
Do they not have any at the city farm?
--
http://www.voucherfreebies.co.uk

Moonraker wrote:
On 07/03/2012 15:39, The Medway Handyman wrote:
On 07/03/2012 13:53, MM wrote:
I happened to go to Boston (Lincs) this morning so popped into the B&Q
for the first time in several years. I was gobsmacked by the high
prices.

Tell me about it! Worst example I've come across is a mortice latch;
£5:46 in B&Q, £1:99 in local BM, £0:70 from Toolstation.

Homebase are even worse.



Why is anyone surprised? Many food items are cheaper from local shops,
meat and eggs being two, and far higher quality. Peeps are too lazy to
shop around, they want everything in one location, fine but you pay for it.

Fine if you have little time and plenty of money.

These days who has the latter? and te firmer eans you have a full time
job...who has that?



--
To people who know nothing, anything is possible.
To people who know too much, it is a sad fact
that they know how little is really possible -
and how hard it is to achieve it.

MM wrote:

I won't be going back to B&Q anytime soon! And I thought everyone said
small high street shops are expensive.

MM
That trend reversed some years back and has never really been true for
the small items in the sheds.

a supermarket still remains the cheapest place to buy cornflakes, baked
beans and milk but frankly we are using local shops more and more -
including hardware - or the builders merchants, or increasingly, online.

Meat and veg is half the price that the S/market charges. We bake bread
at half the price in the ever present aga.

Its not teh end of te suopermaret/shed by any means but it may be the
beginning of the end.

I havent been in B & Q for years..and only peruse Homebase for the odd
fitting

--
To people who know nothing, anything is possible.
To people who know too much, it is a sad fact
that they know how little is really possible -
and how hard it is to achieve it.

The Natural Philosopher wrote
MM wrote

I won't be going back to B&Q anytime soon! And I thought everyone said small high street shops are expensive.

That trend reversed some years back and has never really been true for the small items in the sheds.

a supermarket still remains the cheapest place to buy cornflakes,
baked beans and milk but frankly we are using local shops more and
more - including hardware - or the builders merchants, or
increasingly, online.

Meat and veg is half the price that the S/market charges. We bake bread at half the price in the ever present aga.

Its not teh end of te suopermaret/shed by any means but it may be the beginning of the end.

Nope, you watch.

I havent been in B & Q for years..and only peruse Homebase for the odd fitting

Rod Speed wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote
MM wrote

I won't be going back to B&Q anytime soon! And I thought everyone said small high street shops are expensive.

That trend reversed some years back and has never really been true for the small items in the sheds.

a supermarket still remains the cheapest place to buy cornflakes,
baked beans and milk but frankly we are using local shops more and
more - including hardware - or the builders merchants, or
increasingly, online.

Meat and veg is half the price that the S/market charges. We bake bread at half the price in the ever present aga.

Its not teh end of te suopermaret/shed by any means but it may be the beginning of the end.

Nope, you watch.


I have been, for years.

I remember the first supermarkets in the UK.

I am looking at the last.

They are simply too big for purpose by and large.




--
To people who know nothing, anything is possible.
To people who know too much, it is a sad fact
that they know how little is really possible -
and how hard it is to achieve it.

On Mar 7, 9:44*pm, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:
They are simply too big for purpose by and large.

If the expectation is for the high street to return to multi-
storekeepers offering delightful wares as 1850s level, think again.

- Council after council has every intention of ruining the high
street, so freeing up land for apartment property development to
handle the future population demands. The land is dirt cheap, the
profits still large.

- Supermarkets have every intention of remaining, but in a subtly
modified form.
They are just the right size... with shelves moved closer together to
reflect the few in-store shoppers, with car parks shrunk and re-used
as shelf space... combining multi-hardware, light construction &
food... as pure warehousing for local online home delivery.

One-stop home delivery provides them both with a lifeline and barrier
to entry to the multiple small local shops even if they did offer
online shopping & delivery.


In their present form, supermarkets are bizarrely the most profitable
warehouses in the country, with miserable price competition as most of
the profit is leached from up-chain to themselves at both supplier &
consumer's expense. Online destroys the high street the day the first
online purchase occurred, amazon burnt the books, and the world
accountants cooked the remaining books.

It is going to be a very strange landscape, and one where return of
easy credit requires declining deficits which requires massive change
in employment & debt default. That 2008 is seen as the cause is
erroneous, it was the failure to hike interests rates to the 20% level
in 1998. We just politicians buying time - re-capitalise & absorb
partial default, re-capitalise & absorb partial default, which is
going to repeat quite possibly through to 2030 and beyond.
Demographics only favour USA, the rest are carrying a demographic &
medical weight they can not afford. Living standards have peaked in
the West except for a new victorian elite which was engineered from
the start re "wealth in strong hands" policy.

Of course before then... we have EU energy policy... so it may not
matter, *grin*.

js.b1 wrote:
On Mar 7, 9:44 pm, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:
They are simply too big for purpose by and large.

If the expectation is for the high street to return to multi-
storekeepers offering delightful wares as 1850s level, think again.

No, Ii isn't.


- Council after council has every intention of ruining the high
street, so freeing up land for apartment property development to
handle the future population demands. The land is dirt cheap, the
profits still large.

Best place to put the battery people, in the battery cages in the
battery farms of the towns..



- Supermarkets have every intention of remaining, but in a subtly
modified form.
They are just the right size... with shelves moved closer together to
reflect the few in-store shoppers, with car parks shrunk and re-used
as shelf space... combining multi-hardware, light construction &
food... as pure warehousing for local online home delivery.


no point: delivery to the home is in the end cheaper: dark warehousing
as it were.

So the supermarket goes as housing land and the warehousing moved to
strategic locations near major roads.



One-stop home delivery provides them both with a lifeline and barrier
to entry to the multiple small local shops even if they did offer
online shopping & delivery.


BUT what you don't see is they are not adding value: in the end you
disintermediate and ship direct from suppliers.

The local shop exists as a minor value add for people who want it now,
and possibly dont have a car.




In their present form, supermarkets are bizarrely the most profitable
warehouses in the country, with miserable price competition as most of
the profit is leached from up-chain to themselves at both supplier &
consumer's expense. Online destroys the high street the day the first
online purchase occurred, amazon burnt the books, and the world
accountants cooked the remaining books.


I agree broadly. But I don't see the supermarket as being the winner.

The supply chain for food, for example is so long and so valued added
(not!) that the total cost of purchase is way over what it needs to be.



It is going to be a very strange landscape, and one where return of
easy credit

You think thats going to happen?

Nah. cash society for a couple of decades at least.

requires declining deficits which requires massive change
in employment & debt default. That 2008 is seen as the cause is
erroneous, it was the failure to hike interests rates to the 20% level
in 1998.

I totally agree.

We just politicians buying time - re-capitalise & absorb
partial default, re-capitalise & absorb partial default, which is
going to repeat quite possibly through to 2030 and beyond.
Demographics only favour USA, the rest are carrying a demographic &
medical weight they can not afford. Living standards have peaked in
the West except for a new victorian elite which was engineered from
the start re "wealth in strong hands" policy.


yep. That's close to close enough. But there is a flaw in their analysis


Of course before then... we have EU energy policy... so it may not
matter, *grin*.

That's one of the flaws.

Another is that their main two weapons, control of capital and a
monopoly of trust, have both essentially vanished.

A third is they do not understand the technological society they wish to
control.

There is, in the end an implicit bargain between ruler and ruled, they
get support from the vital sectors of society - the military, police and
technocrats - provided that they deliver some benefit that their
absence would not.

What is happening now is that even the prospect of almost total anarchy
seems preferable to propping up a bunch of fat cats in government and
banks that no longer offer any quality of service whatsoever.

And its why I support local shops - they are cheaper, they understand
service, and the quality of fresh food is better due to the shorter
supply chains.

(and I know how to cook)

--
To people who know nothing, anything is possible.
To people who know too much, it is a sad fact
that they know how little is really possible -
and how hard it is to achieve it.

js.b1 wrote
The Natural Philosopher wrote

They are simply too big for purpose by and large.

If the expectation is for the high street to return to multi-
storekeepers offering delightful wares as 1850s level, think again.

- Council after council has every intention of ruining the high
street, so freeing up land for apartment property development
to handle the future population demands. The land is dirt cheap,
the profits still large.

- Supermarkets have every intention of remaining, but in a subtly
modified form.
They are just the right size... with shelves moved closer together to
reflect the few in-store shoppers, with car parks shrunk and re-used
as shelf space... combining multi-hardware, light construction &
food... as pure warehousing for local online home delivery.

One-stop home delivery provides them both with a lifeline
and barrier to entry to the multiple small local shops even
if they did offer online shopping & delivery.

In their present form, supermarkets are bizarrely the most profitable
warehouses in the country, with miserable price competition as most of
the profit is leached from up-chain to themselves at both supplier &
consumer's expense. Online destroys the high street the day the first
online purchase occurred, amazon burnt the books, and the world
accountants cooked the remaining books.

It is going to be a very strange landscape, and one where return of
easy credit requires declining deficits which requires massive change
in employment & debt default. That 2008 is seen as the cause is
erroneous, it was the failure to hike interests rates to the 20% level
in 1998. We just politicians buying time - re-capitalise & absorb
partial default, re-capitalise & absorb partial default, which is
going to repeat quite possibly through to 2030 and beyond.

Demographics only favour USA, the rest are carrying a demographic &
medical weight they can not afford. Living standards have peaked in the West

Bet they havent.

except for a new victorian elite which was engineered
from the start re "wealth in strong hands" policy.

Of course before then... we have EU energy policy... so it may not matter, *grin*.

The Natural Philosopher wrote
Rod Speed wrote
The Natural Philosopher wrote
MM wrote

I won't be going back to B&Q anytime soon! And I thought everyone said small high street shops are expensive.

That trend reversed some years back and has never really been true for the small items in the sheds.

a supermarket still remains the cheapest place to buy cornflakes,
baked beans and milk but frankly we are using local shops more and
more - including hardware - or the builders merchants, or increasingly, online.

Meat and veg is half the price that the S/market charges. We bake bread at half the price in the ever present aga.

Its not teh end of te suopermaret/shed by any means but it may be the beginning of the end.

Nope, you watch.

I have been, for years.

I remember the first supermarkets in the UK.

I am looking at the last.

Nope, you watch.

They are simply too big for purpose by and large.

Nope. And hordes prefer to buy everything in one place.

Thats why they wont be any end any half century soon, long after you are dead.