Physical tool shopping experiance?

[AdventuresInMetal]

Lately with me getting into a lot more metalworking I have been saving a fair bit to add some metalworking power tools to my collection, saws, more grinders, mag drill, die grinders etc etc. Now I have been buying power tools online for probably the last 20 years, it's really quick to shop around for the best price and just buy it and have it next day. However my next door neighbour recently asked me if I wanted to have a drive to preston with him to check out a tool store there and I was already aware of another 2 so today I tagged along and we went to 3 dedicated tool shops and a machinemart.

I was absolutely stunned how expensive they all were, non of them selling any bare tools (i'm already very invested into milwaukee's M12 and M18 lines) and the kits I did price compare were often £30 to £75 more expensive than the first price i compared them to online, thats without even shopping around. On a £200-£300 kit that is a significant chunk extra) When asked none of them had any interest in doing any deals or discounts when i told them I was after over £1000 in tools.

The overall experiance was quite surprising really, I went out thinking i was about to blow over a grand on tools, and my total spend for the day was £70 odd for a couple of air hoses at machine mart. This eperiance has really got me wondering, how does everyone else find local tool stores near them? Is physical shopping for this sort of thing now just completely dying or are there still some decent places out there? If anyone knows of anything decent in the north west than by all means please post them, because after todays experiance i'm probably going to just end up buying online again.

 

[8ob]

All gone around here, last decent local tool supplier packed up about three years ago.

Bob

 

[Barking Mat]

Local tool suppliers here are internet prices plus 50%, exact same models.

 

[Shox Dr]

Local one to me has big contracts with some power stations etc, they couldn't careless if you bought from them.

 

[Mick Annick]

Local tool suppliers here are internet prices plus 50%, exact same models.

I’m shopping for a compressor at the mo, my steel supplier is also an old-fashioned ironmonger / tool shop, their best price on a €350 one on the internet was €520.

 

[ajlelectronics]

Funny you should bring that up. I am going to spend some serious money to replace my air fed mask, regulators and a good amount of stock. Maybe a spend of over a Grand. I had a look at Ebay just for research and then called a previous online supplier with my enquiry and to place an order. I was told that they don't do orders etc by telephone now and all orders have to be placed on the website. I can do that on Ebay if I don't want any customer service and it will be cheaper.

 

[mtt.tr]

Mine is hit and miss to be honest.

My bigger cordless purchases came via just for warranty simplicity.

Sub £200 I'll probably just go online

 

[500e]

Work on business rates on in town shop + hopefully someone who knows a little about what they are selling, dead stock (Not the big customer base of internet) that sits there till you sell at cost or less.
Soon adds up to a fair chunk of money.
Never done retail so I expect there are other on costs.
@ajlelectronics
Had that happen last week I bought elsewhere where they did do telephone sales as well, but it costs to have someone on phone A lot of web sales are automated to drop shippers

 

[roofman]

75% of my stuff is bought used...I hate paying "new" premium prices for iron, electrical stuff i buy new for the warranty and reliability.

 

[Nomad]

The suppliers I can visit are a mix :
A few dedicated tool places, normally carry a limited range of brands but do have a decent selection in stock, prices often a lot higher than online.
Big chains B&Q / Homebase / Halfords etc, lots of inventory but not a huge range of tools, B&Q quality is fairly poor, Halfrauds have decent hand tools but few power tools.
Budget shops (Poundstore, Wilcos, etc), good prices but low quality, often ok for an "I need it now" job.

Realistically it comes down to a choice of buying local (support your local suppliers by paying over the odds, might not have the items in stock) or mail order (cheaper but you can't handle the goods before buying, and loosing your trade will kill the local shops).

 

[bourbon]

I think I can put a little bit of input here. At Machine Mart, Our prices are set at head office. The counter staff, even the managers, have absolutely NO discretion on offering discounts. We can't reduce display items.

 

[AdventuresInMetal]

Just to clarify, I had no intentions of buying power tools from machine mart or asking for a deal with them, I was just stating that it was the only place that had a couple things I needed at a sensible price.

 

[Agrismith]

You are paying for customer service and stock. To the average diyer this means little and for smaller companies it won't matter but bigger companies on tight deadlines this can be worth a fortune. There is a very good local tool place mostly catering to the building trade. We had an emergency job come in so straight down there and picked up a complete new set of tools and PPE. Next day minimum to get the same stuff online. The discount is all sorted through the office and attached to the account so no bartering no complications no waiting.
Same thing when I burnt out a drill and had to finish drilling the holes that day. Straight in and pick one up. Even if it's 30% more which It isn't when you have an account then this is way cheaper than the cost of delaying the job.
And gets more serious the bigger the jobs. We are near Gatwick airport. Some companies in there wouldn't blink at a 200% mark up as long as the tools or fixings are there now.

 

[Shox Dr]

You are paying for customer service and stock. To the average diyer this means little and for smaller companies it won't matter but bigger companies on tight deadlines this can be worth a fortune. There is a very good local tool place mostly catering to the building trade. We had an emergency job come in so straight down there and picked up a complete new set of tools and PPE. Next day minimum to get the same stuff online. The discount is all sorted through the office and attached to the account so no bartering no complications no waiting.
Same thing when I burnt out a drill and had to finish drilling the holes that day. Straight in and pick one up. Even if it's 30% more which It isn't when you have an account then this is way cheaper than the cost of delaying the job.
And gets more serious the bigger the jobs. We are near Gatwick airport. Some companies in there wouldn't blink at a 200% mark up as long as the tools or fixings are there now.

We had a place like that, Makita dealer there was a bloke upstairs that usually fixed it there and then, once he got to know you spent money downstairs.

 

[Barking Mat]

If you own a shop, you employ staff, you pay rates on the building and tax, utilities, need to make a profit I understand, but if my Dewalt drill packs up tomorrow, it goes back, and I'm left drill-less, not like they chuck me a new one.

I can see it from all sides, I'm glad they're 15 minutes away with a huge expensive stock, or, if I'm not in a hurry I'll prefer order off the 'net.

 

[CaptainPugwash]

Not that I'm an expert but as it's North West, I wondered if you'd ever tried Barnes Tools at Nelson; it's near the motorway and quite large.

 

[Mick Annick]

If you own a shop, you employ staff, you pay rates on the building and tax, utilities, need to make a profit I understand, but if my Dewalt drill packs up tomorrow, it goes back, and I'm left drill-less, not like they chuck me a new one.

I can see it from all sides, I'm glad they're 15 minutes away with a huge expensive stock, or, if I'm not in a hurry I'll prefer order off the 'net.

I use the steel supplier / ironmonger a lot for small tools and consumables and am happy to pay for the convenience, but there’s no way I’m paying €170 more than I need to on a large item.

 

[Barking Mat]

I use the steel supplier / ironmonger a lot for small tools and consumables and am happy to pay for the convenience, but there’s no way I’m paying €170 more than I need to on a large item.

Our place is great if you need 25 / 50 / 100 m6 x 25mm obscure Allan screws, in A2 inox, stainless, they have them in stock, or PU glue, or whatever, but hell, they're expensive, but if you need it in 30 minutes they are there, that's you going to fetch it, it's not 30 minutes, it's 15 minutes each way, then 10 minutes to find a member of staff, yeah ok, it's an hour, but they have a stock, of steel too, dread to think the hundreds of thousands of pounds / euros they have frankly.

Groupe RUBION / SAQUI / KERHERVE :: Produits Métallurgiques - Bois - Quincaillerie - Fournitures Industrielles

 

[Ubique]

The tool vans are something I've not used for years, there's a couple of local shops that are probably 20% uplift on internet prices but handy for 'need it now' stuff otherwise it's (suprisingly) a French website https://www.master-outillage.com that still manages to better UK based sellers despite the Brexit tax, otherwise https://www.primetools.co.uk/ Consumables are mainly from a couple of local business', I suppose being in an engineering biased town there will be an above average number of suppliers, the trouble is they want to charge corporate rates to everyone....

 

[Martinb]

William Moores and DPR?