Rip-off supermarkets

[gordon stephenson]

Hello Guys and Gals.
I use quite a few flap/cutting discs etc and normally shop around, Last ones were blue zirconium 60 grit, paid £10-00 for 10 plus £3-95 postage and are excellent long lasting quality, How come B&Q have to rip people off to the tune of £8-50 EACH.!! With their vast buying power they will be paying pennies for them,
I have always said super markets are not cheap this just goes to reinforce my beliefs.
Plus I buy 5" and B&Q only have 4-1/2"
Rant over,

 

[rtbcomp]

B&Q are way overpriced - compare their plumbing fittings with Screwfix, and they're both part of the Kingfisher Group!

 

[Welderpaul]

Got robbed a month or so ago at b&poo. Needed 10 rolls of duct tape, were out on a job....
£7 each, for 25 metres. Our supplier charges £3 each for 50 metres. It was rubbish as well, kept trying to tear lengthways when you tried to rip a bit off.
Arses.

 

[silversurfer]

rip offsupermarkets

More BQ. I looked em up online for lightweight curtain rods.£ 7.60 each. EXACTLY the same one and size at Wilkinsons was £1.60 !!!Daylight robbery !!!

 

[tigler]

Supermarkets = convenience = expensive !

 

[PTvor]

Someone told me that B&Q are cheap for radiators.

Most of their stuff is way over the top and I make a point of not going there unless I'm really stuck.

 

[Nimbus]

Just for a laugh, have a look at the price of their metal stock...

 

[Hitch]

A lot of people dont know what they want, or that places like Screwfix/toolstation etc even exist. Occasionally they have a bargain in B&Q, depends what you want.

Thing is with SF and similar, you cant see what you want only in a tiny picture. For half the people that is a problem. The other half go there and ask to see what a 4x50mm screw looks like. Which really winds people like me up

 

[brookie456]

Got robbed a month or so ago at b&poo. Needed 10 rolls of duct tape, were out on a job....
£7 each, for 25 metres. Our supplier charges £3 each for 50 metres. It was rubbish as well, kept trying to tear lengthways when you tried to rip a bit off.
Arses.

Bought several brass compression fittings as they were cheaper than the copper unsoldered joints by a fair way - £1.99 for an un-soldered joint 90 degree elbow, 89p for a brass compression fitting on special offer - p.off. Agree with you Paul, the tape is sh*te and doesn't stick, never mind being weak and tearing lengthways. Best tape I've used is British Gas "plate jointing tape" - 25m of that is a big roll.

 

[brookie456]

Just for a laugh, have a look at the price of their metal stock...

Nimbus is not joking...normal sheet now't special 1m x 0.8m x 0.8mm = £48 - odd + VAT Chr*st, more than shim stock!

 

[gordon stephenson]

Only reason for my sight seeing visit was to look for "bargains" long time ago I bought 3 Joddlers from B&Q for £9-99 each, but thats the only time I'v struck lucky.

 

[PTvor]

A lot of people dont know what they want, or that places like Screwfix/toolstation etc even exist. Occasionally they have a bargain in B&Q, depends what you want.

They certainly do. About a year back my local B&Q was selling Makita drills for £35, with a set of drill bits thrown in - £50 plus elsewhere for just the drill. The bits are about a tenner. They sometimes have a clear out when there are bargains.

Thing is with SF and similar, you cant see what you want only in a tiny picture. For half the people that is a problem. The other half go there and ask to see what a 4x50mm screw looks like. Which really winds people like me up

I got stung buying 5Kg of 2.5mm welding rods at Screwfix. Nasty things with faults in the coating and just horrible. Folks, don't even consider them. I later bought 5Kg of 2.5mm Nexus rods from the local BOC affiliated place for a tenner. Much better. However, considering the combined price, I could just have bought Vodex or Lincoln.

Years ago, someone I worked with told me he didn't like B&Q because it got you into a B&Q mentality, assuming that that's where you go and if they don't have it, you can't get it. He said there was often much better value and better choice at small hardware shops and builders merchants. I've found that's largely true.

 

[gordon stephenson]

A friend of mine bought a B&Q own brand power tool (don't know what it was) badged Pro=Line, anyway it soon developed a fault and he took it back,Said he was sorry etc that he did not have the receipt, chap said it didn't matter and took him into the store room,
my mate said there was a pile of pro-line chucked in a corner big as a small hill. Be warned.

 

[the snooper]

had a pro line grinder given put a cutting disc on it to cut some 4mm steel sheet lasted about a minute took it to bits and a copper segment had flown off the commutator oh well it cost nothing and that all they are worth

 

[Wedg1e]

The lamp in one of our outside lights had died; I went to Bodgit & Quick who didn't have one, but if they had it would have been £8.99.
I walked across the car park to Screwfix and got one for £2.12.

The thing with SF is that, like Maplins, their staff are largely students with no knowledge of what they're selling or the job it's meant for... try asking them if they know the difference between a Philips and a Pozidriv screw!

If it has a stock number and appears on the computer they can sell you it, but ask them for an alternative and they just shrug.
Maplins is becoming a total waste of time for anything unless you want electronic toys. Their component parts stock is utterly crap; they've abandoned the whole field that got them going in the first place, I don't know how you'd get started in electronics as a hobby now. Maybe it's just a reflection of technology in general; you couldn't build something even as good as the cheapest widget in Tesco, if it breaks you can't fix it and even if you could, to hell with it - let's have this season's colour.

Sorry, rambling a bit there...

 

[Wedg1e]

my mate said there was a pile of pro-line chucked in a corner big as a small hill. Be warned.

One look at that gear and you could predict that, you wouldn't need to see it.

 

[Wedg1e]

Only reason for my sight seeing visit was to look for "bargains" long time ago I bought 3 Joddlers from B&Q for £9-99 each, but thats the only time I'v struck lucky.

Got any spare?

 

[Paul.]

I blew up a bosch grinder while out on a job, B&Q were closer than going back to the workshop for another grinder, so I bought a proline for £14, figuring that if it lasted the day it would have paid for itself, It had a 2 year warranty anyway so nothing to lose, that was over 4 years ago and its still in daily use, this is not a vote for cheap power tools particularly, I just reckon the quality must vary enormously.
I also bought 2 identical drills from another Diy chain, one runs like a train, the other one had a seized gearbox straight out of the box,

 

[PTvor]

Maplins is becoming a total waste of time for anything unless you want electronic toys. Their component parts stock is utterly crap; they've abandoned the whole field that got them going in the first place, I don't know how you'd get started in electronics as a hobby now. Maybe it's just a reflection of technology in general; you couldn't build something even as good as the cheapest widget in Tesco, if it breaks you can't fix it and even if you could, to hell with it - let's have this season's colour.

Sorry, rambling a bit there...

With Maplins, the market changed and the hobby electronics scene shrank and changed towards audio and microcontrollers without their help. They adapted, selling toys and novelties. It's a long discussion for another kind of forum. If you want electronic bits and pieces there are places to deal with, though not as convenient as Maplin was 15 years ago. The assistants used to be quite knowledgeable. The last time I was in there I bought some resistors and the bloke asked me if I wouldn't mind answering a question about them. Did they have to be connected any particular way round, such as with the gold band positive?

With B&Q, they established themselves as the default place to go and seemed much better and more efficient than Homebase and some of the other horror stories. I get the impression they've largely come to rely on inertia and have to be heading for a fall.

 

[Wedg1e]

With Maplins, the market changed and the hobby electronics scene shrank and changed towards audio and microcontrollers without their help. They adapted, selling toys and novelties. It's a long discussion for another kind of forum. If you want electronic bits and pieces there are places to deal with, though not as convenient as Maplin was 15 years ago. The assistants used to be quite knowledgeable. The last time I was in there I bought some resistors and the bloke asked me if I wouldn't mind answering a question about them. Did they have to be connected any particular way round, such as with the gold band positive?

Yes, I realise the 'scene' has changed... when I was a radio ham converting ex-army radio sets to work on our bands, we used to marvel at how small the Japs were making VHF walkie-talkies and how you could talk right across the county on one... never occurred to us that every man and his auntie would have something as small as Captain Kirk's communicator that would get you round the world from anywhere, no licence required.

You're right; when Maplins came along the service was unbeatable - you could phone an order in at 8PM and the postie would be knocking you out of bed to take the parcel next morning. Even RS struggle to be that good these days - and boy do you pay for the privilege.

I must admit I rarely do any 'hobby' electronics these days, guess that's what 20 years of working at it does for you... last job I did was to repair the MIG set I bought recently, had to climb in the loft to find a transistor data book Needless to say, I didn't find the parts I needed at Maplins.

That guy with the resistors sounds like he came from the same school as the ones from Halfords that my mother got a few years ago... she asked my dad what he wanted for xmas and he replied 'a left-hand thread screwdriver'.
It took four of Halfords staff to work out there was no such thing, she was bloody livid with the old fella...
Ah now Halfords: there's another thread of its own...