Masters no more

[justonething]

Masters are closing their doors.
I like masters for things that I can't easily buy elsewhere. I like their Swanson, Kobalt, Bahco, Bessey etc. as well as their range of varnishes.
I think we'll be worse off with a virtual monopoly in the DIY market.

[rob streeper]

That's too bad. The Lowes stores in my area are in a kind of zombie state, clearly still well patronized but the staff is less knowledgeable, the product range is narrowing to the highest volume items and the prices are generally higher for equivalent items at the local competitor Home Depot. Online shopping is really killing local specialty stores and the more specialized items carried by the big boxes such as Bessey products. Manufacturers are shifting the burden of maintaining stock onto the end user - either have it on hand or wait a week to order online. I think the big boxes will only carry items that are too heavy or impractical to ship easily via parcel carriers in the future.

[Yanis]

Woolworths posted a 1.2b loss so they are cutting their losses. Interestingly they are shedding Home hardware to Metcash who already own Mitre 10 leaving pretty much a two horse race for most of us.

However watch out for some pretty good deals in the next few months.

John

[rrich]

I got a giggle out of the video.

There was a comment that was notable:

Lowes didn't understand the Australian market. The comment about snow shovels in summer was hysterical. Lowes is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. The fact that your seasons and our seasons are reversed was lost on Lowes.

Remember with all of their training, a Lowes manager can manage anyone, anywhere, anytime without having to know what they are managing. I can substitute several company names for Lowes based upon personal experience. LOL!

Here in the US, Sears attempted to move into the home center business. Sears acquired Orchard Supply Hardware, a small supply house oriented about the wine industry in the Napa Valley and in reality a very good hardware chain. Sears changed the name to OSH and acquired a lot of sites. Sears headquartered in Chicago managed the stock and the store layout including shelf space arrangements.

SWMBO wanted to walk through the OSH in Huntington Beach when the store first opened. As we were walking through the store, she starts giggling. I asked her, "What are you laughing at?" SWMBO points and says, "Those are sump pumps, aren't they?" Yes, there was about 2 M of shelf space dedicated to displaying 6 or 8 different models of sump pumps. Her astute observation was, "They aren't going to stay in business very long."

In Huntington Beach, except for a few multistory commercial buildings, there are probably less than 10 basements in the city. All the houses are built on either a slab or a half meter crawl space. In my neighborhood the water table is 1.5 M which makes a basement almost impossible.

[bueller]

Masters are closing their doors.
I like masters for things that I can't easily buy elsewhere. I like their Swanson, Kobalt, Bahco, Bessey etc. as well as their range of varnishes.
I think we'll be worse off with a virtual monopoly in the DIY market.

Yeah definitely a shame. Was there buying a Swanson speed square a couple of weeks ago and was surprised to see the Bessey line there. Might have to try and catch some on sale before they disappear, there are only a couple of places here that sell them and the selection is quite limited.

[Yanis]

Good for locals to report on any price reductions they see.

John

[david.elliott]

I'll miss 'em a bit. I do like the floor poly for benchtops, they stock Bostik floor glues which B don't and I've had a great run with all of their "cheapie" Kobalt home brand hand tool stuff. It's quite good quality for the buck...909 not so much..

[Mobyturns]

Its a sad day as Masters carried some good brands including Franklin glues -Titebond etc. More jobs gone! Looks like my sister in laws brother is now jobless.

Just maybe one day in the future these idiot senior management teams that "can manage anybody, anything, anywhere" ( sounds a bit like the Goodies TV comedy) will actually listen to their retail teams and customers before they go broke! We often see surf rods in sports stores in Far North Queensland - I think the only people who purchase them are southerners that pick up a bargain when they are grossly marked down. Though I haven't seen a snow blower in the Masters store in Cairns.

[Kuffy]

I just went to Masters to pick up some finishing supplies and a elcheapo lamp so I can see what I am doing on the woodlathe. Because I spent more than $25 they were giving away FREE lufkin tape measures. The tape measure isn't the best, but it is very good. All different colours and patterns printed on the plastic casing. For some DUMB DUMB DUMB reason, I picked the one which looked like a timber offcut. I have enough trouble finding my fluorescent orange tape measure...

[crowie]

Bugger...I am just getting used to the Masters store in Penrith [outer Sydney]; it has some good product....

[Simplicity]

I wonder what Bunnings management are thinking.
I spend a lot at both stores ever year( five figure amount)
With masters gone it could become quite scary.
Mitre Ten are really not in the same league

[dai sensei]

Been visiting Masters for the past 2 weeks buying stuff at 30-60% off, all fixings 50% off, interesting how low it will go now decision made to close

[justonething]

It seems some of the items stocked by Masters are indeed quite popular and sought after.
I often wonder if masters were run differently, concentrating on stocking those items then they might not be suffering the same fate. But bad management and wrong strategies has cost woolies billion and us a place to buy what we want .

[Yanis]

I started off my life in hardware and it is certainly a tricky business. It is a fine line between diversifying and spreading your butter too thin. Look at JB who are now getting into white goods. Not sure how well they will do against the established markets. They cannot sell $500 HDMI cables with fridges

It seems to me that Masters was a good idea poorly implemented. Partnering with a US company made it easier to initially access supply chains but giving them too much control over stocking policies appears to be a serious mistake.

Obviously we may never have an insight into the market research and planning that was done. It is easy to see the mistakes in hindsight and one would have expected better from a company that had so much retail experience.

The mistakes they are making makes one wonder whether they have completely dropped the ball. This coming hard on the heels of DSE. They are also seeing a big challenge from the likes of Aldi as well.

Not sure If I envy their shoes.

John

[chris0375]

The real shame is there is almost no one left to at least try and give Bunnings competition. Sure there are independent stores etc but almost none are open late or have anywhere near the Bunnings range.

I used to work in hardware. Mitre 10 and thrifty link. Both of those stores have closed. Main reason in my mind is stock management and stock selection. I think this is also a major downfall of Masters.

The Masters near me had about 3 different drawers slides available. Generally very good selection of nuts and bolts and fittings etc but obscenely expensive. At least when it first opened they had no 1/4 inch fasteners. I generally hate imperial but wanted to match something.

Very hit and miss whereas Bunnings will almost always have something that will work to fix a particular problem.

Masters website is generally horrible. The search feature is terrible. The store stock is not kept up to date either. No excuses for these failures in this day and age from such a large consumer focused retailer.