Masters no more

[FenceFurniture]

Boy has this thread gone off track

Yeah, although I'd have to say that now Masters are actually gone it's easy to see how the discussion would re-focus on Bunnings and what will no doubt be declining service in stores that were nearish to Masters. Bunnings are now the only elephant in the room - the White Elephant has vacated.

I thought occurred to me today about why so many forum members experience poor service in hardwares - it may have a very great deal to do with them only usually going to hardwares on the weekend, as a weekend warrior would tend to do. That means lots of casual staff who don't get to familiarise themselves with the layout (and let's face it - there's a HUGE amount of stuff to know the location of, let alone know about).

Generally speaking my visits are during the week, and the staff at Home Hardware are fairly knowledgeable mostly (at least a few ex-tradies). Today (Sat) I went in search of something a little out of the ordinary (straight 20mm Pex Pipe) so I made sure I found a face I know well, thinking he'd not have to ask someone else, and I was right. He took me straight to it - and no wonder I couldn't find it - several aisles away from where they keep the fittings for the pipe. A casual would likely not have known what it was, and obviously not where it was.

The vast majority of casuals there are quite young (<22-3) so are probably tertiary students at a guess. I'd say that Home know they couldn't get away with staff of Sgt Schultz calibre during the week, when the place is full of tradies looking for stuff. However, on the weekend when the place is full of customers and they need a lot more staff (and there is a lot more) there just wouldn't be that knowledge pool available in a smallish place like Katoomba. It'd be different in the major cities though.

I happened to be in Bunnings Penrith on Tuesday, and the staff were very friendly indeed. I must have had about 6 "Hello" with a smile. Maybe they weren't quite aware that Masters (200-300m away) had finally closed it's doors a few days before, or maybe that's the norm - who knows. Mind you, they do have another very large hardware to compete with just a couple of kms north - another Bunnings

[Chesand]

Boy has this thread gone off track

And it has all been covered before.

[Simplicity]

I think this thread should now be called "my venting space about Bunnings".

[Ubernoob]

Still, it is fun.

I am lucky that we have new tool stores popping up locally so I don't really have to purchase them from Bunnings now, Bristol Paints is a bit more of a drive but the staff are A- At the paint counter and not in the plumbing section and B- Have really good product knowledge and I'm happy to pay a bit more for this.
I'm still there probably twice a week and each time I go I feel dirty, I like small retailers but they are all gone.