B&Q v's Woodies v's Atlantic Homecare v's Other

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Pope John 11

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I would like to start up a thread on trying to differentiate the price differences at the above stores v's others.

I just bought 10m length of cable for an electric shower & it cost €33.00 which to me seems to be a bit on the expensive side. I will check this out at woodies tomorrow.

Perhaps others may wish to add items with the various prices listed. It would help everyone to seek better deals in this climate by making prices more transparent

It could be broken down into several categories, for example

Furniture
Building material costs
Gardening
Clothing
Flights & Vacations
Motor expenses
Insurance
Food
Banking
Hotels & Restaurants

etc


Perhaps, I'm missing the thread
 
http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=33342

I find B&Q cheaper than (Woodies, Alantic & Chadwicks) all the same company.

I bought taps for my bathroom, Ensuite and WC last christmas for the same prices Woodies & 4Home were asking for the Bathroom alone. The taps in B&Q are identical to the Woodies & 4Home taps. So I found B&Q 66% cheaper in that case alone.

However to be fair to Woodies, I bought a Sofa bed at around the same time for €220 verses €480 I'd seen for the same sofa for in other furniture shops.

It pays to shop around, even if you have an idea that one place would be more expensive due to past experences you can be suprised.
 
its a pity we dont have a comparison website for all of these shops etc like the uk ones, they have some great compare websites for nearly everything!
 
I find B&Q a lot cheaper than the others too in most cases. One example, a cartridge of caulk in Woodies is about €5, it's about €1.85 in B&Q, and for about €7 you'll get a pack of 6.
 
Price is not everything. I find the quality of product in B&Q to be terrible. The service is worse. If you are put on a waiting list for any product coming from the "warehouse" forget about it. I once ordered a microwave and 8 months later, it still hadn't arrived.
 
I'm with Vor on this one, Quality in B+Q can be substandard especially own brand products. Had similuar experience with ordered parts.
Woodies are fine for most things, local hardware for the rest, at least you can ask for the cash discount....!
 
I have always found Homebase probally the cheapest- when I got a bbq a couple of months ago the exact same BBQ was €60 cheaper in homebase then also they days where they an extra 15% off.
I generally find Woodies most expensive- B&Q cheaper but you have to do more searching.
 
In my two most recent visits to both I have found the standard of service in B&Q (Newry) to be of a much higher standard that that of Woodies (Cavan). Not really shopped enough in B&Q to comment on the quality of their product but for Woodies I have been disappointed in the quality of garden furniture I purchased from them as well as a malfunctioning power hose just after its warranty had run out. That said they were the cheaper options from them and I guess you get what you pay for...
 
jmrc said:
I'm with Vor on this one, Quality in B+Q can be substandard especially own brand products. Had similuar experience with ordered parts.
Click to expand...

I know of a company that sells to B&Q and they are very particular in the safely and quality of the products. And this includes their own brands as well as others. In relation to prices, I think if you look carefully that you find B&Q are cheaper for the majority of products when comparing with others.

JMRC, / VOR, as a matter of interest do either of you have any association or alliance with those you mention / defend.

And before you ask, no I don't have any connection whatsoever with B&Q.
 
johnny1234 said:
JMRC, / VOR, as a matter of interest do either of you have any association or alliance with those you mention / defend.

And before you ask, no I don't have any connection whatsoever with B&Q.
Click to expand...


No. Not at all. I have only had bad experiences there.
The Microwave was one. In the end, B&Q had to go to Kielys Electrical for me and buy the microwave on my behalf. (Where it cost €100 more due to the sales being over). They offered me my money back after the 8 months and I said "no way, you guys can get it from Kielys for me and pay the difference". So thanks to Kielys I got my microwave.
At the same time, I bought an AEG dishwasher and it arrived with wires cut in the back!!! It took another few weeks to get that rectified.
Then there were the 4 outside lights. Only 3 worked.
 
I can certainly rate B&Q products & service.

Tiles (incl. all the gubbins) for the bathroom came in E300 cheaper than the 'tile warehouse' type places. Staff were very helpful in finding everything I needed, reminding me to get sealer for the tiles I'd chosen and carrying stuff out to the car.

Trade quality steel bath was 30% cheaper than Chadwicks as were the tap/shower mixer.

They were open at 10pm at night when I had to get stuff for the following day; better still they were open at 7am the next morning when I realised I'd forgotten something! :)

Wood was cut for free.

No issue returning unused items, and no re-stocking charge.

All in all, I'm a happy customer, and I'd now head there first for anything I need - my only gripe are the daft 'self checkouts' - have written a letter complaining, lets the whole store down.
 
I used to work for a supplier to these stores ( not B&Q and and [FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]admittedly [/FONT] it was over 5 years ago) but generally I would say

  • leaving out promotional lines - the DIY superstores are not cheap
  • their product knowlege is dire
  • own brand quality is generally good - relative to price
  • B & Q have the widest range and best prices among the DIY sheds
  • you can bargain/haggle with the builders merchant
Also worth remembering

Woodies/Atlantic/Chadwicks/Heiton Buckley/Cork Builders Providers/Telfords are all part of the Grafton group

Brooks/Heatmerchants/Tubs n Tiles are part of Wolseley PLC

S.B.
 
suemoo1 said:
its a pity we dont have a comparison website for all of these shops etc like the uk ones, they have some great compare websites for nearly everything!
Click to expand...

This exactly what I was getting at. Irish prices are not that transparent at all. Perhaps more people would shop around if they could beneifit from doing it online in the 1st place.

It makes more sense.
 
I find b&q awful to shop in the service, the standard of the shop and the general knowledge of products is dire. woodies and atlantic are the same group. i was shopping in my local 4HOME for garden furniture the cheapest around by far, 6 seater round table and relaxer chairs with lazy susan reduced to 299 wheras others are 599
 
To add to Satans Bed reply, I also worked for a head office/buying group of a chain of independently owned hardware/home/garden stores a couple of years ago, and my opinion would be:
• Price: B&Q would be overall the most competitive because they have the most buying power, but sometimes at the expense of quality of product, mostly on 'own brand' items.
Local hardware stores started importing goods from China to compete with this so bargains can be had there too, but beware of the quality of garden furniture imported from China, if a chair breaks, the chances of getting another chair in the same design a year later are slim and none.
Woodies/Atlantic also import a lot of their product from China so the same would apply there.
• Service: local hardware stores generally have helpful knowledgeable staff, in a lot of cases the owner also on the shop floor, whereas B&Q staff (Lucan) have too few for the size of the store, and Atlantic (blanchardstown, albeit now closed) employed mostly teenagers who knew less about products than the customers
• Electrical Goods: the margin on electrical goods is roughly 14%, quite low in comparison to home & garden products. The larger stores would have the advantage on price here again because of their buying power, but smaller electrical stores will sell a TV/Fridge/Cooker at cost price if its a slightly older model they need shifted off the floor to make way for new stock, so you can haggle with them on the older stock.

Bottom Line: larger stores generally have better range & prices, but you can get better service from a local independent store and sometimes a better price if you're willing to haggle and compromise for more limited stock.

P.S. I no longer work for that organisation, so my opinion in unbiased!
 
Vinnie_cork said:
http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=33342

I find B&Q cheaper than (Woodies, Alantic & Chadwicks) all the same company.

I bought taps for my bathroom, Ensuite and WC last christmas for the same prices Woodies & 4Home were asking for the Bathroom alone. The taps in B&Q are identical to the Woodies & 4Home taps. So I found B&Q 66% cheaper in that case alone.

However to be fair to Woodies, I bought a Sofa bed at around the same time for €220 verses €480 I'd seen for the same sofa for in other furniture shops.

It pays to shop around, even if you have an idea that one place would be more expensive due to past experences you can be suprised.
Click to expand...
Last winter I had to buy a new shower. They had loads in stock in B&Q, but it was 70% more expensive!

The Irish chains just don't seem to stock as much large garden stuff (Do Woodies even sell wooden sheds? Can't find any on the website!), so I often end up going to the UK chains for the more major purchases.
 
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