Masters Sale

[speewa158]

So Masters so closing & 75Mil of goodies or up for grabs . Who wants to cash up & run in for a bargain    l don't have a store anywhere near me so l will have to travel a few hours .l will bend the plastic if l see a deal .Some of their stock will be discounted slowly as they go to the XMass  finish   , are there any Swaggers that could popin from time to time & report on the $$ on stuff 
Asking Swaggers to go to a hardware store ,,,,,,,that shouldn't be to hard to do 
l am looking for a few boxes of good steel drill bits , always handy & don't start me on power tools & stuff
                                           Road Trip coming up                             

[scrapsD40]

I heard they're offering big discounts on cordless hammers. Will try and get some prices for you.

[DaveR]

I heard they are staring to offload the left hand tools 1st.

[plusnq]

I heard they are staring to offload the left hand tools 1st.

Finally 

They so rarely come on sale.

[scrapsD40]

Seems about left, afterall they're not massed produced and the tempering would be opposite

[DaveR]

I have to ask, what is wrong with Masters?
Only went in there about 4 times and each time I thought it was wrong, there was something completely wrong about it that I can't put my finger on.
Perhaps its the fridges which just looked out of place.
Any clues what it is?
Then there is the no check out chick caper, so I'd use the garden entrance.

[scrapsD40]

I have to ask, what is wrong with Masters?

Woolworths executives were involved.

[scblack]

Woolworths executives were involved.

Haha well said.

I live around the corner from Bella Vista, whenever I drive on Norwest Boulevarde I have laugh in the Head Office general direction.


(For those who may not know, Woolworths national HQ is in Bella Vista).

[Hoyks]

I was a big fan of Masters. Our local Bunnings was a seedy looking place, poorly lit, poorly maintained (lots of empty boxes on the shelves or boxes with the wrong stuff in them) and stocked with disposable Chinese crap.

So a nice new store that was well lit, clean and well stocked with better quality Chinese crap.

When I was in the US for work I bought a bunch of Kobolt tools in Lowes with the intention of them basically being disposable, but I found the gear to be good quality for the $$ and they have lasted really well. So I was more than happy when the Lowes was plonked here with the Masters banner over the door. It is a shame that it didn't catch on though.
I'll still be shopping there until such time as they close.... well, my preferred store. Bunnings have some stuff that Masters don't, same for the local Home Hardware. The Mitre 10 is a joke and dear as poison.

It did make the local Bunnings clean up their act though. The seedy store has closed and they have built 2 nice new stores... 500m from the Masters and 5km from Masters.

In Springfield Central they built a Bunnings directly across the road.
2 massive hardware stores within 100m??
Really??
There is no denying that Bunnings made a concerted effort to crush the opposition.

[Traveller]

I'm with you Hoyks, I think Bunnings are stocking more and more cheap cr*p, or huge amounts of the same stuff without much variety, and heaven help you if you want assistance. Masters does/did seem to have brands that Bunnings doesn't, and I shop at both to give myself the choice of brands.

I will certainly be sad to see them go, not only will great brands suffer less exposure, but having a giant company monopolise the hardware market won't be a good thing. "We'll beat any price by 10%" is going to be quite difficult to get if there are fewer stores in competition, which was obviously their aggressive strategy.

[scblack]

I have to ask, what is wrong with Masters?

From Masters opening, it lost $hundreds of $Millions of $Dollars per year. It was a financial black hole. I live in Baulkham Hills Sydney and have no idea of the closest Masters - though I had up to six Bunnings within 15mins drive, so I never set foot in a Masters.

It was a poorly executed economic strategy in many ways:
 - taking on a big dominator in Bunnings was always going to be risky
 - product mix was weird - who goes to a Hardware store to buy a fridge? I'd head to Good Guys or Harvey Norman, and clearly so did most people.
 - They often set up where there was already an established Bunnings.

They just tried to replicate Bunnings to compete with Wesfarmers, but clearly did not do enough customer research as their sales were always poor.

[scrapsD40]

Found out yesterday that Metcash/Mitre10 Group are looking to buy Home Hardware/J Danks Wholesale from Woolworths and merge into a new combined independent hardware group under Metcash wholesale

[Rumpig]

I have to ask, what is wrong with Masters?
Only went in there about 4 times and each time I thought it was wrong, there was something completely wrong about it that I can't put my finger on.
Perhaps its the fridges which just looked out of place.
Any clues what it is?
Then there is the no check out chick caper, so I'd use the garden entrance.

have only set foot in Masters store once, because I have about a dozen Bunnings stores that are closer to my home then the few that exist. In saying that, I have a Bretts timber and hardware a kilometre from home, if it's timber I want I get it through them, but for bigger variety of handyman stuff and get from Bunnings. At work we use Hudsons, who were just bought by Home hardware recently, which means will now become Mitre 10.

[gordo350]

I heard they're offering big discounts on cordless hammers. Will try and get some prices for you.

You mean like this one ?

[Beachman]

I have to ask, what is wrong with Masters?
Only went in there about 4 times and each time I thought it was wrong, there was something completely wrong about it that I can't put my finger on.

I personally think Masters is more of a home renovation store (Directed to the Female demographics) and Bunnings are more of a Hardware store. 

I have a Masters and Bunnings both 5 minutes from home and used to visit each store for different reasons. So for me it’s a shame Masters are closing down.

[Steffo1]

Be interesting to see what happens to their sheds.

[monbeg]

Gotta wonder about some of these places sometimes !!

[scblack]

Be interesting to see what happens to their sheds.

Bunnings are already setting up shop in a few sites.

Much of the land and warehouses have been bought out by a group of wealthy families.

[Spada]

I have to ask, what is wrong with Masters?

http://www.myswag.org/index.php?topic=46420.msg792354#msg792354

[tryagain]

I have to ask, what is wrong with Masters?
Only went in there about 4 times and each time I thought it was wrong, there was something completely wrong about it that I can't put my finger on.
Perhaps its the fridges which just looked out of place.
Any clues what it is?
Then there is the no check out chick caper, so I'd use the garden entrance.

I put it down to an over-emphasis on homewares as opposed to hardware. I think it was designed to appeal to the female demographic which the vast majority of retail is, but if you have a look in bunnings, it is one of the few places that has predominately male shoppers. I think that not right feeling is going from bunnings where it is designed for males to feel comfortable (workwear and dirty clothes and all) to somewhere that is now more designed to make your wife more comfortable, it might be "nicer" but not necessarily something you want from a hardware store, you want to feel comfortable walking into get whatever it is you need halfway through a project without thinking I feel a bit to underdressed/dirty to go there.

[Joff]

Gotta wonder about some of these places sometimes !!

that must be the premium you pay for 'keyed alike' 

[speewa158]

There is offcourse the influence of the Good Old USA , selling  " snow shovels " down under in January With stunts like that is it any wonder they went down                   

[Bird]

There is offcourse the influence of the Good Old USA , selling  " snow shovels " down under in January With stunts like that is it any wonder they went down                   

I only went in there once or twice, but selling heaters in summer was never going to work... they worked on the US calendar.

[BaseCamp]

I often wondered "WHY" -- Masters was so doomed...

I could not really fathom it...  The only thing that was a "real standout" for me - as a total goof up imho - was all the grey shelving...   Dated, and antiquated the place straight off - and you don't ever get a second chance - to make a first good impression...

And also - the below maybe another key reason - Masters did not look the part... 

Our local Bunnings was a seedy looking place, poorly lit, poorly maintained (lots of empty boxes on the shelves or boxes with the wrong stuff in them) and stocked with disposable Chinese crap.

AKA .....  "the Stack 'em high; and sell 'em low"   principle....

[Bird]

I often wondered "WHY" -- Masters was so doomed...

I could not really fathom it...  The only thing that was a "real standout" for me - as a total goof up imho - was all the grey shelving...   Dated, and antiquated the place straight off - and you don't ever get a second chance - to make a first good impression...

so flashy lights and pretty colours sells for you?
I couldn't tell you th colour of the shelves of just about any stores I go into.. strange....