Bunnings v Masters

[buggerlugs]

http://www.news.com.au/finance/busin...-1227493455474
I use Bunnings. Can't see that much difference between the two thou. Bunnings has a good trade card. Never really warmed to Masters. Looks like I'm not the only one.................

[Tokyo Geoff]

I love Masters and I think they have a better range and nicer stores. I recently was recommended to go to Masters while at Bunnings to buy a Japanese Tajimi push-pull saw, and its 200m closer

[The Yeti]

They both only have enough to get you into trouble not enough to finish the job with out going to another Bunnings / Masters, there for thy both suck **** so it's a nil all draw

[LG17]

I use both. - Toowoomba Masters is fantastic for service as is Bunnings at Warner. Most of the Bunnings stores the hired help run for cover if they see a customer coming their way.
Off the shelf pricing at Masters is usually more but they will deal if you're serious about buying. I've saved heaps recently.
Bunnings seems to have more cheap crap than Masters as well.

[Captain Stubing]

Originally Posted by LG17

I use both. - Toowoomba Masters is fantastic for service as is Bunnings at Warner. Most of the Bunnings stores the hired help run for cover if they see a customer coming their way.
Off the shelf pricing at Masters is usually more but they will deal if you're serious about buying. I've saved heaps recently.
Bunnings seems to have more cheap crap than Masters as well.

Bunnings at Warner is still new, so the staff aren't jaded yet!

Bunnings seems to have more of a hardware feel to it, Masters seems almost sterile in some way..

LG17 - you do a lot of travel to get your bits and pieces!

[Ben73]

Newcastle only has Bunnings stores, I find it weird that masters hasn't moved in yet. I have been to Masters at Rutherford and think I prefer it. But it's a tough call since I have only been once.

[MDS69]

Bunnings is a hardware with some homewares
Masters is homewares with some hardware

Having said that I went into my first Masters last weekend at Rouse hill and it was nice and fresh. Probably the shelving colour had something to do with that. Staff were very friendly. My local Bunnings is good and about 60% of the time you can find someone to assist if you need it.

The Masters fastners section was all in roller drawer which keeps everything neat. I was looking at some storage tubs at Masters and they had them in the garage storage section and homeware section and seriously they were on diagonally opposite corners of the store.

[XCH00N]

Originally Posted by Ben73

Newcastle only has Bunnings stores, I find it weird that masters hasn't moved in yet. I have been to Masters at Rutherford and think I prefer it. But it's a tough call since I have only been once.

There is also a Masters at Raymond Terrace (If your keen enough to go out there lol)

[arronm]

Masters has better and cheaper hotdogs

[LG17]

Originally Posted by swanny

Bunnings at Warner is still new, so the staff aren't jaded yet!

Bunnings seems to have more of a hardware feel to it, Masters seems almost sterile in some way..

LG17 - you do a lot of travel to get your bits and pieces!

I live in the bush - my nearest big hardware is Toowoomba but I often have to travel to Brisbane so Moronfield and Warner can be on the way. I combine trips as I already do 10000km about every 4 months. I find the industrial estate at Brendale/Warner quite handy for pricing and availability.

[marty351]

Went to masters to get a simple door pull handle, service was excellent, 10/10.
But they didn't have one!
Went to bunnings next door, walk to the door hardware isle, without even trying to find it, staring right in front me.

[Franco Cozzo]

Bunnings staff used to be a pack of flogs and they would only have 1 person per 4 aisles, then when Masters opened up they pretty much made the sun shine out my *** and if i asked them to polish my shoes they would have.

Its good having Masters around, Bunnings needs some competition.

I like Masters personally, friendly staff, nicer looking building but I wouldn't buy nuts/bolts/pop rivets etc from them, places like Metric Men or First Choice Industrial Suppliers are cheaper and you can buy in bulk.

[Itsme]

Bunnings & Masters gives you "The best of both worlds".

More choice when needed.

[mik]

never been to masters, as there's a huge bunnings 5 minutes down the road from me, if i can make one observation about a lot of these big stores and bunnings, 10 cash registers and one staff member at the till , i suppose to be fair they do have the self serve credit card only section , but if you have a heap of items and dont want to use plastic and prefer to have the luxury of being served in a timely manner, its too bad.

[LTD Ute]

If you want better product, go to Masters and that includes tools,
fixings, stainless bits and especially higher grade timber.
And remember, they both better the oppositions price on same product.

[nstg8a]

I use both, and where I am we have Bunnings literally right next door to masters.

I do like the ability of getting a maccas milkshake while I'm walking round masters though.

Read an article earlier saying that Woolworths is facing shareholder pressure to dump masters. 700 million financial loss...

[b0son]

Originally Posted by nstg8a

I do like the ability of getting a maccas milkshake while I'm walking round masters though.

The McD in my local Masters just closed down ... I wonder if they're planning on leaving altogether? Clearly, the stores aren't getting anywhere near the traffic expected.

[comagutsa]

i go to both but the only reason i use bunnings more is because i can get a coffee and feed ...dont get anything in master in WA

[mr smith]

Both are rubbish and full of Chinese made junk. Go to a proper tool place while you still can.

[LG17]

'A proper tool place' - and buy the same Chinese made junk with a different coat of paint? ;)

[nstg8a]

Originally Posted by mr smith

Both are rubbish and full of Chinese made junk. Go to a proper tool place while you still can.

We get in a lot of stock for 'trade tools' and it all comes from Asia. Definitely better quality though.

[danzvtil]

My company supplies both Bunnings and Masters, I spend a large part of my day in one or the other. Adelaide has only now got a masters at the airport, and about to get 2 more in short succession. The threat of masters is why every Bunnings store has been relayed and rejigged several times in the last year, and why EVERY Bunnings staff member makes eye contact and says HI. West farmers haven't taken the threat lying down, this is all great for the consumer.

[LTDHO]

I go to Masters, only to leave and go to Bunnings and get what i need.

Also, I hear that Mitre 10 stores are closing as they can no longer compete.

[rex351]

The Home Hardware store here closed a couple of months ago, local family business gone because of Bunnings (which opened 12 months ago). Local Mitre 10 store is struggling too and doesn't look like recovering. All in a town of 13,000 people....

[You Yangs]

Originally Posted by mik

never been to masters, as there's a huge bunnings 5 minutes down the road from me, if i can make one observation about a lot of these big stores and bunnings, 10 cash registers and one staff member at the till , i suppose to be fair they do have the self serve credit card only section , but if you have a heap of items and dont want to use plastic and prefer to have the luxury of being served in a timely manner, its too bad.

First rule in retail, DON'T MAKE CUSTOMERS WAIT TO HAND OVER MONEY!!!

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by rex351

The Home Hardware store here closed a couple of months ago, local family business gone because of Bunnings (which opened 12 months ago). Local Mitre 10 store is struggling too and doesn't look like recovering. All in a town of 13,000 people....

We've got a local mitre10 which is now Thriftylink, some kids I went to high school with are the new owners of it.

Bunnings is only 20 mins down the road, be interesting to see how they go.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Have had interesting experiences in both.

I bought and paid for a mobile scaffold from Masters. At the same time I expressed my interest in booking a fund raising BBQ. I left my name in a book for the BBQ with a promise of a call back as the person didn't know how they worked.

The scaffold went out of stock as I purchased (I got the ticket for it, paid for it and in that time a person took the last one with 4 guys and carried it through the till and paid for it and left).

No worries, left my details and was promised that I would get one in 2 weeks delivered from another store, I would get a call to come and collect it.

Left the receipt in the glove box, glove box got cleaned before tax time of all receipts and got lost. Never got the call, totally forgot about it actually.

Went back to Masters around 3 months later and asked about my scaffold. Spoke to the customer service person for 25 minutes about my options (between her helping others). She told me that without the receipt I was out of luck. They could find no record of my recorded details and no record of my payment etc.

I even told them the exact time / day of the purchase and she told me that she could do nothing for me.

Went home to look for the receipt and had no luck. Another month passed and the wifey asked me what ever happened to the scaffold I ordered? Told her the story and she said that was BS and go back and ask for a manager.

Went back in, and low and behold the same lass was behind the counter. I asked he straight up, can I see the manager and she asked why and I told her because last time I was here you couldn't help me.

The manager came, and all of a sudden he had all these options and ways to find my transaction using the dates and card details. They even were able to re-print my receipt. All this was done by the same person who had told me previously that NOTHING could be done without my original receipt.

During the process of searching for my transaction I questioned her about why she didn't suggest / do this for me last time I was in and she said she did not recall ever speaking to me.. it was only 3 or 4 weeks prior so that comment was total BS too.

Oh, the BBQ?? Yeah, I asked about that too. They have no idea what book I recorded my details in (for both the order and the BBQ) but they pulled out an official looking BBQ booking folder and was promptly told that they is a waiting list of at least 6 MONTHS AFTER the bookings that ended at the end of the year (so lets just call it 9-12 months)... and that my name was to go at the bottom of the list, even thought I was in there 5 months ago when I got my scaffold lol...

Seriously... I know they are new to this but come on, get your act together!

I'm going in this week to finally pick up my scaffold, I should ask to see how the waiting list for the BBQ's is going? They will probably tell me they don't know where the book is..

Bunnings has more variety I think, and more cheap stuff - I wanted some cheap metal handles and masters had them for like $6 each and Bunnings had similar for $1.92.
I needed a repair piece for Gyprock and I know Bunnings sell them but Masters don't. They also have a good system of booking BBQ's and don't show a customer a waiting list of all the people before them with all their personal details...

I do feel for the Masters workers and hope they don't get out of a job. The irony is that Bunnings will probably buy them out on the cheap and have a whole new bunch of ready to go sites to add to their portfolio.

And the guy in the Masters add... I don't know, he seems more the accountant / pencil pusher than the hands on guy that works with tools, however he has been more aggressive (Manly??) in his demeanour in the most recent adds....

Wesfarmers are huge, anyone remember when Mr Harvey tried to take on Officeworks with his own brand (I think it was called "Ofis") and they crashed and burnt soon after opening with huge losses...

[Kieron]

Originally Posted by MDS69

Bunnings is a hardware with some homewares
Masters is homewares with some hardware

Agreed.

If both stores sell the same item I need, i'll simply buy it from the cheapest one as they are virtually next door to each other in my area (I was told Bunnings had a policy of opening/moving a store next to Masters).

I find Bunnings seem to employ ex tradies and generally more knowledgeable staff than Masters so if i'm after assistance, i'll go to Bunnings.

[b0son]

I find the staff at Bunnings next to useless. They just don't want to help if its not an easy enquiry. I've asked about specific items that were on their website, had part numbers, etc. If they could have been bothered, they'd have been able to find said part on their system and give me an idea where to look, but they just couldn't be bothered and responded with the ubiquitous 'try our Bunnings store at...'.

Masters, couldn't be more different. If I could find the part number on their website, they'd happily look it up on their system, and walk the store with me until we found it. I've even gone in looking for items they put into storage over summer (eg. firepit, only sold in winter). They'd look for them, get them out of storage, and let me know a few days later when it was ready for pickup.

Bunnings did improve their customer service for a little while, but now that its clear Masters are still making losses and Bunnings continue to build market share, they've gone back to resting on their laurels.

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

About three weeks ago was at Masters in Taree, they did not have what I needed, so I walked out and had a sausage sandwich in the car park, then drove across town to Bunnings, they had what I needed and the sausage sandwich was better, and you could have mustard.