Sun May 4 14:45:40 BST 2008
We have a Focus DIY store about a mile from where we live. It's in a fairly built-up, residential area, and people living in Shipley, Baildon or Saltaire can walk to it easily.
So why do they make it imperative to drive there? I went up to the store today, aiming to buy some timber to construct a compost bin for the yard (more on which to follow, btw). I found the timber I needed, and did some brief calculations to work out that I needed eighteen planks. I could comfortably lift three.
As such, I asked about delivery. They do deliver, but only by pre-arrangement, and only on a weekday. The cost for delivery is calculated on the basis of distance from the store, with the lowest charge being twenty pounds. For this, you could get items delivered all the way out to to Leeds, over ten miles away.
I couldn't understand this, for several reasons.
Firstly, how can it cost twenty pounds for a five minute trip? The local builder's merchant will drop stuff off in one of their flatbeds, for a fiver. The (independent and somewhat cash-strapped, so possibly not entirely representative) garden centre happily drop of a tenner's worth of compost for free after shutting up shop for the day.
Secondly, why is the delivery zone so huge? I could understand this if the Focus store were a big out-of-town DIY megastore type affair, but it isn't. No-one living in Leeds is actually going to drive all the way out to the Baildon branch of Focus, surely?
Thirdly, why the heck don't they have a transit and a couple of members of staff that can drive it? Surely there would be demand for that kind of service in that kind of store?
What immense frustration we have to bear as part and parcel of this modern life.
Once I'd finished muttering to myself and walking in tight circles round the isles of Focus I came to the conclusion that I'd have to give up on the compost bin build for the weekend. Instead, I bought some concrete to re-seat my washing line pole and nearly ruptured myself carrying it home. It turns out that a bag of gravel and crushed stone dust weighs roughly the same as a stone of the same dimensions - i.e. a metric shitload - who knew?
Since getting back the Mactaguester has pointed out to me that Crocus have a sale on a compost box currently, so I've snagged all the timber I need for thirty quid. Delivery was a fiver.