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No Bunnings deals anymore e.g. power tools. I think Australians have made a mistake overly criticising (and not supporting) Masters.
No Bunnings deals anymore
louuisc on 13/01/2017 - 01:26
Last edited 13/01/2017 - 12:28
Last edited 13/01/2017 - 12:28
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Yup, everyone bashed masters. I quite liked it, not quite as cheap but pretty close. Now bunnings has a monopoly and everyone will suffer for it.
been to 3/4 bunnings recently, all I can say the prices are 3x more expensive than masters
e.g Tile paint was $21 normally for 907 ml in masters, $84 for 500 ml in Bunnings now.No more sales or markdowns, WE ARE GETTING RIPPED OFF, we don't have any choice.
I wonder if anyone complained to ACCC yet!!
GOVT should have supported Masters to protect jobs and competition
were they the exact same brand of tile paint? that flood tile paint is hopeless compared to white knight.
and btw, white knight tile paint is pretty much identical to another primer they have, they just re-can it as tile paint and sell it for twice the price.i bought some masters decking oil (miniwax brand) that was much cheaper than cabots at bunnings.
but it didn't seem nearly as good.. (i'm still running tests on it though)Rostueluem brand vs white king
It's all well and good to say Bunnings is a rip off and masters was good competition, but it's not up to our government to prop up private business. If a business can't get their shit right and act in the best interest of their customers, their staff, themselves and their local community, that is their problem. Masters died because Woolworths are terrible at building and sustaining their businesses. Woolworths supermarkets are a no brainer because they've a brand that's been established for generations of Australians. Masters and Dick Smith were mismanaged and for a conglomerate such as Woolworths, that's unacceptable. They didn't learn from the demise of Duck Smith and its guaranteed they haven't learnt from the demise of Masters. Managers and executives never blame themselves or their learnt business theory. They always blame the customer, the economic times, the government not boosting the economy,..
Agreed but govt does create subsidies when a big business and major industry gets impacted, not sure what's the worth of hardware industry
At any rate not assuming not as big as automotive industryI would suggest that government would only assist where the impact on jobs and economy adversely affects the wider Australian community and there is some kind of guarantee that the government and Australia will have a win out of it…
I supported Masters, going to their inconveniently located stores with poor thought out stock and unclear market direction. I think if they had a well thought out business plan they would grow into the market but they were unable to turn it around.
Everyone supports competition but Masters demise was solely bought about by themselves.We never had Masters in TAS, so I haven't noticed a difference with Bunnings lately, but luckily we have k&d and Mitre10 stores scattered around to provide competition, usually offering similar prices. Sometimes it's a tad more expensive but they give a discount for RACT members which generally brings it back in line.
Unfortunately the range at Bunnings is often a lot bigger. My most recent purchase was an outdoor umbrella, so instead of having 2 or 3 to choose from at Mitre10, Bunnings have around 10-15 across a wider range of prices. Ended up doing a deal with the outdoor woman at Mitre10 for a display model, so it worked out much cheaper than Bunnings in the end anyway. Service is still important it seems!
k&d were useless, their website listed various options in stock, but no stock in store at all… the guys laughed and said to ignore website, it was never accurate. They could get one in for me though, expected date sometime in September…
The average bunnings store has over 40 000 products in it things get marked down all the time depends on what shop you go to and what item it is so much crap has been written about bunnings in recent times price's go up in all stores whether its a hardware or grocery store etc etc.
Each bunnings store is only as good as the management who run it!!!
Bunnings is a low cost operator which means not many employee's to service the customers!!
The consumer want's a one stop shop where they can get everything under one roof they don't want to go to 4 different shops, that's one reason why the smaller shops couldn't compete because people wanted a bigger range to choose from!!!
My local Mitre10 has bad service. The staff are rude once i took mum in to get some stuff and she ended up in a argument with a staff member she full raged lol. Generally for better tools and parts you need to go to a proper tool shop. Bunnings doesn't stock what you need. Building supplies shops are usually cheaper then Bunnings plus you have stores like reece plumbing. You still have the small independent hardware shops and Bigw and kmart stock cheap odd parts.
Bunnings didn't stock the same products as masters. And whenever I compared anything similar, Bunnings always had the better price.
Literally the only times I went into masters was when there was a special on that was listed here.
This sums up exactly my experience as well. Pretty much every product I bought as Masters (ultimately not many) was because of a deal. On regular items Bunnings were the same price, if not cheaper. And they are much closer to me.
However yes even if I never bought anything from Masters, at least it seemed to pressure Bunnings more into more deals here and there. These days I have to either spot a good local store clearance special, or when Aldi a special buy of an equivalent product.Masters has better quality in general.
Who buys power tools from bunnings or masters anyway?
I'm just a weekend DIY user and currently doing research re power tool shops. Could you give us some good shop names to start with.
For a weekend DIY user, Ryobi suffices. Even Ozito will do the job.
No need to go nuts with Milwaukee. Makita or DeWalt.Online stores like TotalTools, GetToolsDirect, SydneyTools are ok
NotMasters Ltd
(A business name sure to attract thousands of customers and free publicity, Website naming rights for http://www.notmasters.com.au available). lol
Bunnings is so much more convenient for returns and refunds. Never had an issue with a return and they even refunded me the $300 price difference on the vuly trampoline from a post a few weeks ago
Agree with this. Bunnings return policy is so relaxed I never have to worry about what I buy.
I bought a clothes line forgot about it and started assembling it 2 years later. The quality of the one I got was terrible, I took it back opened and partly assembled and they let me swap it for a better model with no hassles
Buy from a group of stores part of CSS Construction Supply Specialists - trade range only and competitive. Or members of HBT Hardware group
Walking into masters reminded me of my first day in high school
High expectations and let down huh?
After spending 30 to 40k in the Carrum Downs Store as a professional house renovator, I presented one of their coupons to get 10 or 20% off paint and they would no honour it saying they hadn't seen one of these in a while so they weren't sure and I'd have to come back tomorrow to talk to someone else. They made me feel like a criminal.
That was the end for me. After that I basically went to 10% discount price match only. I was buying table saw blades and price matching them. An online hardware store was basically fire selling the same blades so after the 10% price guarantee $85 came down to about $27.
My closest Masters was 100km away, so it was never worth visiting.
I had the same problem, I would have went to Masters if they'd opened one closer to me.
Funnily enough they reserved a spot on a site closer to me and then left it vacant for years. I was disappointed when I found out they were closing down.
A dodgy thing Bunnings does is they say "find it cheaper and we'll beat it by 10%" which sounds great. The problem? Bunnings has a lot of exclusive lines which only they carry so it is impossible to find it cheaper because no one else can carry it.
Bunnings was closer to me than Masters, but cheaper than Mitre 10 (which is even closer). I wish they had chosen better locations.
My University Prof was actually contracted to help the marketing team over at Masters. His analysis is; even though the prices are similar, "elements such as better lighting, cleaner floors and overly excited/annoying associates are why it failed." People just assumed Masters was more expensive while they were the similarly priced. The target market ie. tradies and DYI experts is where the money is really at, (no shit lol) whereas Masters was targeting the millennial/non experts held a smaller marketshare. Masters was doomed from the beginning from a marketing perspective targeting the wrong audience. There was "Rumors" that Lowes (Also part owners of Masters) did not understand the Aussie market and management style as well, that however is a whole difference can of worms ahahahha.
Spot on. They, like a lot of failing ventures goes out and employs people to tell them what to do, without just taking advice from its customers. At my local Masters I told the Manager the plasterboard in trade is stored incorrectly it should be laying flat on pallets not just sitting on the racking, meaning it was bent and unhangable, response we'll look into it. They didn't fix that problem in 6 months. Meaning ANYBODY that hangs plaster wo t bother to go in, and masters also missed all the associated purchases. Ridiculous.
Agreed, they were following Lowes layout and Masters look very similar to it, which I guess appealed to the American market.
Something will pop up, eventually.
Bunnings playing Aussie Monopoly atm!
Does anyone else think it's hilariously ironic that people are complaining about the lack of Bunnings deals, and wishing that Masters was still around solely so as to pressure Bunnings to do better/cheaper deals, so they can shop at Bunnings?
Is anybody wishing Masters was still around so that they could enjoy Masters awesome regular prices?
Masters was a garbage fire. I'm just annoyed that people on the ground floor lost their jobs, whilst the twits upstairs making all the dumb decisions waltzed away.
I wish Masters was still around cos I was able to purchase things and find parking quicker prior to the closing down sale.
I scored some awesome stuff during the Friday night price wars and when they participated in the eBay 20% off sales. Sometimes the stars aligned and they had catalogue items at the same time as the eBay sale. I call it bargainception.
Woolworths senior management have no idea… they crashed Masters through incompetence and the same is now happening to Big W.
They still collect their fat bonuses though.. :-(
Masters expanded too quickly, hence they failed.
"Lower prices are just the beginning …", now we are trapped and done.
The problem with Masters was distribution (at least in Victoria). Every single one of their stores was located in metro Melbourne. I live in one of the big rural cities and the only option I had was Bunnings (2 of them within 15 mins drive!).
All they needed was 1 store in each of the big rural cities and I guarantee they would've been much more competitive, as it would've given people like me another option other than Bunnings.
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Yeah it's pretty bad now. I wanted to try matters but they were simply too far to get to. Also staff aren't as knowledgeable.
That's no competition now it stinks