Halfords/B&Q

fulanoquetal

WTF is it with Halfords in Mahon. Was there yesterday and although it has been 1/2 closed for a year, the place is a tip. Its like they are having a closing down sale. There is unsorted stock all over the place, loads of items not even there, was queueing to pay and no-one at the tills. B&Q is similar....I don't think they have received screws in a year,...that section is always nearly empty...other sections come and go so you can never be sure to get what you need.

I understand that there are Brexit issues, I understand that demand has been high for some things...but come on, you are meant to be providing a service/running a business, not doing us a favor.

You have had a year to sort this out....get it done or leave.

namloc1980

Yeah was at B&Q a few times in recent months and it was similar. Half empty aisles, stuff thrown around the place and numerous items haven't been in stock for months. Screams of poor management.

ofcork

Might be brexit related i assume alot of their stock comes from the uk.

lawrencesummers

Some of the staff in both those stores are the least trained highly unmotivated that you will ever meet in retail.

The lads in Curry’s I presume are on commission and actually try and sell you things.

beer enigma

I'm in IT and procurement from the UK has been a nightmare, huge delays even with the likes of Dell and HP.

I'd imagine they are suffering as well, mate manages a Tesco store and same complaint

I tried to get 100 laptops in from UK (couldn't source elsewhere ) HMRC customs handler told me they were position 135 in the clearance list.

Kerry25x

fulanoquetal wrote: »

WTF is it with Halfords in Mahon. Was there yesterday and although it has been 1/2 closed for a year, the place is a tip.

Was Halfords half closed for a year? I've been in there a few times this year and don't remember seeing any of the store sectioned off, far as I know they've been operating normally.

fulanoquetal

Kerry25x wrote: »

Was Halfords half closed for a year? I've been in there a few times this year and don't remember seeing any of the store sectioned off, far as I know they've been operating normally.

The did have sections shut off for a while...I think the in-car entertainment was one. They used big boxes like coolers and stuff to do it. Nevertheless, for a while last year, only supermarkets and chemists were open....then other 'essential' retail opened. Even when the were open, they were allowed limited numbers.

It may be more Brexit related than pandemic but I can't help feel that these UK chains now see their Irish business as an irritation/inconvenience and will only attend to them once the main UK business is taken care of.

rob316

It's Brexit and covid related, the supply chain is ****ed for many companies. Lack of materials and freight has sent costs sky rocketing too.

bronkobilly

was in halfords liffey valley the other day nothing there no bikes shelfs half empty i asked one of the staff there are u closing down he said no stock is coming in and if it is its gone real quick

oisinog

bronkobilly wrote: »

was in halfords liffey valley the other day nothing there no bikes shelfs half empty i asked one of the staff there are u closing down he said no stock is coming in and if it is its gone real quick

Bikes are a whole different kettle of fish, pure bike shops are having difficulty getting bikes

notAMember

Supply chain is struggling globally. Covid did absolutely massive damage.

The pandemic hit the countries hard where we source a lot of things, also hit the merchant navy, container shortages, Shipping companies and manufacturers went out of business. There were huge shipping losses in the last year. This one for example One Apus

Or the beirut port explosion

Add suez canal disruption, brexit on top.

What's more surprising to me is how astonishingly well it's holding up under the circumstances. These systems are practically running on prayers at the moment, and struggling to recover under very challenging circumstances. People call out and applaud front line healthcare, but there are some seriously heroic supply chain people keeping things afloat for the last year as well. I'd expect disruption to continue for another year tbh.

Dbu

rob316 wrote: »

It's Brexit and covid related, the supply chain is ****ed for many companies. Lack of materials and freight has sent costs sky rocketing too.

Thats it in a nutshell.
We have found its actually getting worse instead of improving in 2021

Chris_5339762

I've heard that the best way to get attention in a B&Q store is to try and start a chainsaw!

Never tried it though

grogi

notAMember wrote: »

Supply chain is struggling globally. Covid did absolutely massive damage.

It's easy to simply blame COVID, but it is caused by global mismanagement (doing Just-in-time wrongly) to satisfy short-time profit.

Toyota, who invented JIT and were refining it consistently, can still produce just fine.

TheDriver

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

I've heard that the best way to get attention in a B&Q store is to try and start a chainsaw!

Never tried it though

They're prob all electric and you'd miss the 2 stroke noise as you rev it.

rob316

Dbu wrote: »

Thats it in a nutshell.
We have found its actually getting worse instead of improving in 2021

Same in our business, then you have rolling lockdowns across asia still, Vietnam, Malaysia. Lots of products and materials produced in India.

Then that Suez Canal debacle will have a knock on effect for the rest of the year.

Nightmare really

notAMember

grogi wrote: »

It's not COVID, it simply is a global mismanagement (doing Just-in-time wrongly) to satisfy short-time profit.

Toyota, who invented JIT and were refining it consistently, can still produce just fine.

Have you seen the Indian numbers? Stuff is simply not being produced when 30% of the workforce is sick or in mourning. I think it's a little flippant to say it's mismanagement.

grogi

notAMember wrote: »

Have you seen the Indian numbers? Stuff is simply not being produced when 30% of the workforce is sick or in mourning. I think it's a little flippant to say it's mismanagement.

If each one of suppliers your production capacity heavily relies on does not have an alternative, that is mismanagement.

Covid has stopped a lot of production around the globe. But only fraction of it is caused directly by lockdowns or shortage of workforce. Majority of them is caused by disruptions in the supply chains that were designed without any resilience in mind.

Flesh Gorden

B&Q get robbed blind as well with everything open on the shelf.

Knock on effect being that their systems will say things are in stock when they've been missing for months.

I used to get plumbing parts in the late evenings when nothing else was open and you had to check everything to make sure the olive rings, washers and nuts were all there.

Scattered underneath would be the empty packets that had been lifted.