Went to buy a 1 litre measuring jug from local supermarket as i had heard they where cheap (99p), had run out so went to the back plan which was
halfords (£4.29). wtf i though well used trade card and got it for £3.43 still £3.43 for a flippin plastic jug theses guys must be having a tin
bath!
Can we start a petition to show how much Halfords are ripping us off!
They aint ripping me off - I dont shop there
simple answer is don't buy it ?
i fi dont buy it i'd end up paying more in fuel than what it is worth..... 
I get my 'Halfords' items from next door, Wilkinson.
Comma hand cleaner, oil flush, redex etc, all the exact same items, but cheaper.
But like you say, if you are there is makes sense (even though its annoying) to buy it from there.
Simple supply and demand law. They had one, you needed one, you have to pay.
A bit like some of the bits available from DIY sheds. Normally a premuim for high street availability, and if you are busy on a Sunday and must get
the job done - you pay for that availability.
At least not all of the parts they sell are OTT on price.
yeh they are a bit ridiculous! my grandparents got me to do some work on thier car last weekend, had to get some paint from halfrauds, so got my dad
to go and get some while he was up there, with a paint code and everything, the juveniles behind the desk were like, dont know what that is, youve got
12 shades of that colour, pick one. He got so pissed off he walked out. Next day my nan and grandad got up early to drive down there (they dont like
traffic bless em lol ) and when they got there the bloke said oh theres no need to bring the car we know that colour its fine! grr so he goes and
tries to mix the paint then comes back 'sorry, we need and additive for paint now, and were aren't allowed to stock it.... wtf! two wasted
trips and they cant even do paints? lol its like the cheese shop sketch (monty python) sorry sir i was deliberately wasting you time sir
Anyway halfrauds rant over, and thier prices are rubbish too lol
That’s rather like when I was in M&S this woman was bitching to the checkout girl about a loaf of bread (a tiny one too) costing about £4
I was thinking well what the feck are you buying it for then?! Put it back!!!
last time I was in Halfords they made up two tins of spray paint while I waited (10 mins) and it was a good match 
actually I need to get some more
on the way home
[Edited on 27/5/09 by Mr Whippy]
i might just use it and take it back 
Surely your mum, gf, wife, granny etc. had a measuring jug in the kitchen cupboard....?
Alternatively use an old pop bottle or milk carton. If it has to be bang on accurate then fill with water to eaxclty 1kg (+ bottle weight), mark a
line and there you go.
Halfords would be paying about 50p tops for that jug BTW.
its for anti freeze so wanted something that didnt matter what happened to it, any hoo i have it now thats what is important.
first things first. i wonder how many small measuring jugs are sold in your town every week and how long that one had been there waiting for the day
you needed it. if you think they are having a "tin bath" and ripping you off then you start up " 1 litre measuring jugs R us" and
put it into a metal shed of prob at least 10,000sq ft on a retail park and maybe on 2 levels with rent of ? £20 persq ft per annum ? with rates of the
rough same and open 364 days per year and staff it with at least 3 -4 people over 11 hours per day and provide free parking and advertise your
product in the press and on tv. Lets not forget you will have to buy and pay for the product in advance with a 6 month lead time in a currency
different to the country of manufacture and of the country you retail in and deliver that product to your shop in your town and then have it there
while all the local scumbags come in and try to help themselves while you are not looking.
When some bloke ambles in and asks for one of the jugs and then presents a card so that you have to split your margin with him, then and then only
will you be entitled to make a profit of a pound or two.
If.... If.... you think you can do better than that then feel free, maybe maybe in 120 years you will have the market leading car parts leader in the
country, making a bit of a profit by providing a service to the motorists of the uk.
rant over on that bit
PAINT...
last time i had a look there were 48000 different base colours of cars manufactured in the last 10 years, let alone older than that and motorbikes
into the mix too.
i would suggest that the " juveniles" were trying to protect you from buying the wrong thing and putting it onto your car. Code must of been
partial or they would of been able to get the right one. don't really see how to criticise them for being perfectionists. I am sure had you taken
the car to them they would of gone out in all weather to establish correct info etc. As for "they cant even do paints" yes they do and thay
have done many for me over the years which have been spot on but, with a little knowledge what they cant do is mix paints that cant be mixed cos they
contain poisons or are just to toxic. Bit much to be mad at people who you are expecting to do the impossible, in fact refer to the upper part of
this and go set up " impossible car paints to mix R us" and see how your business grows.
final thought, most of these people are doing there very best for you, in often difficult circumstances for not a lot of pay.
PIF
and here I am expecting to be reading another item about Gordon Brown and his handling of the British (ie our) economy!
my point was that if my local super market can do it for 99p and still take 90% of that as profit why cant halfords??
feel free to moan about halfords and contribute to the debate..
Mac
according to your original post they cant do it though, can they. They were out of stock. we can all advertise something as cheap if we rarely have to
sell it at that.
BTW, the supermarket wont be making 90% on that. more like 5%. may be halfords have a larger mark up so prop up other parts of their less profitable
business. Does your supermarket mix paint????
[Edited on 27/5/09 by pif]
last time I went in it was for a fitting kit for the front brakes on my brothers saxo (same kit as your 106)
I only went in cause everywhere else in Edinburgh that I know had run out
I couldn't find them or the list thing, so I asked and the guy told me they'd run out of space on the shelf so they where in a pile behind
the counter 
there own brand one was £8
and the brembo one was £12 (its 4 pins and two spring clips!)
the decent motorfactor just up the road (pentland) are £6+VAT
£6.90 and out of stock versus £8 and in stock. Hardly a criminal difference.
thank halfords for that
pif, do you work for halfrauds or something?
i had a great purchase the other day a friend needed a battery for his pickup normal price 98 quid with trade card 57 great eh but they will still be
making a profit at that and the general public will have been in my mind ripped off!
i wasnt trying to be 100% acurate about the percentage profit these supermarkets make it was purely an example.
[Edited on 27/5/09 by macspeedy]
quote:
Originally posted by pif
£6.90 and out of stock versus £8 and in stock. Hardly a criminal difference.
with reference to the battery. £98 may well be the retail price for the majority of people who, lets face it only buy batteries as a distress
purchase. Again this comes back to the " we have one - you need one and this is the price of keeping it until you needed it " business
strategy.
trade cards are about recognising that some people are aware of places that specialise in some elements of halfords business with lower overheads and
a lower service expectation, and by that i don't mean the people i mean opening hours, stock availability, parking etc. trade cards are
generally given to the large spenders to get them into a place they would perceive as being expensive and surprising them. Where halfords have a good
margin, they split it with the card holder but they still have to make something on it or its not worth doing. trade prices for large spenders is not
fraud, its good retailing.
And yes Mac, I do
just bugs me when people call it fraud when a small number of staff try there often very best to help many many many customers. it is a very
successful company admittedly with its problems.
comments welcome.
I got my 'fraid' trade card because I like a bargain..
So a £90 battery was had a t the till for £55.
Message is, get a trade card and start saving!
pif, who metioned fraud?
i aint a big spender i just happen to have a trade card.. i have also seen the local motor factors, 2 or 3 diff companies at halfords.. for whatever
reason.
doesnt change the fact that that was an expensive plastic jug.
[Edited on 27/5/09 by macspeedy]
wavey lines over screen, flash back to early 90's. Driving a mk1 fiesta.
Need a part, any part, any car, any age. Go into Halfords, pick part off shelf. Think 'crikey thats cheap, it costs double that at the Main
Stealer', pay with a few pound notes. Leave and fit part. Or for a recon item, hand over oily broken one, and nice helpful chap hands over shiney
new one.
wavey lines over screen and we are back in the year 2009.
Go into Halfords. Walk past the alloy wheel stack. Put fingers in the ears as some sh!te is being blasted out over the wall of stereos. Go past the
'tuning section' and decide the big exhaust trim is not for me. Find the area where the parts are that I want. Flick through book. See the
item number I want. See the empty shelf where they should have been. Try to find employee. Employee tries to find the supervisor. Be told they
don't do them.
Go home. Try ebay, or if you are REALLY lucky you have a local factor to use. These people are the ones who used to work in Halfords, the ones who
know what parts will fit, and they have one, and its cheap. And the place smells of oil and dust.
Yet the local motor factors are a dieing bread. Why? Because they are being run out of town by Halfords and Ebay.
Sad times, Halfords used to be a good place to buy car parts. Now its not.
And mine is NOT an isolated story.
quote:
Originally posted by pif
PAINT...
last time i had a look there were 48000 different base colours of cars manufactured in the last 10 years, let alone older than that and motorbikes into the mix too.
i would suggest that the " juveniles" were trying to protect you from buying the wrong thing and putting it onto your car. Code must of been partial or they would of been able to get the right one. don't really see how to criticise them for being perfectionists. I am sure had you taken the car to them they would of gone out in all weather to establish correct info etc. As for "they cant even do paints" yes they do and thay have done many for me over the years which have been spot on but, with a little knowledge what they cant do is mix paints that cant be mixed cos they contain poisons or are just to toxic. Bit much to be mad at people who you are expecting to do the impossible, in fact refer to the upper part of this and go set up " impossible car paints to mix R us" and see how your business grows.
final thought, most of these people are doing there very best for you, in often difficult circumstances for not a lot of pay.
PIF
QD plastic jugs for 49p!!
quote:
Originally posted by Danozeman
QD plastic jugs for 49p!!
I use Halfords quite a bit. I've got a trade card, and that helps.
This is a free market economy, and people are entitled to offer whatever they want at what ever price they want.
I haven't heard anything in the news about Halfords making massive profits, so it's my guess that the prices they charge reflect their
costs.
Years ago I used to work in an off-licence. People used to come in in the evening and grunt about the prices- "it's cheaper than than this
at the co-op (which was the local supermarket at the time)" so I would say something along the lines of "Why don't you go and buy it
there?" and then they would say "It's shut" and I would say "Oh" and they never figured out I was taking the wee and
that it was up to them to either pay up, or go without, or buy the stuff they wanted at the price they wanted when the shop they wanted to buy it in
was open and had stock.
John
The theme in this that pisses me off is that you can pay the rip off prices like a lot of motorists do for parts at dealers etc and they still go
bust, with varing results, so why should i do that at halfords....
[Edited on 27/5/09 by macspeedy]
all comments accepted in good humour.
fraud was mentioned due to the constant halFRAUDs jibe.
macspeedy, will try to keep this in the good spirit of locost builders. I dont think halfords charges dealer ship prices for the majority of things
and the main difference is it will still be there in the morning to deal with any problems. As said earlier its a free economy and it always come down
to " you want one - they have one and this is the price"
hellbent345 - take that on the chin, should of been told by the first person you had contact with that paint relating to that code could not be mixed
on our system. local independant may have a way round it or may have mixed it "close", which as you say most people will never notice. Only
defence is that the first people you had contact with may have not been fully conversant with the finer detail of paint mixing and may have had a
different specialism. One thing unique about halfords is it has a broad range of product and the customers expect every body there at any minute of
any day to be a full blown expert in it but the problem with employing humans is sometimes they make mistakes. fair cop that time. ring back and
complian and get it dealt with, somebody made an error and needs to know.
pif
i worked for halfords for 5 years, the store is only as good ast the staff that are in it, the parts arnt as cheap as some places, but are cheaper than others, you know there allways open, there is one in evertown, its the luck of the draw at the end of the day take it or leave it
Wilko plastic measuring jug cost me about 50p and my wife works for a local parts shop as a Saturday driver and sometimes delivers parts to Halfords. I get discount through her account where she works and batteries usually cost us under £30 depending on size.
I'd like to point out that last Sunday afternoon I pitched up at Halfords Dunfermline lookng for a roll of toolbox liner, I'd already
checked online to confirm they had it in stock, however it could not be found in store, and they where just bout to close.
They took my phone number, sourced one in Kirkcaldy and got it delivered to the Dunfermline branch the next day, so a big up to my local Halfords
branch, btw it was £13 for a 4m roll, the best price I've seen for Sealey stuff which is almost identical is about the same price for a 2.5m roll
annd then there's always about £5 postage on top, so good value on toolbox liners IMHO.
[Edited on 27/5/09 by locogeoff]