AN INDEPENDENT REMEMBERS
and it multiplied like buyers in a Bitcoin giveaway. I suspected that much of it came from plaster and sand and cement, despite these being packed in sealed polythene bags.
A fine balance We kept ours on a stand I’d built from 3x2 timber and 18mm chipboard, which did very well for us over the decades. Okay, so some fancy Dexion racking may have put us on a par with the local B&Queue – or at least our one tiny aisle end might – but at least I hadn’t blitzed our bank balance buying one. Many of our customers, though, especially the ones that merely dabbled in DIY, baulked at buying what they considered were big bags of plaster and stuff. So we bought some strong plastic bags and pre-weighed it into smaller packets.
Then one day the Government
Weights and Measures people came to check our weighing scales for accuracy and sundry other deviations from the straight and narrow. On any other day this would have been okay, but on this particular one we had press-ganged our families into coming along to prepare a month’s worth of these smaller bags and right then, with the immaculately dressed man and lady standing with their briefcases at the ready, the scales were being used to weigh our own packets. Having checked the scales, they asked if we ever made up our own bags, as there were special rules in place for doing so and, should we ever go down that path, then a raft of other regulations would apply. And there they stood, somehow oblivious to the table full of open bags of plaster waiting to be sealed. We shrugged our shoulders, they said goodbye and left the shop and I waited for the slight smattering of cold sweat to leave me.
Flap and Decker The previous November I’d watched the Black & Decker rep blustering along the full length of the decorating aisle to reach me. She couldn’t half leg it, even in a tight skirt. There wasn’t much time as she had a load of other calls to make. It sounded to me as if there was a bit of a flap on. “Bosch has brought out a new hammer drill,” she gasped, waiting for me to respond to this devastating news. Back in the ‘80s hammer drills were something of a luxury; difficult to believe, I know, in these days
www.diyweek.net D STEPPING BACK
ust was a constant companion – okay, not so much a friend exactly – more a hindrance. But there was no getting rid
In part 39 of his regular wander down memory lane, our resident independent DIY retailer reminisces about the good ol’ days in a simpler time.
IN TIME
where almost everyone has one, and if not then there’ll be a suitable phone app. But that was how it was back then, when dinosaurs were still fresh in some people’s memories. “It’s two-speed,” she gasped on, “and it’s intended to sell at under twenty-five quid.” I felt my jaw drop – I mean, a Bosch drill so cheap? “They’re having a crack at Black and Decker,” she went on, “to pinch some of our market.” Really? As if someone would do such a thing! She was looking worried, but I wasn’t – after all, we now stocked some of the Bosch range and I could see some extra sales on the run up to Christmas; it made little difference to me where they came from. Then, as in
lessons
if she’d been taking comedic
timing, she
announced: “So we’ve come up with THIS,” and she opened her catalogue of shiny clear plastic pockets. I can smell it now (yeah, sad, I know). I suspected the D300 – the new secret weapon – had been cobbled
up by the Spennymoor team only the night before in response to the threat from mainland Europe. “This little beauty comes with a 10 mill chuck, hammer action and, unlike the Bosch,” (cue fanfare) “it has reverse.” She watched as my eyes took in the sleek lines, the unusual orangy-pink body colour, and the full-colour packaging. Actually, I was identifying from which existing model the body had been taken, and how the reverse action – far from being a sturdy gearbox lever – was merely a small electrical switch pressed into the handle. Hmm, I could sniff economy measures. “We’ll always beat those people,” she said. “If Bosch brings out a drill that can sing, Black and Decker will bring one out that can sing and dance.” I ordered 10, not holding out much hope of them ever arriving from the wholesaler with no pulse. But they did, and sold out within a few days. I ordered one of the Bosch drills for
comparison, and was disappointed that the chuck gearing was nylon, not metal. I envisaged problems, and sure enough some of these units were indeed returned with stripped gears. However, only one of the D300s ever came back to us, some years afterwards, with a faulty reverse switch, which the customer wasn’t bothered about so I simply rewired it for forward use only and he went away happy. As
Christmas approached,
we found that these B&D £19.99 specials were available only at the earlier incarnation of Stax, of which we were not fans, yet that’s where I found myself one evening, with over 20 D300s on the trolley. The checkout loader was deeply suspicious of the quantity. I told her that buying in bulk for a shop was normal behaviour. Maybe the old Stax, like Makro, had been allowing in too many non-traders and was unfamiliar with how real shops operated.
14 FEBRUARY 2020 DIY WEEK 11
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