Masters Hardware to close its doors, Australia. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Muttley Snickers
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 24, 2016, 10:44:46 pm
content: As the title suggests, the word is that Masters Hardware & Faulty Goods has announced that it will close down its stores here in Australia by early December leaving 7700 odd staff to fill out an unemployment form, I’m sorry to hear this news for the people that will be directly affected but in all honesty I could care less for the company itself.Keep an eye out as there might be some bargains to be had and they have indicated a fire sale is more than likely to raise some quick cash, they do stock a couple of Fluke meters and a few good tool brands such as Gearwrench along with a number of other products that were not available elsewhere.Fire sale.http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/fire-sale-masters-announces-closing-date-20160824-gr0enp.htmlMore of the same.http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-24/metcash-to-buy-home-hardware-from-woolworths/7781606A telling tale.https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/08/24/masters-close-woolies-exits-hardware

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2016, 10:53:58 pm
content: Be carefull: they call it a fire sale to lure people in. Over here the country's biggest department store went belly-up and they also had a 'fire sale'. People went crazy over 10 or 20 percent 'discount'. Like they never had any sales with much better discounts

author: MT
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2016, 10:59:03 pm
content: Yeah, fire sale, summer super sale, scoolstart super sale, Christmas super sellout, new years eve super extra duper sale, spring break clear outs,wash outs, I newer attend those 20cent rebate heists!here Media Markt, etc, etc, electronic gadget "barn's" try that all the time. if you attend be very wary and hold tight to your wallet.

author: Muttley Snickers
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 24, 2016, 10:59:34 pm
content: Good advice, it's the stupid ones that generally get burnt in a fire sale.

author: MT
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2016, 11:18:59 pm
content: I give you an example, some years ago some of the elephants here went belly up and did a fire sale/clear out/super end sale.And did loads of advertising, people queued hours before and when the sale started just to enter a close to empty building,just a camera there, some beaten up laptop there, over in the corner a 5 year old LCD TV 10dollars, etc, etc, basically anempty building .Now, what hapend was the company owners got a bid from some other company in the bussiness so they sold the wholeinventory to them without telling people! Yeeees they did it before the adverts and fire sale! Did people get angry?

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2016, 11:53:38 pm
content: Why would you go to a hardware store? The ones in the NL seem to be filled with crap (crap quality, crap I don't need), overprized items and their assortment of quality items has shrunk to microscopic levels so they never have what I'm looking for so I order everything I need online. I build a whole shed that way and the bonus is that I don't have to haul anything myself! But I admit I can order from a 'companies only' store for professional constructors.

author: Muttley Snickers
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 25, 2016, 12:14:29 am
content: Hi wilfred, I probably worded it wrong and meant that I didn't give a rats about Masters, years ago when Bunnings first announced that it was going to open up a huge hardware chain with one of its first local stores near Northland I actually said to a mate at the time they had no hope in hell and years later said the same about Masters, hardware stores were just about everywhere already and I had a number of family members that were employed by Mitre 10 so I got staff price on all my power tools and stuff, I was wrong about Bunnings but dead right about Masters.I never imagined that Bunnings would get so big so quick but the tale of the tape shows why with all the take overs of other smaller chains, I have no interest in supporting Masters as the story linked below shows and have heard some horrific tales from people which a Google search confirms, on our first visit to the Preston store we could not get any assistance from staff members and there were none to be seen anywhere but we soon found out that if you press one of the buttons in the aisles a dozen staff members arrive in seconds flat, pretty sure two came out of boxes we were standing in front of and another two dropped from the ceiling on ropes yet none of them could offer intelligent advice in regards to our enquiry.Bunnings history.https://www.bunnings.com.au/about-us/historyMy first and last with Masters.https://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/consumer-alert-2nd-no-3rd-pass-through-the-spam-bot-filter/msg832518/#msg832518

author: Muttley Snickers
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 25, 2016, 12:22:57 am
content: That last link should read The Bad Shopping Experience Thread, don't know why it shows another title.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 25, 2016, 01:01:49 am
content: Quote from: Muttley Snickers on August 24, 2016, 10:44:46 pmWow, I didn't know it was that many people

author: Jeroen3
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 25, 2016, 06:52:29 am
content: About overpriced...Some rare CEEE socket prices are madness.Public webshop: €190Generator distributor: €120With discount: €90And from from an company that orders pallets directly from the manufacturer: €35 (that's with profit)People get rich on these things.

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 25, 2016, 09:50:02 am
content: Quote from: Jeroen3 on August 25, 2016, 06:52:29 amHow long would it take to sell a few pallets of them through a webshop?

author: Jeroen3
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 25, 2016, 10:45:59 am
content: Probably a long time. We had never seen that type of plug before.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 13, 2016, 11:24:11 am
content: Not that it really counts for much anymore but I popped into Masters today because they are the only stockist (that I've found in Sydney) of a particular plastic storage container of which I already own many of to store cables, adapters etc.. They are just really handy to have and it's pointless mixing different brands because it just doesn't work.I made enquiries before going to a particular store which showed their stock system as having a quantity of 7 of a particular size still in stock (they seem to be sold out in most stores and there is only so far I'll drive for plastic boxes). I visited and looked around in their usual places, but they had all sizes but the one I was after. I approached a lady who was sitting on a pallet of unpacked gear in the middle of an aisle. I might be wrong but she didn't look like she was waiting for anyone or anything in particular to happen. She just looked like she didn't give a crap.I asked her about the particular item and asked if she could double check the stock system, I even had the SKU on-hand to make the job easy, maybe for some reason they had allocated that particular item to a different area? Maybe they sold out between me checking and getting to the store? Who knows?She pointed generally in the direction I had just come from and told me they were around there "somewhere". I explained to her they weren't on the shelf but perhaps they might be in the warehouse or excess stock section? Could she look it up? "Nah, they won't be in there, if they aren't on the shelf, we don't have any".Honestly? I mean I feel for a lot of these workers, because for them, come December many will be out of a job. But is that a reason to treat people like crap? Luckily the next person I spoke to was far more helpful.