Thread: Mysterious Pricing

Originally Posted by adeben

Now, I really do need someone to explain the commercial reasoning behind this pricing because it is obviously beyond me.

Pricing is all over the place with this sort of stuff. Some of it depends on things like buy price, e.g. was the supplier having a clearance on some size boxes etc.

The one thing that always to gets me was prices for single nuts or washers versus those in packets. At my local bunnys the Zenith brand unit prices were cheaper if you bought packets. Then for a while the single items were cheaper but recently I noticed the prices were within a few cents of each other. I hate packaging so I prefer to by as much as possible without.

This reminds me of my brother's souvenir hardware buying experience in the 1970s in a small town in one of the former USSR republics. He spent half a day walking around town with a backpack full of roubles and found nothing, eventually he found a hardware store that was selling some pretty ordinary tools but they did have some beautifully made precision engineering measuring gear like ruler straight edges, levels, squares etc. All boxed up in wooden boxes with oilpaper. There were no prices marked and after a lot of effort he established the price was ~$2 for an adjustable square so he decided to buy 5 as souvenirs. When the price came to $13 he queried what the extra $3 was for. After a lot of effort he discovered that 2 of the squares were made in 1960 and the price for those was indeed $2, but the other 3 were made in 1965 and the price for those was $3. Even 10 years they just kept the same prices as deemed by the Soviet authorities.

The person responsible for entering the products into the computer system got things the wrong way round - Code for 50,100 price, code for 100, 50 price.

It doesn't always have to be a commercial decision.

Philip.

When I bought my planer/thicknesser from timbecon they charged me substantially less than the price on display and the price in the cattle dog. I left the store a bit like the lady in the IKEA ad but when I got to the car I thought about the young bloke that rang up the sale and thought, he's stuffed it up and he will get into trouble for it. So I went back into the store and queried the price. The young bloke looked puzzled and checked the computer and he said that's the price it says on the computer so he can't get into trouble. He then went and got someone more senior who somewhat red faced said the same thing and even thanked me for drawing it to their attention. It seems like someone had indeed entered the price incorrectly into their computer.

I hate getting caught short of a particular fastener on a Sunday, and have to go to the green shed.... get to choose from the cheapest crap brand around, and pay top dollar for a blister pack of 6.... I had to buy a few M4 machine screws once, asked the guy about their price guarantee, because they would have costed about 40c at my fastener place, rather than $3-4 at Cunnings, wasn't interested!

It's known as Jackie and if you are buying screws that should be the first clue as to what's happening to you.
Regards

Originally Posted by A Duke

It's known as Jackie and if you are buying screws that should be the first clue as to what's happening to you.

Very politely put - gave me a good chuckle as well

I can't answer your question, all I know is that trying to understand the pricing structure at Bunnings is as complex and requires as much soul searching as trying to understand the origins of the universe!

I'd like to get Bunnings to price match itself. If you buy gal nuts and washers loose from the nuts and bolts aisle you pay 3 times as much as buying from the Hobson loose bins in the construction fasteners aisle.

As for Masters, I've yet to master their bin price labeling scheme. One sticker seems to serve about three rows above or below, I'm never sure which.

Originally Posted by Fuzzie

I'd like to get Bunnings to price match itself. If you buy gal nuts and washers loose from the nuts and bolts aisle you pay 3 times as much as buying from the Hobson loose bins in the construction fasteners aisle.

The ones in the blister packs should be a more expensive because the blister pack costs and the cost of packing can cost as much as the product itself. But what I have found is that this is not the case in my Bunnys. I bought some M6 and M8 nuts and washers recently and the ones in the blister packs were within cents of the ones in the bulk bins.

Originally Posted by BobL

The ones in the blister packs should be a more expensive because the blister pack costs and the cost of packing can cost as much as the product itself.

It ain't necessarily so, Bob.

If you buy 40 cents worth of screws, then its got to be nicely and inconveniently packaged and hung on a hook and the price goes up to $4. Quite simple.

Now, if you want to buy loose screws then BigChain must employ someone whop can count and labour costs money, and so the price is fairly set at $5. Even simpler.

Fair Winds

Graeme

I use Bunnies/Cunnings (I like that) as entertainment. It is a great place to LOOK to see nearly a full range of what ever. I do buy some small things from them from time to time because I may not have seen a particular item else where. They not cheap as they would have you believe. I rarely by fastenings from them, because I know that the nuts and bolts shop (locally owned and operated) or my usual hardware/builders supply company (also owned and operated by locals) can do a lot better in pricing. BUT try to buy long thread pyneboard screws. For some reason the best pricing by far for these screws is a cabinet making supplier that freights them from Newcastle. OK you have to make up an order to make the $15 freight charge work for you, but its not hard. I like to keep a fair stock of most things at home. We live 18 miles from town so you have to factor in the cost of driving there and back. I often do a "stock take" of what I have and then make up a list to top every thing. I have even extended my stocks to imperial and metric bolt and nuts. I buy loger bolts so I can shorten them depending on the application.
I was friendly with a bloke who owned an engineering shop who told me that when I moved out of town I would/should keep stocks of things because we were out of town. He was dead right.
Why don't you blokes see what you use regularly and stock up accordingly. If you are armed with a shopping list take the time to shop around and buy where you dollar goes furthest.
As I said Bunnies is great entertainment but you don't have to pay for it

Those with a smart phone or such a quick brain can do a quick calculation and determine what the price is for each item packed item. This then determines the packet that I purchase from any store.

And yes I do have a shopping list in my head and keep an eye out for items that might been needed.

Quite some time ago now I was in the right place to pick up 60mm chipboard screws for free and all I need to do was take the thing apart. It was always going to come apart so instead of a hammer I used a screw driver. About 40 odd screws that did not go into landfill and some wood.

I saw today that Sydney Tools sells Carbatec wood-turners jacket for $49. Checked at Carbatec- same thing for $59!