One of the reasons I started this blog was to provide a forum for my thoughts on views on services/products available to everyone. This article will focus on the two big hardware stores, Bunnings and Masters, and which one I find provides a better shopping experience when searching for garden, landscape, and/or outdoor related products.
I am sure you have all heard of the recent news that Masters is for sale. It has been estimated that Woolworths could earn $1 billion dollars from the sale of the hardware giant. Whilst the sale goes through Masters will be operating business as usual.
Whilst every Bunnings and Masters store is slightly different they all share the same type of physical layout design so I won’t focus too much on that. I will begin with the outdoor furniture section. This is where I have personally found Bunnings to be a step ahead. They refer to it as their ‘Outdoor Living’ section. They stock a huge range of quality outdoor furniture in a variety of styles such as country living and contemporary. The prices are excellent and the build quality should mean that everyone receives years of use from the product they choose.
Masters on the other hand also has a large range of quality outdoor furniture. I’ve never found the range styles to be as impressive as Bunnings but the good thing about Masters is that they stock Webber products! No Australian backyard is complete without a Webber BBQ. I guess this leads us onto one of the main differences between Bunnings and Masters, the brand of products they stock. Whilst one will stock Ryobi (in this case Bunnings) the other won’t. This is no doubt to prevent needing to compete directly on price and also allows them to establish exclusive relationships with some of their suppliers.
Moving now to the gardening section. Different brands of products isn’t really a concern here. Do you honestly care where your compost mix comes from? I don’t, as long as it is good quality. In the back of my mind if I want a large range of plants, flowers and supplies to choose from, my mind automatically moves to Bunnings. I have never seen the range to be as extensive at Masters or perhaps it is just the layout of each store. Don’t get me wrong, each are both fantastic but there is just something about Bunnings which is better. If you ever need a pot or even some nifty garden accessories Bunnings is the place to go. When I was there the other week my daughter feel in love with little owl on a metal rod, every time she is outside at home she now goes up to the owl and says ‘Hello Owl’ hence where I got the name for this blog. They even had these cool ‘make your own scarecrow’ kits for children but I am sidetracked so I will come back to topic. If I want the largest range of flowers and plants I will go to a nursery such as Flower Power however if I want some popular plants and flowers at excellent prices I will head to Bunnings.
Having considered all of the above factors I get to the last section, customer service. I don’t know about you but I always find the customer service at Masters to be better than Bunnings. Maybe it is because of more staff? Or are there just more staff available because there are less customers in the store? I’m not sure but I know whenever I need a helping hand it is always much easier to find someone to assist at Masters than it is at Bunnings.
Hopefully this article has been of use to you and please drop a comment below on your thoughts.
