A Call to all kit brewers - Email Wilko's

[chopperswookie]

i love homebrew shops but the nearest one to me is about 4.4 miles (salford) and 8 miles (stockport). however i have 2 wilkos less than a mile away. so my logic is for the basics wilkos, for the more specialised, grains, spraymalt, hops, have a day out to stockport. i am like a number of posters on here that are losing confidence with online ordering (keep up the posts of good onlne brewshops!) and would prefer to go to a shop but it is lack of choice.

Here is the response from my email to the monster that is wilkos -

Dear Mr Harris

Thank you for your recent e-mail.

I will ensure the buyer is made aware of your valuable suggestion so they may consider it when undertaking a range review.

Kind Regards

Susan

[Lister]

I have personally used the-online-homebrew-company.co.uk but i have to agree with the arguement towards wilkos adding more range to what they have..

saying that i dont have a local HBS near me but would love to see one and the nearest wilkos that does homebrew (not all of them do) is about 8 miles away, so with me if i am going in that direction anyway i will pop in and grab some bits otherwise i tend to order online and as a single parent on benifits i quite simply dont have the money to spare to pay more for things so the cheaper the better for me and i can never afford to buy enough to get the free shipping deals lol.

so i have emailed wilkos for 2 reasons the first is stated in the original post and second to try and get the wilkos near me doing homebrew kits.

[araldite]

Lister
in that position i would make good use of wilcos they are good for price, better to buy from wilcos than get out of the hobby altogether surely.

You spend what you can afford, are there any online shops that have cheapish delivery.?

[Lister]

araldite

since posting last i have found a homebrew shop that is moving to within a reasonable distance from me in november already made a trip up to them ( i see why they want a bigger premisis lol) and i have to say the advise was invaluble. and i have also bought some bits from online shops the one i visited i found from there website online.

also have discovered with wilkos they will deliver to your local store if you order online but i think i will still make a trip to the homebrew shop (once it re-locates) on a semi regular basis.

[bevvy_merchant]

can i raise this thread from the dead.

a word of warning, if you dont support your LHBS it will disappear. as i write this there is 1 HBS in the east of Scotland and that is based in Edinburgh, yes 1 shop for the whole of the east coast of Scotland. its all fine and well ordering from an online shop but there is no substitute for the touchy feely you get in a shop where you can talk to the owner and get tips and tricks.

[dedken]

if wilko's can make a profit on them and other HB stores who sell them for 14.99 can then so can all the others.

Wilko's - loss leader - probably don't make much of a profit at all on their homwbrew range, but how many other things do you end up buying when you pop in to buy a cheapo tin of homebrew? I think I'd prefer it if it stayed the way it is, even if my local homebrew stores are much further afield and more expensive. It makes me value their range and the fact that I can get personal advice from enthusiastic people when I go there. Nothing wrong with your sentiment though, we'd all like to be able to reduce the costs of our hobbies, but that is just like everything else in life. Ultimately I think that most of us probably don't do it just to make cheap booze - I do it because it's creative, fun and I love the science behind it.

[AlexCricket]

I don't have a WIlko's near me.

However, I have to say that I have used online specialists and I think that the range of products offered and the quality is second to none.

I know that many think of the Woodfordes offered by Wilko's as cheap - but seeming as I have suffered with every two can kit I have done so far - with the sole exception of the St Peter's Ruby - I think that they can keep their Wherry. I would far rather have a Cooper's kit plus DSM for the money thanks. And if the only penalty I suffer is I have to order 4/5 kits at a time to make up the order then so be it.

[Naich]

Luckily my LHBS is literally at the end of the road. Unluckily, it's about 50% more expensive than anywhere online. It's handy when I need something there and then, but I just can't afford to buy everything from them. For example, a King Keg Top Tap is an eye watering 65 quid from the LHBS but 45 quid anywhere online.