How much have high street Do It Yourself stores changed recently?

DIY stores have changed over the last twenty years or so. As a matter of fact DIY did not have the same influence on our lives then, as it does currently. At that time when you needed some particular ironmongery products you frequented your local hardware or ironmongery store and you talked with the shopkeeper, who would then walk right into the bowels of their shop and try to find whatever it was that you needed from a very restricted selection of products. Now, modern DIY shops are all self-service, may contain as many as 20,000 lines in stock, covering just about every sort of ironmongery product and numerous tools. In addition, you're just as likely to be served by a teenager, pensioner, male or female.

This change has not simply occurred by accident, but has happened due to the need for retailers to change to meet their customers’ requirements over many years. Certainly, nowadays more people than ever own their own house, there is certainly more of a need to be different and to have a residence be proud of and, of course, Do It Yourself has therefore become a pastime for many.

Nowadays, when getting any work done labour costs can now outweigh the price of the materials themselves. In fact, lots of prices of some materials are really less expensive than was the case a decade ago, yet the cost of labour has increased several times over. If one thinks about the difference in cost it's surely not surprising that more people than ever are attracted to saving hard earned cash by taking the option of Do It Yourself instead.

There is a less obvious change too though. Namely that Do It Yourself is now a domain ruled by women. Large companies now recognise that it is the women who make most of the decisions associated with the home and this is revealed regularly in analysis of their customer base. In fact, DIY is now more akin to the fashion business in many ways, with even top fashion designers, creating wallpapers and particular colours of paint. Because of this shift towards much more female involvement in the whole process, the shops are arranged to showcase a fully room - say a bathroom or living area. They no longer just showing tins of paint, but additionally displaying matching wallpaper, rugs, furniture and also accessories.

Naturally, we see our gardens as an extension of our homes too. Outdoor plastic tables and chairs are being changed to timber or aluminium or wicker whilst the BBQ has grown such that it can cook enough food to feed the entire street.

It should be said that whilst all of this is definitely true of the larger DIY shops, there are still some smaller more traditional ironmongery and hardware stores to be found that offer a more traditional experience. These are becoming increasingly less common though as nowadays even specialist hardware materials supplies can even be purchased online via sites such as Construction Supplies Hardware Limited.

They say our house is our castle, yet it is now even more than that. We now try to turn our homes into palaces, a place to live our lives fully, and it appears the DIY store has become a preferred destination to help us accomplish that.