Thorne's sale

[RoofTops]

Can someone who was there tell us how much hives were going for, e.g. a flat pack National?

 

[taff..]

If thornes can afford to do a majority of their business on 2 days a year, today and stoneleigh, why dont they just reduce their ordinary prices and spread the business throughout the rest of the year?

surely that easier for them

The attitude of many people in the thornes stand (mainly but not exclusively) at stoneleigh is one big reason for me not to go back there again.

 

[Roy S]

Roofs £15
Crown board £6.50
Supers £11
Brood Boxes £14
Varroa floors £11
Plastic Queen excluders £3

So for a national with 3 supers = £82.50 excluding frames(whcich were available at bargain prices!)

I ended up with a couple more hives(with four supers each) and two more spare broods, 200 sn1 frames and 100 DN4 frames among a few other bits and pieces. Well worth the trip. Found most if not all people pleasant and nothing I hadnt expected at the event. Except for the queue of people that were lining up to buy first quality stuff in the shop out front!!!!

If thornes can afford to do a majority of their business on 2 days a year, today and stoneleigh, why dont they just reduce their ordinary prices and spread the business throughout the rest of the year?

surely that easier for them

The reduced prices were only on "seconds", thornes only sell these items at shows, open days and new year sales...and are eagerly awaited by frugal and bargain hunting beekeepers. It is a good way for Thornes to offload these items, and allows people the choice over the quality of what grade items they want to buy. I was very surprised by the amount of people ignoring the bargains and still buying full priced hiveparts in the shop...each to thier own I suppose, it would be very boring World if we were all alike eh?

 

[Frisbee]

Nice pictures Roy..................but I'm sorry to say I'm not on a single one

I can see the nice lady who looked after my stuff though

And on the later pictures where most folks have gone home, there is a lady standing with her hands on hips in front of some racking..........those racks were full of rapid feeders when I got there (I only had 3)

Frisbee

 

[m100]

The pile of stuff by the tills on the middle/top left is one persons!!!

I can categorically assure you your comment is incorrect. The vast majority of that pile was purchased for Leeds Beekeepers for immediate resale to the large number of beginners we had starting this year and who already had nucs in our apiary that needed hiving in the coming weeks. The profits fund improvements at our apiary (as seen in the latest Beecraft) ...we might be able to buy a new shed for our lawnmower with the 'profits'

We didn't go mob handed though, there were just three of us in total, one to guard the pile, two to pick items. I was in the first half a dozen through the door, the other two were at least 50th, we selected and placed items on our pile over a period of about an hour, maybe more, ensuring we got some decent woodwork rather than firewood

 

[BKF Admin]

The same thing happens at the Thornes south sale,bbka association members make large piles of stock by the exit for new member purchases.

 

[Roy S]

By one persons I mean, the people you were buying for weren't there were they?.....as stated earlier, maybe associations should approach thornes directly instead of sending one or two representatives to buy in bulk.
It makes a bit of a mockery of the people who could be bothered to travel and ended up not getting everything they needed because other people were buying in bulk for people who werent even there, or maybe not even beekeepers yet!!!

 

[Frisbee]

Knowing how much stuff was in that pile I'm glad they didn't all turn up, (that was where the nice lady came from )

I can't see the problem..............a sale is a sale, it's first come first served, why should the organisers of the sale (whoever they may be) concern themselves as to who it is going to? A sale is a sale..........on the other hand what if Thornes suddenly decided "Hang on, think of all these associations, maybe we should stop having sales and sell all our seconds stuff directly to the associations, it would save all that hassle of sale day, extra staff to pay, police presence, inconvenience to the locals.............." A sale is a sale. It was well enough advertised. 1st come 1st served.

Frisbee

 

[OXFORDBEE]

Hang on, think of all these associations, maybe we should stop having sales and sell all our seconds stuff directly to the associations..

Then everyone who complains about the sale would complain there is NO sale!

 

[Frisbee]

Then everyone who complains about the sale would complain there is NO sale!

Quite..................

Frisbee

 

[Hawklord]

Problem for me is that I have no wheels at the moment so travelling to a sale is no go. What is the winter sale like? Is it the same prices and done over the website?

 

[oliver90owner]

failed linkIs it the same prices and done over the website?

Done over the web, as well as personal collection. Don't expect the prices necssarily to be the same.

I would expect that they will be advancing, unless everybody buys a plasic coolbox......and even they will be wanting extra frames -especially if they think they are going to fill like the Dartington in this pic.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_O_i1nSQ4oKE/RssdKX6DJmI/AAAAAAAAABo/93ZQrPtvukw/s1600-h/DSC08467s.jpg

Regards, RAB

 

[Hawklord]

A beehive with a hole in the middle, nice. Any dates for the sale this winter?

 

[oliver90owner]

Any dates for the sale this winter?

Usually January? If you are a Thorne's (internet?) customer, Gill circulates emails to inform all. Ads in Beecraft and, presumably, other publications.

Does the hole matter? Probably the only one with capped honey and has been taken away for extraction?; or they ran out of frames? Perhaps we should have a competition for the best caption?

Regards, RAB

 

[Finno]

A super short of a beehive!

 

[Hawklord]

'Robin Dartington's long hive - super short version.'

 

[Frisbee]

Problem for me is that I have no wheels at the moment so travelling to a sale is no go. What is the winter sale like? Is it the same prices and done over the website?

I ordered some stuff. I had 3 x brood boxes, economy floors and roofs, they worked out at £50 per set. Once you have over £100 worth of stuff the postage is free. They arrived within a day or two. It is in January as previously mentioned and goes on for a while. They also mention it in the online catalogue. It was all very simple. I did enjoy visiting the summer sale........once I'd got over the shock...........

Frisbee

 

[DrNick]

Knowing how much stuff was in that pile I'm glad they didn't all turn up, (that was where the nice lady came from )

Frisbee

Hi Frisbee,
The "nice lady" is ribblesbees, we were there just buying for ourselves, though we did spend £200+ which is a lot of stuff when much of it is at half price.

 

[Frisbee]

The "nice lady" is ribblesbees,

Ahhhhh..........

Frisbee

 

[ribblesbees]

Hi Frisbee,
The "nice lady" is ribblesbees, we were there just buying for ourselves, though we did spend £200+ which is a lot of stuff when much of it is at half price.

That's if you got the right picture and the right person. I was there 'guarding' for us and sort of helped other people.