DIY ≥ DIY

What is Do-it-Yourself? And where does one obtain the things one needs for it? In our blinkered attitude to business, a fault to which the DIY sector is no less inclined than any other sector, those of us involved in the DIY business have fixed ideas about this. Clearly it's about electric drills, paint kettles, tiles and screws, and one buys these at the DIY store.But DIY can be also be seen as something different, some­thing more. For many consumers and many young consumers in particular, and for the print and above all online media in the lifestyle sphere that they draw their ideas from, DIY is synonymous with creative make-at-home projects beyond doing up the home. It is about crafting trendy home accessories and crocheting cosy blankets, not repairing the kitchen sink. Handmade instead of mass-produced.This theme continues into the garden. The urban gardener taking the initiative in the back yard has little in common now with the old-school gardeners, whose plots in the kitchen garden are laid out as dead straight as the edges of the front lawn, walking on which is strictly forbidden.

Can the traditional DIY store (and its garden centre) really appeal to this kind of DIY enthusiast and gardener?That's one side of the "DIY is greater than or equal to DIY" argument.The other side is that even those people whom the retail players regard as proper DIY enthusiasts and thus as their customers no longer respond solely to the overtures of the DIY stores. They are going out and shopping elsewhere entirely without a stab of conscience.This isn't new. Supermarkets have long since acquired DIY and garden departments, just as the discounters have had promotions on power tools, painting accessories and geraniums.The sales that could be transacted to the benefit of DIY store tills are flowing into many other retail sectors too, however. Furniture retailers are thus succeeding in claiming a portion of garden furniture sales and the trade sector is notching up the biggest sales in the so-called hard DIY segment.This is to say nothing of the online trade with its virtually monopolistic tendency.This topic will preoccupy the DIY trade to a much greater extent in the future. The boundaries between distribution channels are becoming…