When Homebase confirmed the closure of dozens
more stores last week, the chain cited
skyrocketing commercial rent prices and the
impact of online retail as contributors to
its collapse.
However, The Big Issue has discovered that a
familiar whipping boy is also taking the heat for a DIY
culture shift. Take a bow millennials.
Tradesmen and sector professionals have spoken
out about a significant lack of skills among millennials
that keeps them out of home improvement stores
like Homebase.
Fraser Osbourne, a Glasgow-based workman who
runs Frazman Handyman Services, says that
millennials’ DIY knowledge is too poor to manage
some of the basic tasks associated with running
a household.
“There is a serious lack of knowledge there, and
not having the proper tools to do the job. Young people
also seem to be quite time poor. That is the most
common reason given for asking me to do certain
things. Some tasks need patience and proper
preparation,” he says.
Fraser explains that the smallest jobs he is called
in to do are putting up curtain rails and assembling
f lat-pack furniture, the latter “almost always”
requested by young adults.
His comments reflect a sentiment shared by Home
Retail Group, the former owner of Homebase and
Argos, in a statement that warned against “the rise
of a generation less skilled in DIY projects” when an
initial wave of closures was announced for the home
improvements retailer in 2015.
Handyman Morgan Slavin says increased focus
on technology has been to the detriment of DIY
aptitude in millennials.
“I once went into a flooded house and there was
water coming from the kitchen, running through the
dining room and living room,” he recalls.
“I asked the young guy where the leak was and he
said the sink, so I asked why he hadn’t turned it of at
the stopcock. He didn’t know they had one... or what
it was.”
The issue has been bubbling for some time. Back
in 2015 Emma Dicks, insights director of retail
ma rketer HRG, ack nowledged a d rop i n sk i l ls a mong
young people. She said then that retailers should focus
less on large-scale repairs and more on delivering
lighter DIY projects in store to accommodate
cha ng i ng i nterest s. But m i l len n ia ls have str uck back.