A short while ago Total Retail Magazine published an article titled ‘The High Risk of Low Grade MDF’ by Melanie Lester from Jazolo on the dangers of buying low-grade E2 MDF for slatwalls and panels. The brilliant article highlighted the differences between cheap MDF and the higher quality, but more expensive E1 MDF slatwall panels. In these austere times when businesses are struggling to get customers through the door, it can be tempting to cut corners where you can and go for price over quality. However is this a false economy? And what is the price you are prepared to pay for cheap, poor quality shop fittings? The main difference between E1 MDF and the cheaper E2 MDF, as Melanie Lester pointed out, is in the way they are produced. MDF is formed by fusing together timber fibre using formaldehyde as a bind. Formaldehyde is classified as a “known human carcinogen”

Since we first started trading we have tried to be as efficient with our delivery charges as possible. We started off by charging a delivery cost based on quantity of slatwall panels and the post code area they were being delivered to.  We had nine post code groups and five brackets for slatwall quantity.  This meant we had 45 different delivery charges which would be calculated by some additional coding we had done for our website.  The prices varied from £35 to as much as £155. The benefit of this was each customer would only pay the exact delivery cost for their slatwall, no more, no less. The negative was that the pricing structure was so difficult to work out that customers would be shocked by the delivery charge or they would just leave and shop elsewhere. Slatwall Delivery – Revision 1 We took onboard how difficult the pricing structure