Dick Smith Exposed

Late seventies (79?). Sid McKitrick, Mark Sutton, and a Brian who's last name I can't remember, he was a good bloke - worse I can't remember the name of a mate who came over from the Buranda store - Michael Hodges.

I have never heard that (lost money). Just running some numbers it would indeed be true if the customer only bought a couple of resistors or caps. Service was faster/cheaper back then as you did not have to record part numbers, and if a customer asked for something by device name ( a

741) most of the staff could just turn around and pick it out of the parts trays.

Except for one guy called Cyril M. He was retired. He was sort of a sad guy. Every time, he'd come to the counter with a switch or something and ask if you had one that was a specific colour or shape or size or something. Of course the answer was "No", and then he'd take 10 minuets telling you why he needed one that was different, but he would take this one if you were sure that was all you had because ... (another 5 minutes. We used to dread him especially on busy days (it made no difference to him), but when he wasn't in our store he was doing the same at Delsound, St Lucia, and other Dick Smith stores.

I never heard of the theft rate being a problem although we never caught a shoplifter despite what the sign said. Our stock takes came in within

1% of the expected value so Chermside at least did OK. We had a casual who used to help himself to the till but when it was figured out who it was he was let go.

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We have failed to address the fundamental truth that endless growth is 
impossible in a finite world.

He didn't have to make a profit on sales of each resistor, only on the business overall. If DSE decided not to sell resistors because selling them one or two at a time was not profitable, then he would have found less people coming in for the profitable items.

But before you make those criticisms. Dick Smith used to pride itself on being on of the countries *20* *most* *profitable* business so they were raking it in hand-over-fist. The only things they didn't have big margins on were brand name items like their TEAC amp, Weller and Scope soldering irons.

--
We have failed to address the fundamental truth that endless growth is 
impossible in a finite world.

It's totally up to a business owner if he wants to make a loss in one area to gain business in other. Or would you have preferred a minimum order quantity of 1000? Maybe that's just not a good example for mark-ups.

Profitable can also mean that the business is run more efficiently than others. Or that they pay less in wholesale. The retail price depends very much on the demand and the competition. I can't judge DS cause I don't know any details.

There are, however, a few strange things happening in Aussie retail. Why ARE Ikea bits so much cheaper in other countries? How come we pay so much more for cars than Americans, e.g.? Why is much of the electronic goods here yesterday's technology? All things that must have a reason I don't know. Maybe you do?

Indeed. Well, AFAIK Dick did sell his name and image, so... OTOH, if I were him, I'd be trying to divorce myself from the DSE brand as much as possible at this point. Perhaps he ought to change his name by deed poll!

"TonyS"

** DSE only began to go well when a wholesale division was set up to * import nearly everything* in the shops. It started with CB radios and then components, gadgets, phones and computers.

It meant DSE was competing with virtually nobody and his retail margins were very high.

** The markets there will not tolerate higher prices.

Manufacturers everywhere try to set the prices in each country they sell into to suit the local market - in some places sales volumes are high and the margins are small and in other places it's the opposite.

With famous brand products - the foreign manufacturer sets the price and the local importers have little say.

... Phil

ut.

ain

s r

The good old days.

Now they are a company that sells items that everyone else sells, such as phones, cameras, computers, tv's, basic hifi systems and so on.

At our local DS, they have got within a short distance Harvey Norman, Good Guys etc who (here) sell most of the DSE range, as well as others such as Officeworks and Telstra, Optus etc mobile phone dealers who also compete with them on some of DS's items such as computers, cameras and mobile phones.

In other words, what was once a store that was fairly unique back then is now is "just another consumer electronics" store and are subject to heavy competition in most of their lines. While I'm not saying that sticking to the traditional DSE format would have raked in huge profits, I do think that those who did still go there to buy components or similar, (and don't now) may also have liked or needed other things that they see while in there and made an impulse purchase. It may also have been the preferred place to buy that TV, PC etc as they were used to going there in the first place, know what they stock, know the staff, know where the store is etc.

How much of a factor this was in the real world of retail I have no idea, but Im sure (I hope) it was considered before deciding to dump the component range.

Now they just go anywhere - like everyone else.

In Porirua there was a Dick Smith right next to a LockSmith. Nice signs and all.

geoff

Wasn't there some rumoured rider they had to keep selling components and other basic items to retain the Dick Smith 'endorsement' and naming rights, given that was what Dick was so enthusiastic about making available to budding tecnical generations ?

geoff

What about the Yellow Pages ad which listed Dick Jones cleaning service as Jones Dick cleaning service?

Possibly the rider was only for a set amount of years? I've no idea if such a rider existed or not though.

ghts,

Sufficient bucks would over ride that

There may be an miss read in what DSE used to call a profit margin. I assure you this is what DSE used:

A product that sold with a 98% profit margin meant (to DSE - I had an argument and had to check it more than once) that of the product sales price (say 3 cents for a resistor) 98% of that 3 cents was profit. Only

0.2% was the product cost to DSE.

The staff discount scheme was you could buy anything for your own use for cost price plus 10%. I forget how many resistors you could get for a cent - they were so cheap you only bought the 1% metal film and tantalum caps that retailed for over a dollar were less than 20 cents. Everyone had lots of experience in using this scheme, I assure you this is accurate.

--
We have failed to address the fundamental truth that endless growth is 
impossible in a finite world.

MMMmm maybe DSE are not doing the right thing in some stores, but the ones I frequent have a label on returned stuff saying it is returned, and why it was returned. Cant be fairer than that

David

"David"

** FUCK OFF - MORON !!!!

Thanks Phil. For a while I thought you had forgotten me. xx

David