DSE in the crap ..

"geoff the sheep shagging idiot "

Surely not the long suffering DES staffers ??

DSE has been managed by Woollies for over 20 years - that they never had any idea how to run the business was obvious from day one when all the cluey staff jumped ship.

That DSE has gone on as long and well as it has is *DESPITE* Woollies crap management - not because of it.

The world of retail electronics has changed *dramatically* since the 1970s and that is the root cause here.

.... Phil

You would be right there, just the tip of the iceberg really. How long will the Aussie business's be around in the present form do you reckon ??

Rheilly P

I went into the one at Macquarie on my annual trip to the office. It was poor copy of Hardley Normal without the furniture, or JB HiFi without the records. I asked a couple of "Texperts" a question about a BluRay player, neither had a clue what I was talking about. I ended up getting if from JBs.

Agree. Hard to see the brand distinction, they do nothing more than attempt to price compete with every other electrical retailer. Woolies is following a standard retail model from last century.

ve

I have only been in there once since they dumped the components, and that was because an online search showed they had the best retail price for a camera my wife wanted to buy. Staff were not particularly bright.

A bloke in jaycars told me that in five years there wont be any discrete component shops in existance only thing left will be ebay and internet sales

component shops in existance only thing left

I could easily believe that.

Cheers Don...

==============

-- Don McKenzie

Dontronics Site Map:

New MMBasic Computer

These products will reduce in price by 5% every month:

Bare Proto PCB for PIC or AVR projects? "I'd buy that for a Dollar!".

Right, and why should there be ? Do you really expect the average 'corner store' shop to carry stock of even a tiny part of the full range of electronics components now available. Even back in the '80s, when I ran an electronics shop, and we carried about 7000 lines of components, we could see the beginning of the end.

On-line sales, just like on-line datasheets, is the only way to go.

It's taken them about 25 years of hard work to get Dick Smith Electronics where it is today. So, have they finally succeeded in destroying it completely?

(/Rant)

Jaycar and co (mostly) deserve it. They simply refuse to move into new technology, components or ways - only recently have they decided SMD might be OK for the hobbiest. They still add only 3-5 (at most) genuinely new electronics components per year. They provide very poor value and customer service - for example, the iron on peel off PCB film

- 35$ (approx) for 5 sheets when you can buy direct for 25 sheets (IIRC

- it might be 20 or 35) for the same price! SMD quick removal solder 35$ or go OS and buy the same product retail(!) for $15. Jaycar in particular tried to sell the PIC18F4550 for $50 each(!)when you could go to Microchip direct, pay the 13$ handling fee and still buy a one off for half price. What I really hate is Jaycar sponsoring an NRL football team. I love NRL but pissing away $100,000+ of the companies money as a major sponsor, but for no justifiable business gain (how many footy player shop Jaycar?) is spitting on the customer.

How can you justify charging the same on-line price as retail store price when the store costs are simply not the same?

If you can get it OS, same quality (variable or poor for hobbiest retailers) in single quantities, including postage, for half or less the price, when the hobbiest retailer has the advantages of buying in bulk, and with the lower shipping costs then they Jaycar deserves to go. What sort of margin and advantage do they want?

And most of all, I hate when an Australia Post package costs $6, how can you charge $12 for it and then still grumble that the customer is not spending enough to justify an order and filling it? (i.e the packer will take home his wages anyway - anything he has to pack and post is profit, because you had to cover his cost anyway. If you really wanted to you could re-transmit packing orders to the retail stores for the staff to fulfil in otherwise down time)

(Rant/)

Just a note my rant should not be considered to apply to small niche marketers - who have to buy small quantities. They may cost a little more than OS but they are quicker with delivery and often information. It can be worth paying a premium to have someone who knows something available to answer a question.

(not like a recent incident in a component retailer's store.

"Excuse me, this is not a problem for me but I found this pack (bulk pack) of resistors in the wrong bin"

"Oh sorry mate. I can't help you. I don't know technical stuff"

(MO-FWIW) If it doesn't shit, piss or fart, then you won't find it at Jaycar.

Not sure that any fuss is warranted. Electronics isn't a field that particularly requires a shopfront anyway, most bits and pieces are clearly specified and uniform (conversely the fakes are well enough hidden that you may not be able to tell by looking at them). If I factor in the petrol costs, it's mostly cheaper for me to purchase on the web, and the online experience just gets better and better.

It's all supply, demand and planned obselesance. The aren't as many hobbyist's around, less tradies. Sydney used to have at least three devoted radio and electronic component shops. Now zilch. Even low end components eg; iron elements, kettle elements etc are difficult to obtain..............

erve

ed

eg;

Yes, and where they are available, I will bet that the entire kettle, iron etc is probably much the same price to buy new as the part.

e component shops in existance only thing left

teen-years-on.html

I was surprised that Dickies held out as long as it did with component sales. I expected them to disappear years earlier.

True for the comment from Jaycar employee, though you will also likely still have places like WES, Farnell, RS and so on for some time yet.

Taking it further, when the market further declines for parts, it will likely boil down to being offshore firms such as Digi Key, Mouser etc or equivalents.

A few weeks ago I was in Akihabara in Tokyo, it was good to see that the markets with little stalls usually selling just one type of component were still there among the super stores and anime fantasy cafes.

On Thu, 03 Nov 2011 10:11:27 +1000, David Eather put finger to keyboard and composed:

Almost as silly as Kaspersky Lab and the Melbourne Aussie Rules Football Club.

- Franc Zabkar

Could be wrong, but would bogans (which the majority of footy fans seem to be) buy anything from Jaycar other than those novelty fart type products ? I guess they might buy speakers and stuff like that ?