Dick Smith

On Wed, 06 Jan 2016 15:07:45 +1100, F Murtz <haggisz@hotmail.com>
wrote:

Jeßus wrote:
On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 00:37:02 +1100, felix <me@nothere.biz> wrote:

On 05-January-2016 11:36 PM, French wrote:
On 05-January-2016 9:38 PM, DBR wrote:

The otherwise good name of Dick Smith got totally f*cked over.

good name? he got rich selling poor quality overpriced junk

Care to cite an example? You seem to have an inexhaustible supply of
absolute crap at your disposal.

Still kicking my self that I did not get a petrol powered pogo stick.

I remember those, or at least the controversy around them.

Oh well, you could always kill yourself with one of those new-fangled
hover boards instead

 

On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 02:46:08 +0000 (UTC), Fred Smith <fred@smith.com>
wrote:

On 2016-01-06, Jeßus <j@invalid.lan> wrote:
On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 12:17:02 +1000, French <pw_112@gmail.com> wrote:

On 06-January-2016 11:45 AM, Je?us wrote:

Disk's original (?) store was at Red Hill or Rooty Hill (??) my memory
is failing me a bit now. (and you might get the impression I don't live
around Sydney)

Without checking, I think it was Rooty Hill, then not long after he
opened a second store somewhere which escapes me ATM...


Try Gore Hill near St Leonards (Sydney, North Shore).

Oh yes, of course.

Being from
the Shire, I didn't appreciate just how far it was from North
Sydney, the first time I caught a train there as a teenager...

 

On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 22:45:39 +1000, keithr <no-one@nowhere.com.au>
wrote:

On 6/01/2016 10:26 AM, Je?us wrote:
On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 07:53:41 +0800, Clocky <notgonna@happen.com> wrote:

On 6/01/2016 4:51 AM, Je?us wrote:
On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 00:37:02 +1100, felix <me@nothere.biz> wrote:

On 05-January-2016 11:36 PM, French wrote:
On 05-January-2016 9:38 PM, DBR wrote:

The otherwise good name of Dick Smith got totally f*cked over.

good name? he got rich selling poor quality overpriced junk

Care to cite an example? You seem to have an inexhaustible supply of
absolute crap at your disposal.



I think felix is just trolling so he can provide examples himself since
there are a few of them but it depends on how you look at it.

Yeah. I'm sure DS sold *some* questionable items. I mean, their
catalogue was huge by any standards. But on the whole it was mostly
decent stuff, or at least stuff hard to find anywhere else.

There was nothing wrong with their componentry, or their Yaesu gear,
for example.

Dick often sold a cheaper alternative to the popular and mainstream and
provided a gateway for more people to get into radio, computers and
technology that they otherwise would not have had.

The kits gave a lot of people their start in electronics also and for
those reasons and more, most glass-half-full people would look at what
Dick Smith achieved in a more positive light.

Agreed. There never has been any other kind of business that has come
close to bettering DS in it's heyday.

I learned why Dick got rich when I went to Japan in 1980 and found that
I could buy the same stuff that Dicky was selling at one third the price
retail. Even after expenses he must have been making close to 100% markup.

I think you'll find those sort of margins aren't that unusual in
retail.

 

[French]

On 07-January-2016 6:54 AM, Je�us wrote:

On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 14:57:17 +1000, French <pw_112@gmail.com> wrote:

On 06-January-2016 12:24 PM, Max wrote:

"Jeßus" <j@invalid.lan> wrote in message
news:8lso8b5elm7ckee7u8lbgjafr5lgff2ej4@4ax.com...


This is a good article about why Dick Smith has failed recently:
http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/the-dick-smith-disaster-explained-in-five-easy-steps/news-story/b95f243d54f423ced869b8ec77838046


A private equity firm played funny buggers with it.


Yes and only for the sole purpose of destroying a fine company and
hijacking big $$ for themselves.

The co-lateral damage to employees, families etc will be enormous. But
the hijackers have left the scene & laugh all the way to their swiss
bank accounts.

In this day and age, if you want to be a criminal with little to no
legal consequences, join a private equity firm.

It was a damn good "sting"

 

[Andy Wood]

"Sylvia Else" wrote in message news:df4akbF8umqU1@mid.individual.net...

.. . .

Dick Smith was your one stop shop. I think it was great. I was a
frequent customer.

DSE didn't sell food or clothing.

Long after Woolies had taken over DSE, and Dick Smith the person had moved
on to selling Australian made products like Ozemite, I was a bit surprised
one day to see a few of his food items for sale in a DSE store - from memory
it was in the York street Sydney store.

I assumed this was because Woolies got tired of sending people away empty
handed when they arrived expecting to be able to buy those products there. I
don't think they kept that up for very long though.

 

[SG1]

"pedro" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:1uir8btf0s1ovbir9i5ipgs854spr4srkj@4ax.com...

On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 21:52:22 +0000 (UTC), not@telling.you.invalid
(Computer Nerd Kev) wrote:

In aus.electronics pedro <me@privacy.net> wrote:
On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 00:40:23 +1100, felix <me@nothere.biz> wrote:

and how ironic it is that after decades of creating his personal wealth
by selling poor quality overpriced imported products

You left out illegal-to-possess-or-operate 27MHz CB's - that's where a
large part of his personal wealth accriued

Unless you have a radio licence, in which case they were no more illegal
than any of the ones that can be bought easily today.

They required licences that the overwhelming proportion of his target
market (buyers) did not possess, nor did he care about that.

The product was legal to sell just not legal to use without a licence. The
weight
of public usage forced a government backdown.

 

[pedro]

On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 21:52:22 +0000 (UTC), not@telling.you.invalid
(Computer Nerd Kev) wrote:

In aus.electronics pedro <me@privacy.net> wrote:
On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 00:40:23 +1100, felix <me@nothere.biz> wrote:

and how ironic it is that after decades of creating his personal wealth
by selling poor quality overpriced imported products

You left out illegal-to-possess-or-operate 27MHz CB's - that's where a
large part of his personal wealth accriued

Unless you have a radio licence, in which case they were no more illegal
than any of the ones that can be bought easily today.

They required licences that the overwhelming proportion of his target
market (buyers) did not possess, nor did he care about that.

 

[Clocky]

On 6/01/2016 10:24 AM, Max wrote:

"Jeßus" <j@invalid.lan> wrote in message
news:8lso8b5elm7ckee7u8lbgjafr5lgff2ej4@4ax.com...
On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 08:24:27 +0800, "Max" <max@val.morgan> wrote:


"Sylvia Else" <sylvia@not.at.this.address> wrote in message
news:df1fa9Fh3buU1@mid.individual.net...
On 5/01/2016 7:16 PM, Max wrote:
It's so sad to see this store go. It was a niche store where you knew
you could pick some items that the big electrical stores didn't have.

What's the bet some small privately owned electronics stores will
start
opening up?

Like Jaycar?


Different set of products to Dick Smith. I know I said 'electronics'
but I
meant what Dick Smith does.

You can buy computers and peripherals from Dick Smith. Earphones,
TVs, TV
aerials etc. It's a mix of electricals, computing and electronics and I
think there is a market for it.

That must be why DSE's business model was so successful in the long
term?

This is a good article about why Dick Smith has failed recently:
http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/the-dick-smith-disaster-explained-in-five-easy-steps/news-story/b95f243d54f423ced869b8ec77838046


A private equity firm played funny buggers with it.

DSE was screwed in the last decade Woolworths owned it by Woolworths.

The private equity criminals just cashed in.

 

On Thu, 7 Jan 2016 14:07:18 +1000, "SG1" <Lost@the.races.com> wrote:

"pedro" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:1uir8btf0s1ovbir9i5ipgs854spr4srkj@4ax.com...
On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 21:52:22 +0000 (UTC), not@telling.you.invalid
(Computer Nerd Kev) wrote:

In aus.electronics pedro <me@privacy.net> wrote:
On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 00:40:23 +1100, felix <me@nothere.biz> wrote:

and how ironic it is that after decades of creating his personal wealth
by selling poor quality overpriced imported products

You left out illegal-to-possess-or-operate 27MHz CB's - that's where a
large part of his personal wealth accriued

Unless you have a radio licence, in which case they were no more illegal
than any of the ones that can be bought easily today.

They required licences that the overwhelming proportion of his target
market (buyers) did not possess, nor did he care about that.

The product was legal to sell just not legal to use without a licence. The
weight
of public usage forced a government backdown.

Not before their idiotic idea of moving everyone to 477MHz from
27MHz... It worked out well for CBers in the long run, as they ended
up with both HF (40 channels & not even the stupid 18 channel
allocation) AND UHF. Stupid bastards, they handled it so very badly.

 

[keithr]

On 7/01/2016 7:03 AM, Je�us wrote:

On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 22:45:39 +1000, keithr <no-one@nowhere.com.au
wrote:

On 6/01/2016 10:26 AM, Je?us wrote:
On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 07:53:41 +0800, Clocky <notgonna@happen.com> wrote:

On 6/01/2016 4:51 AM, Je?us wrote:
On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 00:37:02 +1100, felix <me@nothere.biz> wrote:

On 05-January-2016 11:36 PM, French wrote:
On 05-January-2016 9:38 PM, DBR wrote:

The otherwise good name of Dick Smith got totally f*cked over.

good name? he got rich selling poor quality overpriced junk

Care to cite an example? You seem to have an inexhaustible supply of
absolute crap at your disposal.



I think felix is just trolling so he can provide examples himself since
there are a few of them but it depends on how you look at it.

Yeah. I'm sure DS sold *some* questionable items. I mean, their
catalogue was huge by any standards. But on the whole it was mostly
decent stuff, or at least stuff hard to find anywhere else.

There was nothing wrong with their componentry, or their Yaesu gear,
for example.

Dick often sold a cheaper alternative to the popular and mainstream and
provided a gateway for more people to get into radio, computers and
technology that they otherwise would not have had.

The kits gave a lot of people their start in electronics also and for
those reasons and more, most glass-half-full people would look at what
Dick Smith achieved in a more positive light.

Agreed. There never has been any other kind of business that has come
close to bettering DS in it's heyday.

I learned why Dick got rich when I went to Japan in 1980 and found that
I could buy the same stuff that Dicky was selling at one third the price
retail. Even after expenses he must have been making close to 100% markup.

I think you'll find those sort of margins aren't that unusual in
retail.

Probably, fortunately I've never had to work in retail.

 

On Thu, 7 Jan 2016 21:46:21 +1000, keithr <no-one@nowhere.com.au>
wrote:

On 7/01/2016 7:03 AM, Je?us wrote:
On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 22:45:39 +1000, keithr <no-one@nowhere.com.au
wrote:

On 6/01/2016 10:26 AM, Je?us wrote:
On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 07:53:41 +0800, Clocky <notgonna@happen.com> wrote:

On 6/01/2016 4:51 AM, Je?us wrote:
On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 00:37:02 +1100, felix <me@nothere.biz> wrote:

On 05-January-2016 11:36 PM, French wrote:
On 05-January-2016 9:38 PM, DBR wrote:

The otherwise good name of Dick Smith got totally f*cked over.

good name? he got rich selling poor quality overpriced junk

Care to cite an example? You seem to have an inexhaustible supply of
absolute crap at your disposal.



I think felix is just trolling so he can provide examples himself since
there are a few of them but it depends on how you look at it.

Yeah. I'm sure DS sold *some* questionable items. I mean, their
catalogue was huge by any standards. But on the whole it was mostly
decent stuff, or at least stuff hard to find anywhere else.

There was nothing wrong with their componentry, or their Yaesu gear,
for example.

Dick often sold a cheaper alternative to the popular and mainstream and
provided a gateway for more people to get into radio, computers and
technology that they otherwise would not have had.

The kits gave a lot of people their start in electronics also and for
those reasons and more, most glass-half-full people would look at what
Dick Smith achieved in a more positive light.

Agreed. There never has been any other kind of business that has come
close to bettering DS in it's heyday.

I learned why Dick got rich when I went to Japan in 1980 and found that
I could buy the same stuff that Dicky was selling at one third the price
retail. Even after expenses he must have been making close to 100% markup.

I think you'll find those sort of margins aren't that unusual in
retail.

Probably, fortunately I've never had to work in retail.

Nor I, thankfully.

One notable exception I can think of is things like milk. It was years
ago now, but a friend had a corner store (remember those?) and IIRC,
his profit on a bottle of milk was something like 5 cents.

 

[Rod Speed]

"Jeßus" <j@invalid.lan> wrote in message
news:5jen8bhid7d6p1tru5bpekv42ic8jioeuq@4ax.com...

On Tue, 5 Jan 2016 16:16:06 +0800, "Max" <max@val.morgan> wrote:

It's so sad to see this store go. It was a niche store where you knew you
could pick some items that the big electrical stores didn't have.

That was a long, long time ago...

What's the bet some small privately owned electronics stores will start
opening up?

Hmm, don't think so.

I know so.

> Jaycar (and others) have that niche sewn up.

Like hell they do.

 

[Rod Speed]

"Trevor Wilson" <trevor@SPAMBLOCKrageaudio.com.au> wrote in message
news:df1i2kFhoojU1@mid.individual.net...

On 5/01/2016 7:16 PM, Max wrote:
It's so sad to see this store go. It was a niche store where you knew
you could pick some items that the big electrical stores didn't have.

What's the bet some small privately owned electronics stores will start
opening up?

It deserved to fail. I popped in just before Christmas to pick up four
small items. None were in stock.

Yeah, I've had the same problem a number of times.

I walked around to the nearest Big Ben computer store and managed to get 3
out of 4 items.

I sometimes got what I wanted at the Music Factory just up
the road, but it went bust a month before Dick Smith did
and there was plenty of stuff he didn’t have either, very
common stuff like basic switch mode plug packs.
Nothing even remotely like the range Dick Smith has.

The Big Ben store is around 30 sq Metres and the DSE store is closer to
300 sq Metres.

Ours were similar sized, but radically different stock levels.

> DSE has been owned and run by idiots for the last few years.

And for years before that too, when owned by Woolys.
There's a reason the most recent clowns only had to pay
$20M for it.

 

[Rod Speed]

"Max" <max@val.morgan> wrote in message news:n6fvch$2tu$1@gioia.aioe.org...

"Petzl" <petzlx@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:b8vm8bl9lfookqvo0s7uns7kjcgmfhhqtm@4ax.com...
On Tue, 5 Jan 2016 16:16:06 +0800, "Max" <max@val.morgan> wrote:

It's so sad to see this store go. It was a niche store where you knew
you
could pick some items that the big electrical stores didn't have.

What's the bet some small privately owned electronics stores will start
opening up?


might differ from store to store
They seemed to concentrate on computers and they had good prices and
someone seemed around to help
Everywhere else in store which was pretty big you could fire a gunshot
and no one would notice!
Just bad store operation Imo.
Best practice in their case would be to have a "maître D'" to assign
someone to be served.
Most shoppers are just doing price checks to then buy on line, but
their computer TV section showed me they could be competitive with
online.

Just needed to go back to a entrance desk personal with checkout.
Roaming sales people don't work in this case.


A few months ago I went in thinking I needed to buy a second TV signal
amplifier. The young guy in the store explained how the device sends
power up to the aerial and that I only needed one in the house. If he
hadn't been on the floor to tell me that I would have wasted money buying
it.

That isnt what makes an operation like that economically viable.

 

[Rod Speed]

Petzl <petzlx@gmail.com> wrote

Max <max@val.morgan> wrote

It's so sad to see this store go. It was a niche store where you knew
you could pick some items that the big electrical stores didn't have.

What's the bet some small privately owned
electronics stores will start opening up?

They never stopped doing that.

One of ours went bust a month before Dick Smith did.

might differ from store to store
They seemed to concentrate on computers and they had good prices and
someone seemed around to help
Everywhere else in store which was pretty big you could fire a gunshot
and no one would notice!
Just bad store operation Imo.

Their prices were never anything to write home about.

Best practice in their case would be to have a
"maître D'" to assign someone to be served.

No one does it that way.

Most shoppers are just doing price checks to then buy
on line, but their computer TV section showed me they
could be competitive with online.

Just needed to go back to a entrance desk personal with checkout.

JB HiFi who ate their lunch, dinner and breakfast don't do it like that.

> Roaming sales people don't work in this case.

Bullshit. Works fine for JB HiFi.

 

[keithr]

On 8/01/2016 6:40 AM, Je�us wrote:

On Thu, 7 Jan 2016 21:46:21 +1000, keithr <no-one@nowhere.com.au
wrote:

On 7/01/2016 7:03 AM, Je?us wrote:
On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 22:45:39 +1000, keithr <no-one@nowhere.com.au
wrote:

On 6/01/2016 10:26 AM, Je?us wrote:
On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 07:53:41 +0800, Clocky <notgonna@happen.com> wrote:

On 6/01/2016 4:51 AM, Je?us wrote:
On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 00:37:02 +1100, felix <me@nothere.biz> wrote:

On 05-January-2016 11:36 PM, French wrote:
On 05-January-2016 9:38 PM, DBR wrote:

The otherwise good name of Dick Smith got totally f*cked over.

good name? he got rich selling poor quality overpriced junk

Care to cite an example? You seem to have an inexhaustible supply of
absolute crap at your disposal.



I think felix is just trolling so he can provide examples himself since
there are a few of them but it depends on how you look at it.

Yeah. I'm sure DS sold *some* questionable items. I mean, their
catalogue was huge by any standards. But on the whole it was mostly
decent stuff, or at least stuff hard to find anywhere else.

There was nothing wrong with their componentry, or their Yaesu gear,
for example.

Dick often sold a cheaper alternative to the popular and mainstream and
provided a gateway for more people to get into radio, computers and
technology that they otherwise would not have had.

The kits gave a lot of people their start in electronics also and for
those reasons and more, most glass-half-full people would look at what
Dick Smith achieved in a more positive light.

Agreed. There never has been any other kind of business that has come
close to bettering DS in it's heyday.

I learned why Dick got rich when I went to Japan in 1980 and found that
I could buy the same stuff that Dicky was selling at one third the price
retail. Even after expenses he must have been making close to 100% markup.

I think you'll find those sort of margins aren't that unusual in
retail.

Probably, fortunately I've never had to work in retail.

Nor I, thankfully.

One notable exception I can think of is things like milk. It was years
ago now, but a friend had a corner store (remember those?) and IIRC,
his profit on a bottle of milk was something like 5 cents.

I can remember going shopping with my mother and getting stuff like
flour, and sugar being measured out from bulk, and bacon sliced to order.

Reputedly the current markup on petrol is of the order of 25c/litre.

 

On Fri, 8 Jan 2016 22:46:04 +1000, keithr <no-one@nowhere.com.au>
wrote:

On 8/01/2016 6:40 AM, Je?us wrote:
On Thu, 7 Jan 2016 21:46:21 +1000, keithr <no-one@nowhere.com.au
wrote:

On 7/01/2016 7:03 AM, Je?us wrote:
On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 22:45:39 +1000, keithr <no-one@nowhere.com.au
wrote:

On 6/01/2016 10:26 AM, Je?us wrote:
On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 07:53:41 +0800, Clocky <notgonna@happen.com> wrote:

On 6/01/2016 4:51 AM, Je?us wrote:
On Wed, 6 Jan 2016 00:37:02 +1100, felix <me@nothere.biz> wrote:

On 05-January-2016 11:36 PM, French wrote:
On 05-January-2016 9:38 PM, DBR wrote:

The otherwise good name of Dick Smith got totally f*cked over.

good name? he got rich selling poor quality overpriced junk

Care to cite an example? You seem to have an inexhaustible supply of
absolute crap at your disposal.



I think felix is just trolling so he can provide examples himself since
there are a few of them but it depends on how you look at it.

Yeah. I'm sure DS sold *some* questionable items. I mean, their
catalogue was huge by any standards. But on the whole it was mostly
decent stuff, or at least stuff hard to find anywhere else.

There was nothing wrong with their componentry, or their Yaesu gear,
for example.

Dick often sold a cheaper alternative to the popular and mainstream and
provided a gateway for more people to get into radio, computers and
technology that they otherwise would not have had.

The kits gave a lot of people their start in electronics also and for
those reasons and more, most glass-half-full people would look at what
Dick Smith achieved in a more positive light.

Agreed. There never has been any other kind of business that has come
close to bettering DS in it's heyday.

I learned why Dick got rich when I went to Japan in 1980 and found that
I could buy the same stuff that Dicky was selling at one third the price
retail. Even after expenses he must have been making close to 100% markup.

I think you'll find those sort of margins aren't that unusual in
retail.

Probably, fortunately I've never had to work in retail.

Nor I, thankfully.

One notable exception I can think of is things like milk. It was years
ago now, but a friend had a corner store (remember those?) and IIRC,
his profit on a bottle of milk was something like 5 cents.

I can remember going shopping with my mother and getting stuff like
flour, and sugar being measured out from bulk, and bacon sliced to order.

I have some memories of the same - but only just.
Ironically, these days that's how I buy flour and bacon
Sugar I buy in 25KG sacks.

>Reputedly the current markup on petrol is of the order of 25c/litre.

 

[Robert]

"Jeßus" <j@invalid.lan> wrote in message
news:0bt29bhl0qpnbjmpjomvk86u65umvloqt3@4ax.com...

I think you'll find those sort of margins aren't that unusual in
retail.

Probably, fortunately I've never had to work in retail.

Nor I, thankfully.

One notable exception I can think of is things like milk. It was years
ago now, but a friend had a corner store (remember those?) and IIRC,
his profit on a bottle of milk was something like 5 cents.

I can remember going shopping with my mother and getting stuff like
flour, and sugar being measured out from bulk, and bacon sliced to order.

I have some memories of the same - but only just.
Ironically, these days that's how I buy flour and bacon
Sugar I buy in 25KG sacks.

Do you save a lot per year doing that? I would have thought these days
there would be minimal savings. Do you just enjoy going to certain places
and buying in bulk?

 

[pedro]

On Thu, 7 Jan 2016 14:07:18 +1000, "SG1" <Lost@the.races.com> wrote:

"pedro" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message

They required licences that the overwhelming proportion of his target
market (buyers) did not possess, nor did he care about that.

The product was legal to sell just not legal to use without a licence.

It was NOT legal to sell it to a person who did not possess the
appropriate licence.

 

[Rod Speed]

pedro <me@privacy.net> wrote

SG1 <Lost@the.races.com> wrote
pedro <me@privacy.net> wrote

They required licences that the overwhelming proportion of his
target market (buyers) did not possess, nor did he care about that.

The product was legal to sell just not legal to use without a licence.

It was NOT legal to sell it to a person who did not possess the
appropriate licence.

Bullshit.