Mr Harvey's plea for more business

[KraftyPg]

Then a few hours later after digging himself out (or getting his missus to buy a shovel in New York to dig him out) he resurfaces. He's not quite as stupid this time but he still proves what sort of person he is.

Media Pop Up Player

 

[Old.Tony]

He's complaining because overseas operators selling at 10% markup and 100,000 units per month are still making more money than him selling at 50% markup and 12 units per month.

He was on a gravy train, and now that people are catching on he's crying poor.

 

[WIR35]

50% markup? You're kidding right? I doubt there would be much in a Harvey Norman store that has less than 80-100% markup put on it.

Mate of mine used to work there, and I got stuff at their cost price which was always around half the retail marked price. which is all good and well, but if I can go to a specialist AV store and get PROFESSIONAL salespeople to give me the right advice and technical support and pay the same or similar price as a Harvey Norman "warehouse" then they can shove it. You can stand in one of those places for a week and no one will serve you, or people who do can only tell you what's on the side of the box anyway.

 

[Dave]

Things are reasonably priced overseas.

Everything out here is way over priced.

Dave.

 

[WIR35]

to be fair though, generally speaking australian distributors don't get very good pricing from the international wholesalers/manufacturers, because we are such a small market in comparison to the likes of Asia, Europe and America. Relating it to my own experiences in the electrical contracting industry, it would be like a small electrical contractor's pricing compared to a very large contractor's pricing. The small guy will never get the same low prices on parts and materials that the big guys will because they don't buy the volume.

Plus then they've got to ship it to the bottom of the earth.....

 

[reel-sensation]

How much does Gerry pay for the same electrical goods to stock his stores? Much cheaper than you and I can buy it on-line I bet!

Alan

 

[KraftyPg]

As a rough indication, and I'm only talking the computer industry in relation to one big player (him) and one very small player compared to him (me). HN buy alot (not all) of their computer gear from the same suppliers I do, yet because of volume they obviously buy a hell of a lot cheaper than I do, but going by my buy price and his sell price there is no way he's adding 80%, if he is they are giving him the stuff.

They make their money purely because a large number of idiots believe their mass media campaigns. Buyers don't take into account that cheaper parts are used, they don't take into account that a warranty will take 8 weeks to repair, they don't take into account that the staff don't know a USB port from a VGA port, they just go there because the ads say they are cheaper. To be fair this isn't just a Gerry issue, DSE, Myer, Tandy and the like are all the same when it comes to selling this crap, limited real knowledge but convincing sales pitches.

I know this doesn't just happen in the PC industry it happens where ever big business wants to stomp on little business, and I'm not bitter because I've made a lot of money fixing computers people brought at HN or the like but refused to take back because they get no help. But it's like one interviewer said to Gerry, business like his stopped supporting Australia when they went off shore for labour and products but now they want us to support them when they are getting played with. Big Business has had it their way for so long they think they have the power to push people around and make us feel sorry for them.

On the note of profit margins I have never tried to compete with the prices of Gerry and Co but I have also never worked on 80% profit because the market just can't support it, however an ex-client of mine who operates in the retail sector has been told by her suppliers on many occasions that 85% in the minimum markup she should be looking for and in most cases she gets it, so different sectors do allow for large profits.

 

[Jason]

Apparently now we are un-Australian if we buy online from overseas. (Gerry's words)

What a tool.

 

[KraftyPg]

Yeah to be Australian we all have to fly over to New York and shop. It must be like taxable junkets over seas, if you talk about selling to Australian businesses while buying from and overseas store you can claim the trip on tax.

 

[Old.Tony]

Gerry wants to make sure that you only buy the BEST stuff from China - so instead of buying it directly from China, let HIM buy it from China and sell it to you. He'll only charge a modest 50% for his services.

A thief asking for help is quite amusing. I bet Gerry doesn't live in a 3br brick&tile* with a mortgage.

* Just using a typical modest house as an example, this might be different to what you're living in, but it's nowhere near as opulent as what Gerry 'Moneybags' Harvey would be living in.

 

[Krankin]

Gerry wants to make sure that you only buy the BEST stuff from China - so instead of buying it directly from China, let HIM buy it from China and sell it to you. He'll only charge a modest 50% for his services.

.

Dead right on the money....

gerry can get F'd.

 

[KraftyPg]

That might be the problem, he can't do it because his missus is too busy shopping overseas so he's got to do something with his time and he's already got RSI from her last trip.

 

[WIR35]

Off topic, but someone mentioned Dick Smith Electronics. I must have had my head in the sand here, but apparently they got sold to Coles (Dick Smith consorting with Coles, WTF??)

Anyway....their stock now is complete crap, they don't have any "electronics" components anymore, it's all just electronic appliances/gadgets. Disappointed....

 

[the_bluester]

Had to go look that one up. Not Coles, Woolworths, they have owned the lot since 1982! But have been moving the brand away from the electronic enthusiast market towards purely consumer products for about the last five years. Which would be about right, last time I went into one I thought I may as well have gone to a HN store! I guess Jaycar is in the last group of electronics stores rather than "Gadget" stores.

On Topic/ Harvey Norman will be waiting a long long time to sell me something, all of the opinions above apply to me pretty well, if he wants me to buy from his stores he needs to go away from the Bunnings approach to stocking (If one store does not have it, no point going to another, they will have the same lines!) and get some reasonable prices and some sales staff who (As someone posted previously) can do better than read you the specs off the box if you have a question.

 

[Old.Tony]

I remember when Dick Smith was populated by nerds.

If you look hard, you can still get components and tools, but they are most definitely moving into the home+mobile entertainment market. Jaycar seems to be the only one these days that still hire nerds.

That's something that Hardly Normal won't do. Their computer techs are idiots, and it's a lot of fun when you ask them why the inkjet-based multifunction centre will accept a USB keyboard in the USB slot when the laser-based multifunction centre won't.

They do have their uses, though. Without Hardly Normal etc, the staff employed there might be out on the streets.

 

[the_bluester]

Actually, looking at the Wiki page about Dick Smith, at some stores you can not get components or tools any more and the rest will follow soon.

 

[Old.Tony]

Bugger. No point going there at all then, they don't sell anything different to JB HiFi and at least THOSE people know how a bit about what they're selling.

 

[the_bluester]

Woolworths alos own Tandy (Which I did not realise) and having moved them to much the same product lines it looks like all remaining Tandy stores are for the chop sooner or later.

 

[Old.Tony]

The Tandy store in Westfields Kotara (near Newcastle) is now a Dick Smith store. I guess they're trying to reduce the expenses, only one set of advertising needed etc.

 

[terryc]

Yeah, dickless got taken over by Woolies way back when. I stopped going to dickless when I realised that everything he sold had been gutted when on sale. So you ended up paying just as much for the same. He also took offence when I told him to stop sending me junk mail for his charity.

The Boss reminded me of a computer upgrade last year. Needed new scanner and inkjet and wanted specific model/brand. so hn was supposed to stock them and went to get a price. Bare shelves and a week to get it. Hmm, wander around to my usual local computer bits place, yep he would get them in and his price was 20% less than hardly normal.

Hmm Jaycar. Been hearing that they are moving to the farting ashtray line as well.

Yep, hn s a really sheltered workshop. At one stage a Pc lobbed in here from someone who was just getting into movie editing. Since he had brought all the gear(camera, and software) of hn, he had taken it back to them to make it work. It was one of those installations that must be carried out by a 9th level virgin on the full moon in a month with a Z in it whilst eating olives sort of thing. Anyway, lets just say that I really wish I had kept the video sequence "accidentally" recorded by hn staff that I found on his camera. Would have been a real hoot on youtube