Woolies massively miscalculated the gap in the components market by discontinuing what was the core business, and the consequence? Jaycar now has basically a monopoly on the components market.
I love that Dick Smith always used humour with his company, with the sign writing on the truck "the electronic dick" to years later with the calling his matches "dick heads"
I love what you're doing, we need an Australian based channel with content like your 'Abandoned' series. But the long pauses with a black screen on your videos, keep on making me think my computer has crashed. Apart from that, keep up the excellent work. :)
Great series. Love your dedication and research. One additional bit you could add to the Dick Smith scenario is the Tandy/Radio Shack link. Woolworths also took over the Tandy stores, also retailers of electronics for hobbyists and a range of radio shack gear. For a while they kept both chains operating (even in the same shopping centres) before pulling the plug and rebranding everything as DSE. When they went wholly to consumer electionics, that was the real death knell. As others have noted, it left the market completely to Jaycar who have expanded into that vacated market. It also brought the company into direct competition with Harvey Norman, a consumer market juggernaut, and other retailers. In the end their branded consumer products were junk compared to what the other companies offered. Most sadly, they continued to sell "gift cards" right up to Christmas and then immediately went into liquidation and did not honour those cards given as Christmas presents by unsuspecting customers. Into whose pockets did that money go?
I used to love Dick Smith as a kid, Nowra NSW was my local shop. Still got one or two kits lying around from them. I've even got a temperature controlled soldering iron, which, from memory, was the last thing I ever bought from there. I use it all the time, and it still runs like a charm, even after spending a whole summer in the back of my 4WD. The staff they employed by the end had absolutely no idea what was going on. Half the time I thought I knew more about the product then they did (and I'm not very tech savvy!) "Talk to the texperts" was definitly a bit of a stretch. Wasn't surprised to see them fold in the end. I thought the staff not knowing what was going on may have been limited to just one store, but after looking at things at their Shellharbour NSW shop, their Wollongong NSW shop, their Nowra NSW shop, and their Baldivis WA shop and getting the exact same stunned mullet "I don't know response" to simple questions like "where are your USB sticks?" from all those shops, I concluded that it was a far deeper problem.
Stephen Williamson they were still replacing people while they were going under. During the emergency sale in Christmas 2015, the guy behind the counter was literally on his second day on the job. And I mean ANY job. 17 years old and he was expected to handle Christmas fire sale crowds. Turned out well for me, I got a half price IPad and a handful of 8gb MP3 players for $15 each. The last one died just this year.
I bought a dreamcast racing wheel from dick smiths in nowra in late 2007 for $30. It had been sitting in there collecting dust for almost a decade if memory serves...
0:35 - 60p, we meet again! Nice work finding hi-res videos. 9:11 - 240x160 resolution compressed JPG. You are on a roll now. What other garbage can you dish up?
You really glossed over the reason for the "poor stock management". It was done deliberately. They first wrote off the stock as worthless and called this 'restructuring'. The next year they sold the stock - so all the revenue from sales was 100% profit because the stock was on the books as worthless. They then used this to post a massive profit and claim the company had turned around. They then sold the company to idiots who brought it without even looking up the detailed financials. Anchorage brought the company for $120m, used $100m of stock to pay for it, and then sold it for $500m. So basically a $500m profit, and walked away. Its widely considered the greatest equity heist in Australias history.
if you actually look into the accounts... while they say ... they paid $115m for Dicksmith they ACTUALLY didnt... they only paid 20m for it in cash... but they purchased the company as is in its entirety with 12m cash in it... so they really only paid 10m for Dicksmith. Its all in the accounts which is publicly available. But your explanation is the true reason why it failed... ive also said the same thing in my own commentary... a typical private equity pump and dump con job
you all probably dont give a damn but does anyone know a tool to get back into an instagram account?? I was dumb forgot the account password. I love any assistance you can give me
@Holden Deshawn thanks for your reply. I found the site thru google and I'm trying it out now. Seems to take a while so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
It is interesting to see Dick's comment that the failure was due to the greed of the previous owners. During the period of them closing down, Dick made the comment to news media that he was "disappointed that it had come to this and he was sorry to see what had happened to the brand". If he hadn't been greedy and sold out to Woolworths he would still own the company and been in control of it so this may not have eventuated. One of the main reasons for them going bust which wasn't mentioned here in any detail is their shift to custom branded products. DS televisions and things with the DS logo (the square with the tail) were never going to sell. People want known brand products, not mass produced no-name junk from china. The change of direction to selling home appliances was never going to work and seemed to signal a last ditch attempt at staying afloat.
I worked there from 2005-2007, it was my first job. Learned some great skills there but it was clear management had no incentive to keep the best salespeople there. Most of them moved to other retailers who were paying significantly better in commissions. The stores ended up being run by young kids on minimal wage rather than more experienced and knowledgeable people, and slowly started going downhill from there. I left at a very good time
@Andrew_koala Actually, you may have a point there, and I am impressed you took that much time to give a detailed answer. Now, to go back, 80's and 90's are a way to talk about the 1980's and 1990's. Now that can confuse, but we can simply deduct it by looking at the other content in the message. Considering DS was created in Mid-1900s, and him talking about a DS store, we can deduct he talks about the 1980s to 1990. The "you are wrong by 1900 years" is then completely false, as 70s, 80s and 90s are abreviations mostly used to talk about 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, but it can also talk about the 70s which are in the 1st century after B-C. Now going onto the word "Understand", where I could only find a few infos on the net as I am French and don't have an english dictionary. Understanding is a psychological process related to an abstract or physical object, such as a person, situation, or message whereby one is able to think about it and use concepts to deal adequately with that object. Understanding is a relation between the knower and an object of understanding. Understanding implies abilities and dispositions with respect to an object of knowledge that are sufficient to support intelligent behaviour. The understand word comes from middle english "understanden", from old english "understandan", which comes from Proto-Germanic "under" (between) and "standaną" (to stand), which is equivalent to old english "unter" (between, inter) and "standan" (to stand). Understand is also the name of a software development platform. Writing 80s and 90s isn't being totally lazy, in either way, and reading the whole message, we could deduct which decades he was talking about. Now, I am sorry if my paragraph is short but I am on my phone as it is 6:30 in the morning over here, and I al quite tired due to high winds. Thanks for reading, I hope you have a good week.
Dick Smith wasn't just selling remaining stock during the closing down sales. They were also selling the shop fit outs. People were able to buy the display tables and cases for collection/delivery after that store closed.
Dick Smith wasn't "abandoned" they were to close and then bought by Kogan. Dick Smith is still a store, it's only online but basically a mirror of Kogans site. (9:40 yep.)
The biggest mistake was to stop selling electronics components, this used to keep the shops busy with customers. When the became the same like Harvey Norman, Betta Electrical, selling only TV'S, computers, etc. theirs shops were empty there is nothing worse than seeing stores with no customers inside because it doesn't encourage passing by people to enter the store and take a look.
Corrections - Administration usually results in liquidation, sale or deed of company administration (where the company files a company service agreement and exits it straight out and sees what sticks). But you are right they can't just retool themselves and hope for the best like in Chapter 11, but I wouldn't call it Chapter 7 which more equal to creditors voluntary liquidation or end-stage receivership. Receivership is when a secured creditor puts the company in a sort of administration to force it to refund the debt (slightly different to UK). Apparently they did both, not sure if one triggered the other. - A lot of your photos are from the administration sale before the receivers sale
I was an Employee of DSE back in the 80's. Back then you had all the experience in components, Alarms and radios, our customers were primarily hobbyist, electronic enthusiast and kit building people, I was experienced and fluent in all areas of electronics, however sadly after Tricky Dick handed his only child over to Woolworths for a bag of peanuts it slowly got ripped apart, Tricky Dick took this advantage and concentrated on is passion for flying and geography, the stores lost control and became more of a silly shipment and supply chain for business marketers overseas who were trying to offload their junk into DSE stores, importing more plastic breakable items from cheap china or Taiwan. Woolworths had no idea or professionals on how to operate a electronic Components store, so The store became a harvest for imports, it sold commercialized components with a few that was rebadged as DSE items. ;P after 1988 I left the store/s and went onto studying engineering and also became a fully qualified trades technician. why would you want to work for $16 ph under woolies. When I look back i really enjoyed the deep technical conversation with the customers and staff at Dick Smith Electronics, we were all Technical Gurus in all areas. We also had a modem bulletin service going between technical staff, (before the internet came about) and used to swap ideas, programs etc, I am broken that Richard started this business from Ground up with blood sweat and tears and ingesting it it for a mere 20 million, minus the taxes later Woolworths making around 300 million profit from the shares, smart move from a corporative level, if you move up too fast you will also fall Hard. You would think that Tricky Dick would of been the smart guy and kept his chain, He would of been worth over 2 Billion Dollars Today. but his days are over and so is the name. Jaycar Put Dick Smoth to shame and now is probably the leading components store front in Australia, but now everything is purchasable online from many other small business competitors.
They strayed from their original business model to compete with JB, Bing Lee and Harvey Norman, but the market was already full and their prices couldn’t compete
The Dick Smith store in Grafton NSW is still empty and the signage remains on the roof. The black paint is also faded and Chandlers can be seen underneath it.
Dick Smith, Chandlers, Palings Music in Brisbane, Waltons….all history. Myer, David Jones.....headed down that track. Personally I wouldn't care. I don't even know of anybody whos' bought from Myer or DJ in 20 years!
Myer and David Jones are living on borrowed time. They are too expensive and outdated for the majority of people to shop there. David Jones actually had a deal with Dick Smith to have a presence in their electrical/tech department in the last few years of the business.
My nearest Dick Smith is now a Reject Shop which is in Albury NSW, just before they closed I recall they opened a kiosk in the store which fixed phones, computer's or something along those lines
Toph Tenacious my local Dick Smith had only been open for about 12 months before it closed. It has had a few pop up shops in there since, but has been refitted now as a kebab shop.
The same mob that brought DSE also Brought Tandy and Radio Shack at the same time all three of them are now gone. Incidentally both Altronics and Jaycar are still trading using largely the old stock (largely electronic components) model but with online sales
I've noticed that roadtechmarine and jaycar have the same sort of website and also sell the same sort of products. I wonder if someones finger is in that pie too?
had nothing to do with Woolies. Read my comments on why this failed. This was a pump and dump job by anchorage. There is a very good reason why this failed. This was a con job and anchorage got away with it.
Good video though I'll add Dick Smith primarily collapsed due to Anchorage Capital performing a classic pump and dump. They pumped the numbers by selling Apple products at a 5-10% discount while a lot of their other stock didn't sell. Growing Apple sales made the company look healthy, pumping the stock, but the company was anything but...then it all came crashing down in a classic debt spiral.
Cool vid mate ,lots of research in this and a total lack of BS. Dick's shops went from a place to buy electronic parts and consumables & be greeted by some geek in a business shirt with 3 pens in his top pocket that could answer any tech question ,into a shop that sold crap quality consumer toys, staffed by bimbos with an IQ of 3 ! Warringah Mall was my local DSE also .
Great Video, I’ve recently stumbled upon your content and it’s very interesting. I use to work for Dick Smith, started at Broadway and ended in Gore Hill, that’s we’re i started in my retail experience... how sad it was see it go. Gore Hill was its second store that opened, head office in Chullora and wish you dived into it relationship with JayCar... I still can’t believe JayCar is open...
supafreakapotamus I bought my first proper component pro logic surround sound set up from Brashs in Balcatta W.A. I think it was in 1996. I still have the Technics receiver and the front speakers.
Daniel Eyre oh yes I remember that one too, and Waterloo was chosen over Sydney university too. Oh well the West Sydney metro is the best we can hope for now to remedy these needs
5 років тому
Marco Zolo In my opinion; the west Sydney metro is the wrong alignment.
My local store was also Warringah Mall I remember going there within the last 2 weeks before closing down I bought some logitech speakers only to find half the stuff missing when I got home I had to call up my parents and ask them to take it back and refund it as i had work and couldnt get down there during the week each day more and more of the shop was shut and i think they got in there to get a refund with like 2 days left my dad had a big argument with them cause they were not excepting refunds anymore after my dad blasted them about the ACC rules they finally gave in a refuned me what little money they had left
Here in the states, conventional brick and mortar retailers have been dropping like flies. Best Buy is the last electronics retailer and they really don't carry much stock anymore.
I shopped there when I would visit AU they were like our Radio Shack used to be a place to get parts and radio equipment sad to see them go here in the US I miss Radio Shack in high school we had a ham radio club and all the kits were in radio shack part numbers and the school paid for all the parts and we got to keep what ever we built .
@Andrew_koala Big W is not related to Walmart in any way, except apparently borrowing some of its store designs. Though I had thought the W was for Woolworths but researching this comment showed it actually stands for Warehouse. Did you know that in Australia Kmart and Target have the same owners?
@Andrew_koala there is no mention of Walmart on their Wikipedia page, and I found some articles saying that Walmart want to buy Big W but the CEO is rejecting it. What is your source?
I worked in one of the last PERTH stores to sell components. At that point there was no training for staff, it was sink or swim. If you didn’t have a background hobby In componentry which a lot of us didn’t, customers would fume and leave the store. It was a shit job, I saw incompetence from the floor all the way up to the area managers. No one really gave a shit. I remember when the ‘ask the techsperts’ branding came in and everyone just laughed because we didn’t know what we were doing and we were only being paid base Woolworths salary anyway and were just ignored by the company. I remember opening up a DSE brand DVD player that came back faulty and the customers DVD was stuck inside. There wasn’t even solder on the wires it was just Blu tack. I’m a public servant now and couldn’t be happier.
I remember we used to regularly shop at Dick Smith a decade ago when I was a kid and I do remember that the location we mostly went to was to the left of BIGW in Box Hill shopping centre however I remember that it closed in 2012 possibly because of that particular store under performing! :)
From what my dad said to me. He stopped shopping at dick Smith when they went into the consumer market and left the enthusiast market. To quote him around 2004 he went in there when I was 3 to look for a transistor for a toy train and they gave him a strange look saying we don't sell transistors. It was at this point that I reckon jaycar electronics boosted. I fucking love these videos you do though man keep up the good work
When I was a kid, Dick Smith used to sell electronic components like Jaycar does now. I remember buying two 12v water pumps from them years ago. But then they changed the business model and it became irrelevant to me then.
Dick Smith Electronics started in an era of electronic hobbyists. They did well for a few decades selling electronics kits and CB radios until people stopped building their own gadgets and started buying them assembled. DSE couldn't keep up with the shift in consumerism. It was only a matter of time before they succumbed.
I remember the days when i worked in a Dick Smith Powerhouse it was awesome back in the day, always busy and buzzing, then jb Hi-Fi poached most of Dicks good staff (including myself), from then it was never really the same again.
Woolies might've understood the supermarkets business but they were completely clueless about the electronics component business. That an exceptionally talented DSE marketing protege, Gary Johnston would then leave DSE to go onto create Jaycar completely thumping Woolies at the entire entire electronics component business is further proof of the brilliance of this amazing Australian individual otherwise known as Richard Harold Smith (VK2DIK), a man in every sense of the world & one of the worlds great leaders. Dick's talk at the Manly Warringah amateur radio club rooms as showcased on EEVBlog is one of the most amazing, insightful, mind blowing & funniest talks you will ever experience in your entire lives
With the sad loss of Gary Johnson Jaycar was up for sale which would have been Dick Smith and Woolworths all over again but the family has since changed their mind.
I never purchased any consumer electronics from Dicksmith. They hired people that had very little product knowledge at all. I once went in there asking about a laptop and they didn't even have the specs sheet and I was sure that they confused a OSX and Windows, when they tried to makeup up stuff. I used to get antena parts from dicksmith, but that was the only thing I recall purchasing from dicksmith. I remember Tandy employees had better product knowledge of electronic parts than dicksmith employees.Now I much prefer getting components from jaycar or online for the hard to find components, at least jaycar employees look like they give a shite and know their products.
I worked there from 2008 to 2013 and I saw the removal of components, kits and bread boards etc. and the “Textsperts” rebranding that killed the business, it was a sad place to be...
When a business is put into administration it can be restructured, the administrators usually keep the business running until a buyer can be found or make changes to try make the business more viable. When all is lost they would resort to liquidation to reclaim as much money as possible
Yep, the Australian Administration rules allow for either a US style Chapter 7 or Chapter 11 equivalent.It's just that most cases of entering administration end up going bust and liquidating because not many people want to buy a bankrupt business.
Kinda like Radio Shack. Oh how I loved Radio Shack in the 80's and 90's... Now it's called Circuit City and has the appearance of an Apple store. Just products, no components. ArG!
What no corruption and manipulation to make the shares appear to be valuable (and saleable for a price that did not represent reality) followed by a precipitous crash in value when the truth came out after the big rats had left the ship they had helped to sink. You surprise me sir.
Nice video, but I can't help thinking that you should stick with "content creation" rather than attempt factual analysis. As a late "baby boomer" I consider that devoting 75% of the video to post-Dick Smith ownership misses the point entirely, which is something that most late Gen X's, Gen Y's and Millennials do where history, the present and reality meet. From personal experience as a teenager interested in technology, there were many "bricks & mortar" component stores around before DSE started which served both the hobbyist, amateur and professional sectors. You only have to look at the popularity of magazines such as "Electronics & Radio", Electronics Australia and others, to see the range of suppliers advertising a wide range of products and components in the magazines. DSE's success was built on good stock selection, wider general product range, AND most importantly - the convenience of a local store and GREAT MARKETING - I doubt that the electronics magazine ETI would have got off the ground without DS's support. Need that one transistor on Saturday morning? IMHO as a technology and manufacturing professional, DSE was doomed from the moment they were sold to Woolworths - a jelly bean retailer with no knowledge of the electronics industry at all. Everything after that was a foregone conclusion! As a further note, the opinions regarding "bricks & mortar" versus online stores are not particularly accurate, unless you're just looking at retail consumer products. Yes, we now have access to an immense range of online components and products, but slow as it was, mail-order was the forerunner to today's online marketplace. I bought my first commercial Single-board-computer by mail-order from the USA, regularly ordered electronic and computing kits from England and the USA, and all while shopping at my local DSE at the same time. As the real kicker - if it was a simple "bricks & mortar" versus "online" argument, stores such as Jaycar, Altronics, Radio Parts, Oatley, RS, etc. wouldn't still be profitable either. We know that those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it, but those who don't understand history are condemning themselves to rewriting inaccurate pseudo-history from flawed research and perspective. IMNSHO
I bought my first CDs at the first ever powerhouse... That's kinda cool lol. I don't know another store that was like that. I loved it lol. Used to deliver the drum magazine there
Good video. I worked for Tricky Dicky's in the mid 90's. Let's of cheap rubbish sold in the stores even then and a very backwards business structure even then.
What ultimately killed them...They opened up a Sister brand called MOVE - targeting the female market (it lasted about 5 minutes) in high profile retail centres. Didn’t focus on their core market and lost their brand identity.
sad day it was coz i like electronics and prefer to have hands on with products before buying and still have full 5.1 speakers and 3 of the 2 channel 50watt amps with cambridge decoder also with jaycar electronics still in play i dont go to them anymore due to there lack of product and overpriced shame though coz i liked there response range for car audio and still using the 4x100w amp in car also like looking through car wreckers for parts and now alot of wreckers are disappearing not sure why abc spares gone now
In 2005 my employer - a retailer went into voluntary administration. Stock was outdated before it arrived & there was a diversification away from electronic retail. Together we had incompetent staff who were selling items below cost after you account for ONCOSTS after a customer paid with a credit card (5% surcharge) as some moron discounts to price match another retailer. A 10% Net Profit shrinks to 2% or even a loss. But poor management leadership was the key issue.
poor management leadership was NOT the key issue. READ my comments. This was a deliberate tactic by anchorage to pump up the share prices of DSE and then dump it before it crashed. I am very very familiar with this case and why it failed. Poor management was only part of the issue. poor decision making to buy lots and lots of stock and holding on to them... knowing they would get out of date quickly was a huge contributing factor.. did you know that DSE stocked soo many of their OWN DSE branded batteries they had enough they could last armageddon... that was stupid. no one was buying the stupid DSE branded batteries so yes definitely poor decision making ... but not the full contributing factor.
@@robbyjaiYes most of their own branded stuff was rubbish. After leaving my retail job - I accepted a Redundancy as they were dropping staff like a tree in Autumn. They bought so much NON-TECHNOLOGY crap it was bound to fail. If you read my comments POOR MANAGEMENT were the reason they FAILED. These clowns went so far off the scale. I was a National Manager so I was fully aware of the multiple reasons behind the DSE failures. When I applied for the position advertised, I was competing with a dozen or so other senior executives. I was asked to state my salary & shocked to later learn I was triple of what they paid the poor sod who was successful. Let's agree that they messed by not selling core product lines as we became a disposable society ? But Management has to held accountable for their failures. The morons in the ivory towers were making decisions not based on sales reports or on testing the markets. These buyers at Woolworths (parent company) are forecasting expected sales Vs revenues based on assumptions. I should invite you to one of my future lectures if I was permitted to.
@@matthewbrown6163 dont disagree with you... but a major contributing factor was how Anchorage positioned DSE... they spent a number of years... falsely driving up profitability with deliberate write downs of stock value to boost earnings and profits... knowing full well it was illegal.. they hid it so well.. they paid next to no capital for DSE .. read my comments.. about how much they actually paid.... they pumped that DSE balloon (share price) as high as they could took the money and bolted and waited for the balloon to pop... this was not done at national sales manager level... this was done at the VERY upper level
@@robbyjai Let's agree also that once Woolworths got their hands on DSE they tried to run it as a big box retailer which DSE never was before. We all watched the GLOBAL decline of RadioShack (Tandy's) & these speciality stores are designed to failed. My former floated their company & within 3 years it was struggling. My retailer persisted inflating current stock on hand to get a working capital loan & requested I fiddle the books. just plead ignorance on what to do (I was not interested in fraud). Sadly I had the solution but the CEO (another minion) refused to listen. New Executive Teams were brought in & issued blocks of shares for $500k investments but were worthless 1 year later.
@@robbyjaiwww.smartcompany.com.au/finance/jaycar-founder-gary-johnston-on-how-to-get-the-business-basics-right-and-avoid-the-fate-of-dick-smith/ Check this article out from the founder of Jaycar - 110% spot on.
I see Parallels with Radio Shack in the U.S ... Dick Smith was smart enough to sell the business in its heyday and invest in Commercial Property. The only true electronics hobbyist / gadget store is Jaycar now, which appears s to be doing ok. I remember going to Dick Smith to buy my aftermarket cordless phone batteries & inkjet printer cartridges.
Jaycar does everything Dick Smith did, except better. Anchorage basically robbed Dick Smith investors by pumping up short term profits by writing down then selling off stock and chalking it to profit. Then they loaded it up with debt and pocketed the difference. The workers, suppliers and landlords would have been better off if Woolworths liquidated it instead of selling it off.
I recently went to Princess Auto (tools/hardware shop) in Canada and bought a wireless mouse that was branded "dick smith". Never heard of the dick smith brand, so I googled and ended up here. Interesting that a defunct Australian/New Zealand brand being sold here in Canada in 2020.
I think Dick Smith lost its identity. It tried to hedge its bets between what it used to be ( Electronic components and tools when a competitor to Tandy and like a Jaycar) and a big box electronics store like JB. It also had a period where it had a lot of own name brand items that were usually very poor quality and lacking in features. I stopped buying from there as I found it was either cheap crap or more expensive for the same item elsewhere.
They gave away components business to Jaycar and then tried to compete with the likes of JB but were inferior in every way - poor range of out of date stock & more expensive. At JB you always felt like you'd got the cheapest price with their handwritten price tags and superior fast moving up to date stock range which is all but confirmed by those stats at end of this video. Tricky Dicky was doomed from a long way back ...
This happens time and time again. A brand is on its knees, investment company swoops in and gets a bargain, floats it and over values it, runs to the hills with the spoils and leaves a bigger car crash behind.. It will never change...
Anchorage fucked the company what with their over inflated valuation when publicly listing. The consortium that bought it, used the company to purchase a shit load of cheap nasty consumable shit from his buddies, go into receivership and end up 'working' for his buddies. Several senior members of staff at the Chullora HQ, next door to their store informally advised me of this.
They are really the canary in the coal mine for all retail, pushing huge margins against online and direct internet purchase options makes them dinosaurs. Throw in disinterested staff with no idea, marketing execs who have no idea, senior management who are groping in the dark.. it's the perfect storm.. and they were unwilling and unable to compete, locked in a last century retail mindset. They got away with thousand plus percent markups on components and many stock lines, and inevitably once buyers became aware that there were so many better options, it was game over.. All retailers should take a good hard look at the way they do business if they want to avoid going the same way.
The irony is that a really patriotic Australian who now campaigns for Australian Manafacture could be blamed for the decimation of the Australian Electronic and Component business by building his business on cheap imported components and equipment.
I walk into Jaycar now in rockhampton and it feels like I'm inside the old dicksmiths shop I went to in the 90s that store is layed out exactly like it was dick Smith's was in the 90s. I used to buy components kits and make them doorbells intercoms microphone bugs you could tune into a household radio.... I think hooking up with Woolworths is what fukd him.... look now big w is fukd because of online shoppers so watch the price of your bread and butter go up now they have to make up for their losses somehow
Woolies massively miscalculated the gap in the components market by discontinuing what was the core business, and the consequence? Jaycar now has basically a monopoly on the components market.
dick smith was a pump and dump job, became a joke when once they were highly regarded
The less electronic components they sold the less I shopped there.... sad demise ☹
Same for me!
Hooray for jaycar!
@@TheRattleSnake3145 Yes and other smaller suppliers like Wiltronics in Ballarat Victoria 👍
@@TheRattleSnake3145 Starting to look like less components in Jaycar as well. Not a trend I look forward too.
@@saddle1940 Definitely true!
I love that Dick Smith always used humour with his company, with the sign writing on the truck "the electronic dick" to years later with the calling his matches "dick heads"
I love what you're doing, we need an Australian based channel with content like your 'Abandoned' series. But the long pauses with a black screen on your videos, keep on making me think my computer has crashed. Apart from that, keep up the excellent work. :)
And also the music. Please, it's horrible!
There is something wrong with your computer.
Please go to the nearest Dick Smith for parts.
Abandoned Oz
Great series. Love your dedication and research. One additional bit you could add to the Dick Smith scenario is the Tandy/Radio Shack link. Woolworths also took over the Tandy stores, also retailers of electronics for hobbyists and a range of radio shack gear. For a while they kept both chains operating (even in the same shopping centres) before pulling the plug and rebranding everything as DSE. When they went wholly to consumer electionics, that was the real death knell. As others have noted, it left the market completely to Jaycar who have expanded into that vacated market. It also brought the company into direct competition with Harvey Norman, a consumer market juggernaut, and other retailers. In the end their branded consumer products were junk compared to what the other companies offered. Most sadly, they continued to sell "gift cards" right up to Christmas and then immediately went into liquidation and did not honour those cards given as Christmas presents by unsuspecting customers. Into whose pockets did that money go?
I used to love Dick Smith as a kid, Nowra NSW was my local shop. Still got one or two kits lying around from them. I've even got a temperature controlled soldering iron, which, from memory, was the last thing I ever bought from there. I use it all the time, and it still runs like a charm, even after spending a whole summer in the back of my 4WD. The staff they employed by the end had absolutely no idea what was going on. Half the time I thought I knew more about the product then they did (and I'm not very tech savvy!) "Talk to the texperts" was definitly a bit of a stretch. Wasn't surprised to see them fold in the end. I thought the staff not knowing what was going on may have been limited to just one store, but after looking at things at their Shellharbour NSW shop, their Wollongong NSW shop, their Nowra NSW shop, and their Baldivis WA shop and getting the exact same stunned mullet "I don't know response" to simple questions like "where are your USB sticks?" from all those shops, I concluded that it was a far deeper problem.
Stephen Williamson they were still replacing people while they were going under. During the emergency sale in Christmas 2015, the guy behind the counter was literally on his second day on the job. And I mean ANY job. 17 years old and he was expected to handle Christmas fire sale crowds. Turned out well for me, I got a half price IPad and a handful of 8gb MP3 players for $15 each. The last one died just this year.
Stephen Williamson The Baldivis store was my local one, barely open for about 12 months before it closed.
I bought a dreamcast racing wheel from dick smiths in nowra in late 2007 for $30. It had been sitting in there collecting dust for almost a decade if memory serves...
0:35 - 60p, we meet again!
Nice work finding hi-res videos.
9:11 - 240x160 resolution compressed JPG. You are on a roll now. What other garbage can you dish up?
You really glossed over the reason for the "poor stock management". It was done deliberately. They first wrote off the stock as worthless and called this 'restructuring'. The next year they sold the stock - so all the revenue from sales was 100% profit because the stock was on the books as worthless. They then used this to post a massive profit and claim the company had turned around. They then sold the company to idiots who brought it without even looking up the detailed financials. Anchorage brought the company for $120m, used $100m of stock to pay for it, and then sold it for $500m. So basically a $500m profit, and walked away. Its widely considered the greatest equity heist in Australias history.
if you actually look into the accounts... while they say ... they paid $115m for Dicksmith they ACTUALLY didnt... they only paid 20m for it in cash... but they purchased the company as is in its entirety with 12m cash in it... so they really only paid 10m for Dicksmith. Its all in the accounts which is publicly available. But your explanation is the true reason why it failed... ive also said the same thing in my own commentary... a typical private equity pump and dump con job
you all probably dont give a damn but does anyone know a tool to get back into an instagram account??
I was dumb forgot the account password. I love any assistance you can give me
@Finnegan Joshua Instablaster :)
@Holden Deshawn thanks for your reply. I found the site thru google and I'm trying it out now.
Seems to take a while so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
@Holden Deshawn It did the trick and I actually got access to my account again. I am so happy!
Thank you so much you saved my account!
It is interesting to see Dick's comment that the failure was due to the greed of the previous owners. During the period of them closing down, Dick made the comment to news media that he was "disappointed that it had come to this and he was sorry to see what had happened to the brand". If he hadn't been greedy and sold out to Woolworths he would still own the company and been in control of it so this may not have eventuated. One of the main reasons for them going bust which wasn't mentioned here in any detail is their shift to custom branded products. DS televisions and things with the DS logo (the square with the tail) were never going to sell. People want known brand products, not mass produced no-name junk from china.
The change of direction to selling home appliances was never going to work and seemed to signal a last ditch attempt at staying afloat.
I worked there from 2005-2007, it was my first job. Learned some great skills there but it was clear management had no incentive to keep the best salespeople there. Most of them moved to other retailers who were paying significantly better in commissions. The stores ended up being run by young kids on minimal wage rather than more experienced and knowledgeable people, and slowly started going downhill from there. I left at a very good time
DS had a store in Berkeley, California a few blocks from Radio Shack in the late 80s, early 90s. I still use a DS multimeter. Works great.
Andrew_koala Nobody gives a shit. Everyone knows what '80s and '90s means. Actually fuck off.
@Andrew_koala you're a fucking pleb. Regular humand understood what he was saying.
@Andrew_koala are you too lazy to understand everyone knows what he talked about
@Andrew_koala Actually, you may have a point there, and I am impressed you took that much time to give a detailed answer. Now, to go back, 80's and 90's are a way to talk about the 1980's and 1990's. Now that can confuse, but we can simply deduct it by looking at the other content in the message. Considering DS was created in Mid-1900s, and him talking about a DS store, we can deduct he talks about the 1980s to 1990. The "you are wrong by 1900 years" is then completely false, as 70s, 80s and 90s are abreviations mostly used to talk about 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, but it can also talk about the 70s which are in the 1st century after B-C. Now going onto the word "Understand", where I could only find a few infos on the net as I am French and don't have an english dictionary. Understanding is a psychological process related to an abstract or physical object, such as a person, situation, or message whereby one is able to think about it and use concepts to deal adequately with that object. Understanding is a relation between the knower and an object of understanding. Understanding implies abilities and dispositions with respect to an object of knowledge that are sufficient to support intelligent behaviour. The understand word comes from middle english "understanden", from old english "understandan", which comes from Proto-Germanic "under" (between) and "standaną" (to stand), which is equivalent to old english "unter" (between, inter) and "standan" (to stand). Understand is also the name of a software development platform. Writing 80s and 90s isn't being totally lazy, in either way, and reading the whole message, we could deduct which decades he was talking about.
Now, I am sorry if my paragraph is short but I am on my phone as it is 6:30 in the morning over here, and I al quite tired due to high winds. Thanks for reading, I hope you have a good week.
Dick Smith wasn't just selling remaining stock during the closing down sales. They were also selling the shop fit outs. People were able to buy the display tables and cases for collection/delivery after that store closed.
Just like any other business that closes. Everything’s an asset. Everything’s for sale.
I bought some display racks from Myer recently. The good shelves and tables were already taken!
Dick Smith wasn't "abandoned" they were to close and then bought by Kogan. Dick Smith is still a store, it's only online but basically a mirror of Kogans site. (9:40 yep.)
Failed the day they stopped selling components
South Australia's Power House store was in Elizabeth.
Used to work for him at North Ryde, woolies came in and destroyed everything, also worked for Radio Shack so I am sad with the whole industry
Yer what was the deal with radio shack mate? Was it anything to do with dick cheese? Or was it an American franchise?
@@pattoallen1981 They might've been referring to Tandy stores…
The biggest mistake was to stop selling electronics components, this used to keep the shops busy with customers. When the became the same like Harvey Norman, Betta Electrical, selling only TV'S, computers, etc. theirs shops were empty there is nothing worse than seeing stores with no customers inside because it doesn't encourage passing by people to enter the store and take a look.
Great video dude. I use jaycar now.
Corrections
- Administration usually results in liquidation, sale or deed of company administration (where the company files a company service agreement and exits it straight out and sees what sticks). But you are right they can't just retool themselves and hope for the best like in Chapter 11, but I wouldn't call it Chapter 7 which more equal to creditors voluntary liquidation or end-stage receivership. Receivership is when a secured creditor puts the company in a sort of administration to force it to refund the debt (slightly different to UK). Apparently they did both, not sure if one triggered the other.
- A lot of your photos are from the administration sale before the receivers sale
I was an Employee of DSE back in the 80's. Back then you had all the experience in components, Alarms and radios, our customers were primarily hobbyist, electronic enthusiast and kit building people, I was experienced and fluent in all areas of electronics, however sadly after Tricky Dick handed his only child over to Woolworths for a bag of peanuts it slowly got ripped apart, Tricky Dick took this advantage and concentrated on is passion for flying and geography, the stores lost control and became more of a silly shipment and supply chain for business marketers overseas who were trying to offload their junk into DSE stores, importing more plastic breakable items from cheap china or Taiwan. Woolworths had no idea or professionals on how to operate a electronic Components store, so The store became a harvest for imports, it sold commercialized components with a few that was rebadged as DSE items. ;P after 1988 I left the store/s and went onto studying engineering and also became a fully qualified trades technician. why would you want to work for $16 ph under woolies. When I look back i really enjoyed the deep technical conversation with the customers and staff at Dick Smith Electronics, we were all Technical Gurus in all areas. We also had a modem bulletin service going between technical staff, (before the internet came about) and used to swap ideas, programs etc, I am broken that Richard started this business from Ground up with blood sweat and tears and ingesting it it for a mere 20 million, minus the taxes later Woolworths making around 300 million profit from the shares, smart move from a corporative level, if you move up too fast you will also fall Hard. You would think that Tricky Dick would of been the smart guy and kept his chain, He would of been worth over 2 Billion Dollars Today. but his days are over and so is the name. Jaycar Put Dick Smoth to shame and now is probably the leading components store front in Australia, but now everything is purchasable online from many other small business competitors.
They strayed from their original business model to compete with JB, Bing Lee and Harvey Norman, but the market was already full and their prices couldn’t compete
The Dick Smith store in Grafton NSW is still empty and the signage remains on the roof.
The black paint is also faded and Chandlers can be seen underneath it.
Same with the one in Maitland.
Haha chandlers I remember them
Dick Smith, Chandlers, Palings Music in Brisbane, Waltons….all history.
Myer, David Jones.....headed down that track. Personally I wouldn't care. I don't even know of anybody whos' bought from Myer or DJ in 20 years!
Myer and David Jones are living on borrowed time. They are too expensive and outdated for the majority of people to shop there. David Jones actually had a deal with Dick Smith to have a presence in their electrical/tech department in the last few years of the business.
@@DaemonlordX Myer Megamart
My nearest Dick Smith is now a Reject Shop which is in Albury NSW, just before they closed I recall they opened a kiosk in the store which fixed phones, computer's or something along those lines
Toph Tenacious my local Dick Smith had only been open for about 12 months before it closed. It has had a few pop up shops in there since, but has been refitted now as a kebab shop.
The same mob that brought DSE also Brought Tandy and Radio Shack at the same time all three of them are now gone. Incidentally both Altronics and Jaycar are still trading using largely the old stock (largely electronic components) model but with online sales
I've noticed that roadtechmarine and jaycar have the same sort of website and also sell the same sort of products. I wonder if someones finger is in that pie too?
@@kizzjd9578 Could be just coincidental!
@@stephenhunter70 no such thing as repeated coincidences
@@kizzjd9578 their website system is identical. Probably because Jaycar do in fact own Road Tech Marine
DSE went downhill ever since they stopped selling components and tools, which is why jcar still survives today as they sell what people want
I wish they were still open
Woolworths opened too many stores to quickly. Greedy.
I hate Woolworths.
@@TCFan30 so do i all they done was fuck dick smith
lol Woolworths never learn, same thing happened with masters
had nothing to do with Woolies. Read my comments on why this failed. This was a pump and dump job by anchorage. There is a very good reason why this failed. This was a con job and anchorage got away with it.
Woolworths has already sold off the company before the private equity mob decided to open more stores
Good video though I'll add Dick Smith primarily collapsed due to Anchorage Capital performing a classic pump and dump. They pumped the numbers by selling Apple products at a 5-10% discount while a lot of their other stock didn't sell. Growing Apple sales made the company look healthy, pumping the stock, but the company was anything but...then it all came crashing down in a classic debt spiral.
Cool vid mate ,lots of research in this and a total lack of BS. Dick's shops went from a place to buy electronic parts and consumables & be greeted by some geek in a business shirt with 3 pens in his top pocket that could answer any tech question ,into a shop that sold crap quality consumer toys, staffed by bimbos with an IQ of 3 ! Warringah Mall was my local DSE also .
Basically a copy of (already failed) Tandy Electronics
lots of but now that's jb hifi
I still have an old classic Dick Smith Scorpion ssb CB. They are quite rare these days.
Great Video, I’ve recently stumbled upon your content and it’s very interesting. I use to work for Dick Smith, started at Broadway and ended in Gore Hill, that’s we’re i started in my retail experience... how sad it was see it go. Gore Hill was its second store that opened, head office in Chullora and wish you dived into it relationship with JayCar... I still can’t believe JayCar is open...
Jaycar sorta still alive
Norm T bugger all boxed stuff in my Jaycar it’s full of parts. The staff are fucking useless and lie to your face
The Jaycar near me is awesome, heaps of parts available
Thank you for the interesting videos! Would you consider doing an "Abandoned" video about Brashs?
supafreakapotamus I bought my first proper component pro logic surround sound set up from Brashs in Balcatta W.A. I think it was in 1996. I still have the Technics receiver and the front speakers.
Do a video on the 2008 Sydney Metro proposal.
Daniel Eyre what geographical area was that? I've been following the West metro news too
Daniel Eyre oh yes I remember that one too, and Waterloo was chosen over Sydney university too. Oh well the West Sydney metro is the best we can hope for now to remedy these needs
Marco Zolo In my opinion; the west Sydney metro is the wrong alignment.
Daniel Eyre which key suburbs are missing from that alignment in your opinion?
Marco Zolo It needs to directly serve Annandale , Leichhardt, Five Dock, Concorde.
Local woollies is closing, store on market. Other woollies owned brands have closed too including target stores
Hi. Since the early 80's I use to always get all my electronic bits from Dick Smith Electronics at Chermside on the north side of Brisbane.
My parents used Brashs for some reason... Maybe there could be a video in that?
My local store was also Warringah Mall I remember going there within the last 2 weeks before closing down I bought some logitech speakers only to find half the stuff missing when I got home
I had to call up my parents and ask them to take it back and refund it as i had work and couldnt get down there during the week each day more and more of the shop was shut and i think they got in there to get a refund with like 2 days left my dad had a big argument with them cause they were not excepting refunds anymore after my dad blasted them about the ACC rules they finally gave in a refuned me what little money they had left
i remember my experience shopping in dick smith quite vividly. like it was yesterday. i even took pics of the stores when it closed down.
Good video's but please....the "b" in debtor is silent.
Here in the states, conventional brick and mortar retailers have been dropping like flies. Best Buy is the last electronics retailer and they really don't carry much stock anymore.
Why does every single electronic store close when I’m not here WHY
I shopped there when I would visit AU they were like our Radio Shack used to be a place to get parts and radio equipment sad to see them go here in the US I miss Radio Shack in high school we had a ham radio club and all the kits were in radio shack part numbers and the school paid for all the parts and we got to keep what ever we built .
@Andrew_koala Big W is not related to Walmart in any way, except apparently borrowing some of its store designs. Though I had thought the W was for Woolworths but researching this comment showed it actually stands for Warehouse.
Did you know that in Australia Kmart and Target have the same owners?
@Andrew_koala there is no mention of Walmart on their Wikipedia page, and I found some articles saying that Walmart want to buy Big W but the CEO is rejecting it. What is your source?
I notice J&b hifi have capitalised on that black &yellow..stands out like a dogs behind !
JB has used that colour scheme for decades
@@dangerouslytalented decades ?
What about Truscott Hi-Fi, Cunningham's Warehouse, Movieland Video or A&R Computers? they once existed in S.A. and have long since gone.
Or Brashs/ Chandlers Electronics
Aye 2:40 was the local dick smith store in Maitland NSW, where I live, I still remember going there when I was younger.
I worked in one of the last PERTH stores to sell components. At that point there was no training for staff, it was sink or swim. If you didn’t have a background hobby In componentry which a lot of us didn’t, customers would fume and leave the store. It was a shit job, I saw incompetence from the floor all the way up to the area managers. No one really gave a shit. I remember when the ‘ask the techsperts’ branding came in and everyone just laughed because we didn’t know what we were doing and we were only being paid base Woolworths salary anyway and were just ignored by the company. I remember opening up a DSE brand DVD player that came back faulty and the customers DVD was stuck inside. There wasn’t even solder on the wires it was just Blu tack. I’m a public servant now and couldn’t be happier.
Great Video
I remember we used to regularly shop at Dick Smith a decade ago when I was a kid and I do remember that the location we mostly went to was to the left of BIGW in Box Hill shopping centre however I remember that it closed in 2012 possibly because of that particular store under performing! :)
From what my dad said to me. He stopped shopping at dick Smith when they went into the consumer market and left the enthusiast market. To quote him around 2004 he went in there when I was 3 to look for a transistor for a toy train and they gave him a strange look saying we don't sell transistors. It was at this point that I reckon jaycar electronics boosted. I fucking love these videos you do though man keep up the good work
When I was a kid, Dick Smith used to sell electronic components like Jaycar does now. I remember buying two 12v water pumps from them years ago. But then they changed the business model and it became irrelevant to me then.
Sydney Motto: Removing things we love
Dick Smith Electronics started in an era of electronic hobbyists. They did well for a few decades selling electronics kits and CB radios until people stopped building their own gadgets and started buying them assembled. DSE couldn't keep up with the shift in consumerism. It was only a matter of time before they succumbed.
Still have a DSE branded 9v multimeter in use
Awesome videos! Maybe one on wow! Sight and sound?
I remember the days when i worked in a Dick Smith Powerhouse it was awesome back in the day, always busy and buzzing, then jb Hi-Fi poached most of Dicks good staff (including myself), from then it was never really the same again.
Are you available Multycooker plus Airfriee
Woolies might've understood the supermarkets business but they were completely clueless about the electronics component business.
That an exceptionally talented DSE marketing protege, Gary Johnston would then leave DSE to go onto create Jaycar completely thumping Woolies at the entire entire electronics component business is further proof of the brilliance of this amazing Australian individual otherwise known as Richard Harold Smith (VK2DIK), a man in every sense of the world & one of the worlds great leaders.
Dick's talk at the Manly Warringah amateur radio club rooms as showcased on EEVBlog is one of the most amazing, insightful, mind blowing & funniest talks you will ever experience in your entire lives
With the sad loss of Gary Johnson Jaycar was up for sale which would have been Dick Smith and Woolworths all over again but the family has since changed their mind.
@@Spookieham glad they had changed their mind as Jaycar is a fantastic electronics retailer I visit every chance I get!
I never purchased any consumer electronics from Dicksmith. They hired people that had very little product knowledge at all. I once went in there asking about a laptop and they didn't even have the specs sheet and I was sure that they confused a OSX and Windows, when they tried to makeup up stuff. I used to get antena parts from dicksmith, but that was the only thing I recall purchasing from dicksmith. I remember Tandy employees had better product knowledge of electronic parts than dicksmith employees.Now I much prefer getting components from jaycar or online for the hard to find components, at least jaycar employees look like they give a shite and know their products.
I worked there from 2008 to 2013 and I saw the removal of components, kits and bread boards etc. and the “Textsperts” rebranding that killed the business, it was a sad place to be...
where did they go
Slow decline of sales & lack of customers so they shut down and converted to an online shopping site but it was sold to Kogan & it’s shit.
When a business is put into administration it can be restructured, the administrators usually keep the business running until a buyer can be found or make changes to try make the business more viable. When all is lost they would resort to liquidation to reclaim as much money as possible
Yep, the Australian Administration rules allow for either a US style Chapter 7 or Chapter 11 equivalent.It's just that most cases of entering administration end up going bust and liquidating because not many people want to buy a bankrupt business.
Kinda like Radio Shack. Oh how I loved Radio Shack in the 80's and 90's... Now it's called Circuit City and has the appearance of an Apple store. Just products, no components. ArG!
?
What no corruption and manipulation to make the shares appear to be valuable (and saleable for a price that did not represent reality) followed by a precipitous crash in value when the truth came out after the big rats had left the ship they had helped to sink. You surprise me sir.
Nice video, but I can't help thinking that you should stick with "content creation" rather than attempt factual analysis. As a late "baby boomer" I consider that devoting 75% of the video to post-Dick Smith ownership misses the point entirely, which is something that most late Gen X's, Gen Y's and Millennials do where history, the present and reality meet.
From personal experience as a teenager interested in technology, there were many "bricks & mortar" component stores around before DSE started which served both the hobbyist, amateur and professional sectors. You only have to look at the popularity of magazines such as "Electronics & Radio", Electronics Australia and others, to see the range of suppliers advertising a wide range of products and components in the magazines.
DSE's success was built on good stock selection, wider general product range, AND most importantly - the convenience of a local store and GREAT MARKETING - I doubt that the electronics magazine ETI would have got off the ground without DS's support. Need that one transistor on Saturday morning?
IMHO as a technology and manufacturing professional, DSE was doomed from the moment they were sold to Woolworths - a jelly bean retailer with no knowledge of the electronics industry at all. Everything after that was a foregone conclusion!
As a further note, the opinions regarding "bricks & mortar" versus online stores are not particularly accurate, unless you're just looking at retail consumer products.
Yes, we now have access to an immense range of online components and products, but slow as it was, mail-order was the forerunner to today's online marketplace.
I bought my first commercial Single-board-computer by mail-order from the USA, regularly ordered electronic and computing kits from England and the USA, and all while shopping at my local DSE at the same time.
As the real kicker - if it was a simple "bricks & mortar" versus "online" argument, stores such as Jaycar, Altronics, Radio Parts, Oatley, RS, etc. wouldn't still be profitable either.
We know that those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it, but those who don't understand history are condemning themselves to rewriting inaccurate pseudo-history from flawed research and perspective. IMNSHO
This was my childhood...
I bought my first CDs at the first ever powerhouse... That's kinda cool lol. I don't know another store that was like that. I loved it lol. Used to deliver the drum magazine there
Good video. I worked for Tricky Dicky's in the mid 90's. Let's of cheap rubbish sold in the stores even then and a very backwards business structure even then.
The majority of shops are Woolies, coles and Kmart. That may be a reason why they closed because of these 3, or maybe others.
hell yeah, warringah mall was also my local Dick Smith besides warriwood square when they still operated.
You didn't mention Tandy.
What ultimately killed them...They opened up a Sister brand called MOVE - targeting the female market (it lasted about 5 minutes) in high profile retail centres.
Didn’t focus on their core market and lost their brand identity.
Not true
5:42 that's Armidale
I found half an abandoned Dick Smith in Mount Baker, SA
Can you do a vid on the failed “ Oasis “ project in Liverpool please
Jaycar is the place to go now for electronics
Not with their prices. Aliexpress.
i use altronics more now as jaycar are slowly moving towards cgeap crap as well
Loved listening to Hydrocity theme during this video :D
I still have a small movie player from them.
sad day it was coz i like electronics and prefer to have hands on with products before buying and still have full 5.1 speakers and 3 of the 2 channel 50watt amps with cambridge decoder also with jaycar electronics still in play i dont go to them anymore due to there lack of product and overpriced shame though coz i liked there response range for car audio and still using the 4x100w amp in car also like looking through car wreckers for parts and now alot of wreckers are disappearing not sure why abc spares gone now
In 2005 my employer - a retailer went into voluntary administration. Stock was outdated before it arrived & there was a diversification away from electronic retail. Together we had incompetent staff who were selling items below cost after you account for ONCOSTS after a customer paid with a credit card (5% surcharge) as some moron discounts to price match another retailer. A 10% Net Profit shrinks to 2% or even a loss. But poor management leadership was the key issue.
poor management leadership was NOT the key issue. READ my comments. This was a deliberate tactic by anchorage to pump up the share prices of DSE and then dump it before it crashed. I am very very familiar with this case and why it failed. Poor management was only part of the issue. poor decision making to buy lots and lots of stock and holding on to them... knowing they would get out of date quickly was a huge contributing factor.. did you know that DSE stocked soo many of their OWN DSE branded batteries they had enough they could last armageddon... that was stupid. no one was buying the stupid DSE branded batteries so yes definitely poor decision making ... but not the full contributing factor.
@@robbyjaiYes most of their own branded stuff was rubbish. After leaving my retail job - I accepted a Redundancy as they were dropping staff like a tree in Autumn. They bought so much NON-TECHNOLOGY crap it was bound to fail. If you read my comments POOR MANAGEMENT were the reason they FAILED. These clowns went so far off the scale.
I was a National Manager so I was fully aware of the multiple reasons behind the DSE failures. When I applied for the position advertised, I was competing with a dozen or so other senior executives.
I was asked to state my salary & shocked to later learn I was triple of what they paid the poor sod who was successful.
Let's agree that they messed by not selling core product lines as we became a disposable society ?
But Management has to held accountable for their failures. The morons in the ivory towers were making decisions not based on sales reports or on testing the markets. These buyers at Woolworths (parent company) are forecasting expected sales Vs revenues based on assumptions.
I should invite you to one of my future lectures if I was permitted to.
@@matthewbrown6163 dont disagree with you... but a major contributing factor was how Anchorage positioned DSE... they spent a number of years... falsely driving up profitability with deliberate write downs of stock value to boost earnings and profits... knowing full well it was illegal.. they hid it so well.. they paid next to no capital for DSE .. read my comments.. about how much they actually paid.... they pumped that DSE balloon (share price) as high as they could took the money and bolted and waited for the balloon to pop... this was not done at national sales manager level... this was done at the VERY upper level
@@robbyjai Let's agree also that once Woolworths got their hands on DSE they tried to run it as a big box retailer which DSE never was before. We all watched the GLOBAL decline of RadioShack (Tandy's) & these speciality stores are designed to failed. My former floated their company & within 3 years it was struggling.
My retailer persisted inflating current stock on hand to get a working capital loan & requested I fiddle the books. just plead ignorance on what to do (I was not interested in fraud). Sadly I had the solution but the CEO (another minion) refused to listen.
New Executive Teams were brought in & issued blocks of shares for $500k investments but were worthless 1 year later.
@@robbyjaiwww.smartcompany.com.au/finance/jaycar-founder-gary-johnston-on-how-to-get-the-business-basics-right-and-avoid-the-fate-of-dick-smith/ Check this article out from the founder of Jaycar - 110% spot on.
I see Parallels with Radio Shack in the U.S ... Dick Smith was smart enough to sell the business in its heyday and invest in Commercial Property. The only true electronics hobbyist / gadget store is Jaycar now, which appears s to be doing ok. I remember going to Dick Smith to buy my aftermarket cordless phone batteries & inkjet printer cartridges.
If anyone thinks the components and bits market is dead go and see how busy Altronics and Jaycar are on a Saturday and Sunday afternoon.
Jaycar does everything Dick Smith did, except better. Anchorage basically robbed Dick Smith investors by pumping up short term profits by writing down then selling off stock and chalking it to profit. Then they loaded it up with debt and pocketed the difference. The workers, suppliers and landlords would have been better off if Woolworths liquidated it instead of selling it off.
I recently went to Princess Auto (tools/hardware shop) in Canada and bought a wireless mouse that was branded "dick smith". Never heard of the dick smith brand, so I googled and ended up here. Interesting that a defunct Australian/New Zealand brand being sold here in Canada in 2020.
been a while since your last video. Great video BTW!
I still have my Dick Smith's Fun Way into Electronics books.
I think Dick Smith lost its identity. It tried to hedge its bets between what it used to be ( Electronic components and tools when a competitor to Tandy and like a Jaycar) and a big box electronics store like JB. It also had a period where it had a lot of own name brand items that were usually very poor quality and lacking in features. I stopped buying from there as I found it was either cheap crap or more expensive for the same item elsewhere.
I stopped going there when they stopped stocking components. They were just too expensive for consumer electronics compared to the competitors.
They gave away components business to Jaycar and then tried to compete with the likes of JB but were inferior in every way - poor range of out of date stock & more expensive. At JB you always felt like you'd got the cheapest price with their handwritten price tags and superior fast moving up to date stock range which is all but confirmed by those stats at end of this video. Tricky Dicky was doomed from a long way back ...
A lot of experts here that seem to think that not selling kits killed the business. it didn't.
This happens time and time again. A brand is on its knees, investment company swoops in and gets a bargain, floats it and over values it, runs to the hills with the spoils and leaves a bigger car crash behind.. It will never change...
Anchorage fucked the company what with their over inflated valuation when publicly listing.
The consortium that bought it, used the company to purchase a shit load of cheap nasty consumable shit from his buddies, go into receivership and end up 'working' for his buddies.
Several senior members of staff at the Chullora HQ, next door to their store informally advised me of this.
I grew up in the fun way to learn electronics era that dick smith promoted.when that stopped and the components I stopped going.
They are really the canary in the coal mine for all retail, pushing huge margins against online and direct internet purchase options makes them dinosaurs. Throw
in disinterested staff with no idea, marketing execs who have no idea, senior management who are groping in the dark.. it's the perfect storm..
and they were unwilling and unable to compete, locked in a last century retail mindset. They got away with thousand plus percent markups on components and
many stock lines, and inevitably once buyers became aware that there were so many better options, it was game over..
All retailers should take a good hard look at the way they do business if they want to avoid going the same way.
I always vetted for DSE rather than JBhifi, sadly they won... I will forever miss going to the powerhouse in Ryde
Nice tunes at 14:18
hey i got one in nz and it abandoned
I remembered this sale and dick Smith by my house closing down so sad
Kogan owns the name now, online only for the Dick Smith.
The irony is that a really patriotic Australian who now campaigns for Australian Manafacture could be blamed for the decimation of the Australian Electronic and Component business by building his business on cheap imported components and equipment.
America's Tandy's is probably non existent these days too
We had Tandy here also
Yeah I know mate
I walk into Jaycar now in rockhampton and it feels like I'm inside the old dicksmiths shop I went to in the 90s that store is layed out exactly like it was dick Smith's was in the 90s. I used to buy components kits and make them doorbells intercoms microphone bugs you could tune into a household radio.... I think hooking up with Woolworths is what fukd him.... look now big w is fukd because of online shoppers so watch the price of your bread and butter go up now they have to make up for their losses somehow