Goodbye Dick Smith

[Tropico]

Sorry, just couldn't help myself.

I feel for those who had money invested.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

What a difference two years makes, anyone investing in Qantas 2 years ago would have quadrupled their money, maybe Dick Smith should have a look at buying the Dick Smith stores back.

 

[Tropico]

No doubt the administrators will make a lot of money. Some of the assets will certainly be available at a bargain price. However the poor investors will get nothing.

 

[Bribie G]

Great store in its time but you no longer need to buy a box of floppies for $35 or a mouse for $30, and parallel cables or stand alone $150 scanners are history.

Their big mistake was to try to emulate HN or JB HIFI in poky little stores that were never intended to sell 70 inch TVs. Also the service model is weird. Many a time I've waited and waited to pay for a small item while the 2 staff are tied up solving some PC problem with a totally uncomprehending old guy.

Their online store is actually one of the best in the business but the shops are dreadful.

Ed
I thought it was owned by a private equity fund.

 

[DU99]

http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/dick-smith-goes-into-voluntary-administration-20160104-glzc0t.html .
Tandy was bought out by DS

 

[TheWiggman]

I'm trying to cast my mind back when I used to buy things from Dick Smith. I used to go in there as a young whipper-snapper for their core products, which back in the days were electrical kits and components. The Fun Way Into Electronics kits were ripper units and taught me a lot about electrical concepts. Some time during the early 2000s (I think) Tandy started stocking Dick Smith products and the buyout happened. From then on the company started focussing more on computing goods and forgot about the gadgets and gizmos they were famous for. They used to have quite a good range of consoles and games around this period, and they had the cheapest TVs (CRT initially) you could buy. Electrical components moved behind the counter and the kits seemed to evaporate. It was about this time that Jaycar made a transition away from speakers and audio and more into the 'fun' gadgets but they also upheld the kits and components, and I suspect a lot of the customers moved there.
DSE now feels like an electronics supermarket without the stuff you want. Their competitors (Jaycar, JB Hi Fi, hobby stores, EB) seem to stock broader ranges and just seem to do a better job at the same thing. Videogames are moving off the shelf and going digitally so retailers don't care about them so much any more. People go to EB for consoles. TVs are all becoming cheap so people would rather get an affordable brand name TV in a store with a bigger range than a DSE for slightly less. Cameras are becoming more specialised thanks to mobiles so if you want a camera, you go to a camera store with the decent range. People tend to buy smarts phones with plans so are less inclined to go to DSE for it. That leaves what... memory cards? Cables?

A damn shame, but to be honest I'm not surprised.

 

[Bribie G]

Their DSE tellies arent too bad. I've bought 2 of them in the past and a friend bought 2 last year, upstairs downstairs.
However it was all online with quick free delivery on special.
Another store that has gutted their core market is Officeworks.

 

[TheWiggman]

My wife bought a DSE 51cm CRT in about 2003 and I pulled it apart to put in my MAME cabinet. I always remarked at how vivid the colour was and the image was exceptionally clear - as good as any TV I'd seen to be honest. Turned out it had a Phillips tube in it, which the supplier of the new chassis remarked was in fact very good quality. Ironically, it was the electronics in the TV that were cheap.

 

[shacked]

For those who are interested, here is a cached version of the article titled 'Dick Smith is the greatest private equity heist of all time' (it appears to have been taken down from the live site)

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://foragerfunds.com/bristlemouth/dick-smith-is-the-greatest-private-equity-heist-of-all-time/

 

[shacked]

Also, the Anchorage Capital website lists DSE as a case study!

http://www.anchoragecapital.com.au/case-study-dick-smith/

 

[fraser_john]

And now The Age is reporting that gift cards will not be honored! Seems a bit wrong.

 

[GibboQLD]

For those who are interested, here is a cached version of the article titled 'Dick Smith is the greatest private equity heist of all time' (it appears to have been taken down from the live site)

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://foragerfunds.com/bristlemouth/dick-smith-is-the-greatest-private-equity-heist-of-all-time/

I had a read of that article this morning -- found it incredibly interesting in a "how the hell can this even be legal" kinda way.

 

[pcmfisher]

I went into Dick Smiths the other day for an aerial cable. Cheapest was a 1.5m job for $24. WTF.

Went next door to cheap as chips and got 2 @ $3 each.

You can only rip people off for so long.

They lost the plot when they stopped selling components.

 

[Weizguy]

I had a read of that article this morning -- found it incredibly interesting in a "how the hell can this even be legal" kinda way.

Perhaps legal, but oh so immoral.

[Note: morality is not legally enforceable]

 

[Benn]

If you're a big corporation or just happen to make **** loads of money... anything's Legal.

 

[shacked]

I had a read of that article this morning -- found it incredibly interesting in a "how the hell can this even be legal" kinda way.

Yeah it's hard for retail investors (generally mums and dads) to make sense of all the mumbo jumbo in a prospectus; especially one that like this which was pretty heavily 'engineered' and complex. Financial 'planners' generally don't help as a lot of them don't understand it themselves.

I feel bad for the ordinary Aussie that's dusted their hard-earned on this.

 

[niftinev]

And now The Age is reporting that gift cards will not be honored! Seems a bit wrong.

yep, does't deserve to servive, any company that takes your money and doesn't honour their gift cards shouldn't exist

we've got your money now **** off says alot, well i won't be buying anything from them with an attitude like that

feel sorrry for all the people that will lose their jobs and hope they get new employment fairly quick

 

[Airgead]

Unfortunately in accounting terms gift cards and deposits are unsecured creditors and as soon as a company goes into administration any unsecured creditor basically gets nothing. This also applies to their suppliers as well. Any outstanding invoices will probably never be paid. Horrible but standard practice I'm afraid. Only secured creditors (ie:banks and the tax department) will get anything.

What those private equity parasites did should never have been legal. They should be done for fraud at the very least.

 

[Bribie G]

Neoliberal dog eat dog system.
Expect a lot more of it.

 

[Weizguy]

<snip>

What those private equity parasites did should never have been legal. They should be done for fraud at the very least.

I still remember clearly what happened to Ansett airlines. That was unconscionable, yet permitted..., nay encouraged.