Smiths City - will it be the next 'Dick Smith'?

Forums › Off topic › Smiths City - will it be the next 'Dick Smith'?

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#2086727 10-Sep-2018 10:34

Go to the Wairau Park Smiths City and play 'spot the customer'... fun game, you may even find one!

Not only that one. I walk past the Colombo Street shop a couple of times each week & make a point of looking into the shop as I walk past. Unless there are people at the back looking at over priced TVs or printing photos, the shop is usually completely empty of customers. That shop is easy to get to with plenty of parking right at the shop entrance.

A top or even a pretty good salesperson at Smiths will be looking around for a better job you'd think. If the staff believe the place is about to go under they will just be hanging on in the hope of picking up a redundancy package. Managers won't bother to update shelving signs & the like just the same as DSE towards the end.

trig42

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#2086734 10-Sep-2018 10:43

The question for me. If it folds, does anyone pick it up?

I'd hate to see The Warehouse Group pick up another retailer - IMO they are too dominant already.

It could just close down (like DSE did) and individual stores in decent locations rebranded (like the Riccarton DSE was).

What is in Queensgate where the DSE was there?

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#2086836 10-Sep-2018 12:30

I wonder if perhaps they should put more focus on whiteware. This is a product space that would have little competition from online retailers so they would only be competing with Noel Leeming, Harvey Norman and, to a lesser extent, JB Hifi. Sure, there are whiteware specialists around but they tend to play at the premium end of the market and aren't price competitive with high volume retailers.

People no longer buy walkmans, VCRs or even cameras, but everyone needs a fridge and a washing machine.

Dunnersfella

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#2086862 10-Sep-2018 13:27

They're already pushing hard into whitegoods - from the outside it looks like Beko and Fisher & Paykel pretty much own their showroom floor.

I would guess that the showroom floors need to be smaller, rent and staff savings would help... but then what would their point of difference be?

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#2086935 10-Sep-2018 14:42

It all sounds pretty grim, to be honest. I wouldn't want to be a Smiths City employee at the moment.

LostBoyNZ

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#2087271 11-Sep-2018 08:30

Technofreak: Apparently the New Zealand DSE shops were doing OK. It was what happened on Oz and probably more importantly the equity buy out and what happened as a result of the buyout that caused the demise of DSE.

That's correct yes, the NZ stores were doing better than Australia stores. This sums up what happened pretty well though https://foragerfunds.com/news/dick-smith-is-the-greatest-private-equity-heist-of-all-time/ Dodgy, dodgy.

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quickymart

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#2271120 6-Jul-2019 18:24

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/113982872/smiths-city-jostling-for-position-with-big-retailers-in-crowded-market

Seeing them lasting 5 years is a bit harsh - although it's been 3 already, I suppose.

tdgeek

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#2271143 6-Jul-2019 19:16

When I was a teen, shooting and fishing every weekend, Smiths City was the place to go. First floor car park. ChCh. I went there years later, a couple were still there on the counters. IIRC they tended to have lots of stuff, and more expensive, but they have a clientele.

These days there sees two be three choices.

1. Cheap sh!t

2. Online, also cheap sh!t

3. Decent stuff which you need to look for

Dunnersfella

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#2271222 6-Jul-2019 23:18

Closing more stores, I'm assuming all will have been the unprofitable ones...

How many more need to go until they have dropped all the loss-makers? 4-5 more stores? Maybe they're waiting for their leases to run out?

I will put my money on them closing the Wairau Park store and NOT re-opening it... sub-lease 1/4 to 1/2 of the Mt Wellington store (why shop there when there's a VERY busy Harvey Norman across the road with a lot bigger range). Then in a few years time quietly close the shop and disappear out of Auckland to go back to focusing on the Colombo Street mother-ship. If it still exists then.

Aredwood

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#2271225 6-Jul-2019 23:53

The Wairau Park area has a ridiculous number of furniture stores. Covering the whole price spectrum and virtually everyone from major chains to independent stores. And lots of appliance stores. About the only major retailers that are not in Wairau Park, are The Warehouse and Kmart.

Part of the problem, is that the Wairau Park SC building is partly hidden by a row of large trees. And they sub leased part of their car park to a Car Wash. Meaning that when you are waiting at the traffic lights to turn right from Link Dr into Target Rd, You see the Car Wash instead of SC.

NB, The Google Street View footage of that area is out of date. It still shows Furniture City, and the car wash hasn't been built yet.

bfginger

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#2271226 7-Jul-2019 00:00

amiga500:

Because I have bought a small Veon TV recently I thought I'd check out the price on the smallest TV they sell. It was a Panasonic 32 inch selling for $597.00. (A step up from my Veon of course, although possibly out sourced as Panasonic does a lot of that now, as do the other makers.)

Then I went to see what price Harvey Norman had - it was $530 for a Panasonic 32 inch TV. The best price was in a Noel Leemings brochure at the front of their shop $384 for a Panasonic 32 inch TV.

The cheapest option of all would be a Veon 32 inch HD from The Warehouse at $269.00. (Which has a 3 yr warranty)

I also noticed that Smiths City had just updated all eight? of their Fuji photo printing machines - a possibly strange decision seeing that all but one shop at the Riccarton Mall got rid of photo printing two or more years ago!

Panasonic has two 32" models so you might not have been comparing like for like. The FS500Z is much better than the cheaper but intolerable F400Z. I don't think the 32" FS500 is an outsourced model although it might be overseas. It was available for only $345 on Boxing Day which shows how enormous the retailer margins are. Unfortunately the existence of horrible Warehouse TVs means a basic Panasonic TV is now given the premium pricing treatment.

Photo kiosks have their place as many people don't have working printers at home and want something to hang on the walls. I still see people using them.

Dick Smiths New Zealand was still turning a profit when the company went down. Their major problem was in Australia.

I'd noticed before seeing this thread how deficient Smith City's naming, advertising and branding was compared with Harvey Norman's.

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quickymart

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#2452183 1-Apr-2020 11:34

So Wairau Park closed, as well as a Wellington outlet and one in Queenstown. Anyone been there lately (pre-lockdown, obviously) and have things improved at Smiths City?
My Mum was telling me she liked them because you get a whole houseload of furniture from them, but don't Harvey Norman (the Wairau Park one, anyway) do this already?

snnet

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#2452200 1-Apr-2020 11:48

quickymart:

So Wairau Park closed, as well as a Wellington outlet and one in Queenstown. Anyone been there lately (pre-lockdown, obviously) and have things improved at Smiths City?
My Mum was telling me she liked them because you get a whole houseload of furniture from them, but don't Harvey Norman (the Wairau Park one, anyway) do this already?

Harvey Norman do it but I hate that their usual pricing is overpriced so that you have to barter down because it's probably listed at 150% of what they're willing to sell it to you for if you're buying a lot of stuff. A small example from me is when I was buying a bed, mattress, bedside tables and a couch - the bed/mattress/bedside tables were half the price at one of the 9? bed shops situated in the same shopping area at north west. Granted the bedside stuff wasn't the exact same brand but it was just as sturdy and looked the same

quickymart

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#2452232 1-Apr-2020 12:17

Who else does it apart from Harvey Norman (and Smiths City), say for example if I wanted to refurnish my entire house?

(speaking of Harvey Norman... https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/120728348/harvey-norman-tells-landlords-it-wont-pay-rent )

Sadly I wouldn't have gone to Smith's City anyway, as what I've seen is their stuff is mostly outdated and overpriced.

antonknee

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#2452237 1-Apr-2020 12:22

Not good news for Smith's all round really - https://www.nzx.com/announcements/350885.

COVID-19 will hit them hard, and it's tough to see if they will recover much given they were struggling before. This will be quite sad as they are a longstanding brand with a great deal of history, and also (selfishly) a number of my friends and ex-colleagues work for Smith's City in various capacities and I would hate to see them negatively effected.

Their market announcement (linked above, following a trading halt) essentially say's ASB has agreed to defer repayment of a loan, they are asking landlords to cut rent, capex is halted, execs taking a paycut, and now looking at capital restructuring with PWC.

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