Dick Smith gooooooone?
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<p>Interesting - when they were part of our organisation, they were always a strange fit. Basically zero crossover with any other division, even the department store we have here in Oz that sold some consumer electronics.</p>
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<p>Dick Smith was always a nerd store e.g. RadioShack style thing I guess.</p>
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<p>They were offloaded for $50M, then their value increased to $300M. Now this? Fuck.</p> -
<p>I used to work for Dick Smiths when I was studying IT. Was a pretty cool place to work, the staff discounts on DSE branded stuff was great (like ethernet cables etc). Although I did end up walking out on the job, but that was because the manager was a complete ass.</p>
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<p>I agree re: Jaycar. I think they lost a lot of loyal customers when they stopped stocking electronic bits and pieces. I would often have to tell customers to "go to Jaycar for that". Not a good situation when you are sending customers to another business.</p>
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The managers were always talking about how hard it was to compete with Harvey Norman.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Virgil" data-cid="550618" data-time="1451944804">
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<p>Yeah they largely changed their profile<br>
Back in the day it was a place you went to to get odds and ends for electronic use, <strong>I mean who the fuck would but a tv from Dick Smith?</strong></p>
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<p>My parents...although when the DSE one crapped out (under warranty) I convinced them to pay a bit more,and buy another brand at DS.</p> -
<p>This is a <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:6ejGUtuY55oJ:https://foragerfunds.com/bristlemouth/dick-smith-is-the-greatest-private-equity-heist-of-all-time/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us'>pretty interesting read</a> from back in October detailing how things got where they did (post Woolies at least). Had to use Google Cache as the original site is down.</p>
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Don't know about Oz, but here, their store-brand cables are stupidly overpriced compared to Trademe or Kmart, for example.<br><br>
I remember checking online 10 or 12 years ago for an adapter of some sort - I could get the adapter at Dick Smith's for $19.95 (DSE branding), or I could buy 5000 from the factory for NZ$5000 including shipping. This was exactly the same item, so obviously the markup was fairly steep even taking into account the GST, tariffs, packaging, Consumer Guarantees Act etc.<br><br>
Even now, they're trying on high prices for store branded cables except when there's a sale, even though Kmart and Trademe have basically the same thing for $5-$10 (including courier for TM). -
<p>and those are the bread and butter stuff that they make huge mark-ups on because people expect own branded stuff to be lower priced and Joe Average doesn't shop around for.</p>
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="rotated" data-cid="550696" data-time="1451956441">
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<p>This is a <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:6ejGUtuY55oJ:https://foragerfunds.com/bristlemouth/dick-smith-is-the-greatest-private-equity-heist-of-all-time/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us'>pretty interesting read</a> from back in October detailing how things got where they did (post Woolies at least). Had to use Google Cache as the original site is down.</p>
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<p>That's an incredible read. Amazing that people got sucked in by this. </p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="jegga" data-cid="550713" data-time="1451961158">
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<p>Is Dick Smith like the mad butcher and only uses Smiths name now?</p>
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<p>Yeah Dick cashed out years ago.</p>
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<p>Hits the nail on the head here re Anchorage Capital: <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/dick-smith-sees-survival-alongside-harvey-norman-jb-hifi-20160105-glzkdw.html '>http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/dick-smith-sees-survival-alongside-harvey-norman-jb-hifi-20160105-glzkdw.html </a></p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="rotated" data-cid="550696" data-time="1451956441">
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<p>This is a <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:6ejGUtuY55oJ:https://foragerfunds.com/bristlemouth/dick-smith-is-the-greatest-private-equity-heist-of-all-time/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us'>pretty interesting read</a> from back in October detailing how things got where they did (post Woolies at least). Had to use Google Cache as the original site is down.</p>
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<p>cheers for that. Clever stuff using the limited disclosure requirements. You would think it's the type of thing you only get away with once though.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="barbarian" data-cid="550739" data-time="1451966903">
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<p>Yeah Dick cashed out years ago.</p>
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<p>Hits the nail on the head here re Anchorage Capital: <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/dick-smith-sees-survival-alongside-harvey-norman-jb-hifi-20160105-glzkdw.html '>http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/dick-smith-sees-survival-alongside-harvey-norman-jb-hifi-20160105-glzkdw.html </a></p>
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<p>The link's dead Baabaa.</p> -
<p>Hmmm no it's from today, on SMH. Works when I paste it into my address bar, but not when I click on the link in the post. Weird.</p>
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/dick-smith-sees-survival-alongside-harvey-norman-jb-hifi-20160105-glzkdw.html'>Maybe try this link.</a></p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="barbarian" data-cid="550759" data-time="1451969571">
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<p>Hmmm no it's from today, on SMH. Works when I paste it into my address bar, but not when I click on the link in the post. Weird.</p>
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/dick-smith-sees-survival-alongside-harvey-norman-jb-hifi-20160105-glzkdw.html'>Maybe try this link.</a></p>
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<p>That one works - same link address. Weird. Maybe one of the IT nerds on here can explain to us what's happening there?</p> -
Yeah - PICNIC.
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<p>they are also the major sponsor of the 9's coming up next month...but apparently it wont be impacted</p>
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<p>Which is a bit of a shitter since they are not going to honour any gift cards (gutting for anyone who got one for Christmas!) I realise the sponsorship woulda been done ages ago...</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="taniwharugby" data-cid="550807" data-time="1451978209">
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<p>they are also the major sponsor of the 9's coming up next month...but apparently it wont be impacted</p>
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<p>League is used to running on funny money.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="mariner4life" data-cid="550747" data-time="1451967974">
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<p>cheers for that. Clever stuff using the limited disclosure requirements. You would think it's the type of thing you only get away with once though.</p>
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<p>You get away with it so long as there are companies run incompetently by people who don't know how to wind them down properly & investors who are total morons & can't do basic due dilligence.</p>
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<p>I have no issue with what Anchorage did, its the guy they bought it off & the flat out morons they sold it to that shareholders should be suing.</p>
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<p>Also, its a really interesting read & the weird thing is nothing they did was particularly complex nor hard to see - and certainly not morally nor legally shadey. Some of it couldn't have been done by the previous owners - eg the fair value write downs, and others are only benificial if you have taxable profits to use. IE if you have 100m in carried forward losses, generating another 50m in losses has no tax benifit to you unless you can make 150m+ in tax due in the future. Hence less "you fucked up" on the sellers, but the "investors" who bought it should be fucking shot. 20 minutes with the balance sheets would have explained all that. </p>
