Dick Smith will close down all stores in two months. Sales will start tomorrow.
Feeling for the 2400 employees. Wonder how many bailed when they went into administration?
Wow. The end of an era for Australian electronics and retail.
Very sad. That leaves Jaycar as the only major electronics store where you can get components for hobbies.
Quite sad to see another iconic name in Australian retail become part of history after April, but unfortunately the end of Dick Smith was probably inevitable.
As far as the Closing Down Sales are concerned, it’ll be interesting to see if there’s any decent bargains to be had there.
In recent years, I don’t think that Dick Smith ever sold electrical components or things like that. It was mainly just another consumer store that sold the same telephone, computer and home entertainment stuff you’d see sold in the likes of JB Hi-Fi.
Yes, I think they began to transition away from small electronic components during the 2008 rebrand.
Except for airport locations.
Yeah I noticed that. I guess those will be done later down the road. Sad that Move is also closing. The one at Morley in Perth was nice to visit, had lots to explore. I guess this also ends the tradition of electronic stores being located in that shop lot since Tandy’s closure in Morley.
The old Coles in Hamilton today open it’s doors as Cheap as Chips across the carpark from our new Coles.
OK then. Dick Smith’s closure will leave many large, empty shop spaces across Australia in the next two months, as the company rented prime spots in shopping centres. I’ve been to stores in Melbourne city (basement of Midtown Plaza under Telstra superstore), Chadstone, Nunawading and George Street in Sydney CBD all of which are large size. It’s going to be hard for property owners to find a suitable replacement tenant.
Some of those locations will have no trouble securing new tenants.
I wonder if they’ll have anything decent at the closing down sales? I went in my local store during the first receivership sale, and there was just nothing I wanted.
Same here - most items that were advertised had sold out and what was left wasn’t really reduced very much. Will really miss the franchise as they were such a handy place being located in so many centres, there was always one nearby.
I remember heading to that Dick Smith sale they ran over a weekend at Sydney Olympic Park in September last year and seeing nothing that I wanted then.
Hopefully the closing down sales at the stores have a few more interesting things on offer.
I would imagine most large shopping centres have a waiting list of potential tenants just waiting to pounce on a vacancy.
And other retailers (like Jaycar) have already made known their interest in considering taking over leases of selected other ex-Dick Smith sites.
A former large Dick Smith store along Bell Street in Melbourne is now a Genesis fitness centre.
So will the fire sale starting as Dick Smith stores, what happens to the warranty on a product? If something fails how do you get it repaired or replaced?
Only $2b loss this morning for Woolies.
Manufacturer would be involved in meeting ACL no doubt.
Probably - just a lot more inconvenient if there is a problem than just taking it back for a store refund.
So far, not much in the way of anything really decent at Dick Smith at the two I frequent in the inner west. Had to buy a new set of earphones, they did have some Monster earphones on sale, plus a Bluetooth receiver I can use in class and claim back on tax. I guess they’ll only get out the bargains when it’s nearly time to go.