Brings back memories thinking about that group of electronics stores down the bottom of York St. Near QVB.
Back in the day no trip into the city was ever contemplated with out a visit there. Just looking round those shops was a very satisfying experience within itself.
I remember walking into a DS power house down the road when they first opened. It was like wonderland.
It was not long after I went in there for some basic component and was told they no longer kept that. I literally laughed at the guy till I realised he was fair dinkum then I must have had my stunned Mullet face on because I couldn't believe that Tricky Dickys didn't have something they were built on. Looking round the place more looked like retra vision or Bing lee than an electronics store. I could buy 7 different toasters and unlimited Kitchen appliances but they didn't have 555 Timers??? WTF??
I still have a Multimeter I bought from DS in the '80s. I paid $80 for it which was nearly a weeks wages on what I was getting back then. Having a bit of a multi meter fetish, I buy much better featured one's now online for about $8 but that old one that apart from being dirty doesn't look any different, will always have a special place in the heart. I'll be dead before I can ever have anything as long as I have had that now.
I remember going into the DS powerhouse at Bankstown for some computer stuff in desperation and coming across THE most obnoxious, rude, arrogant, belligerent Fkwit of a shop assistant I had ever come across in my life. If not for the fact I had my young son with me, I would have dropped the guy like the POS he was no question and I really don't know how I kept my cool and didn't really hurt him anyway. After I walked away the guy followed me making smart arse remarks. Had I been on my own, he'd have not walked out to go home. Dunno if the guy was on drugs or what but I'll always remember that as few people in the world have ever got me as infuriated as that guy did and certainly never in a shop, Still remember his name, Dirk. Probably says a lot in itself!
I came home and wrote a complaint email and sent it to everyone I could look up from the MD down.
Must have go someones attention because I had someone from head office get back to me first thing the next morning ( sent it after 6 pm) with apologies profuse and would I like to come down to the store for a personal apology? Errr, no thanks, I may not be able to contain my temper a second time even just looking at the clown. Ah no, guy meant from him, Dirk would not be coming back, ever.
I found out it wasn't the first complaint this turd had against him and he was dismissed on my complaint.
Most of them there were like Bunnings staff are today, pretty useless especially if they have to fill in in another department.
Jaycar is a double edged sword to me. Maybe a quadruple edged one. I don't mind the obvious crap they sell but I do get annoyed when you want something decent and they have 5 Different things all equally Cheap and garbage. I like cheap and nasty but there are times when you just want solid and reliable no matter what the price and when you can't get it... very annoying.
Really now jaycar are just an importer and rebrander of the same cheap Chinese crap everyone else has. Like everyone else, Brand name and price as in paying for what you get has no relationship to quality whatsoever no matter if it could be relied upon in the past.
I like the company, or at least did, but they are up against it. I have to admit I hardly go there anymore though and previously I went to see what new toys they had and would then come home and see how much cheaper I could get the self same thing on fleabay or banggood or the like.
I remember one of the last times I was in there I saw something I wanted for my father. $89 which seemed steep for what it was. Came Home and found the EXACT same thing online for $9 Delivered. I looked for some solar connectors I was out of some weeks back. Buy good ones online for under a $1 ea, jaycar, $14.99..... but they come in a little bag with a cardboard top stapled to them.
Must keep the staff enthralled for hours packaging them up.
This is a problem I see with them continuing on. I understand that they have massive overheads, rent, staff, power , warehousing, insurance and so it must go on and on. Thing is, for me the customer, it's one thing to pay say $12 in store for something I can get online for $9 but to pay 10x more??? Not going to happen. It's not a one off either. All their stuff has massive markup compared to online and it's a real catch 22 for them and the customer who would like to support them.
As for staff, seem to range from brilliant to pathetic. I remember doing a project some years ago that was for a commercial job. they loved what I did and ordered a stack more for a short time frame. I'd priced the job up as a one off and getting stuff from Jaycar so I was back there every day or 2 for a fortnight at least. There were never the same staff there. Like ever. I actually commented to one guy about it and he reckoned he'd been there years but I never saw him before or again. If they were casuals they must have been doing a shift a fortnight or something and the one store had 50 Staff rotating.
I have just changed my way of doing things Now. I now think ahead and plan what I am going to do in advance and buy everything online.
I have a HUGE pile of stuff in the cupboard behind me and I never order what I want, I always get 4-5 and I can do that because shit is so cheap. I have loads of little boards for different things that I pay a Buck each for and couldn't come near building them myself that cheap. A mate came over a few weeks back telling me about something he wanted and I came in, Pulled out a couple of relevant boards, hooked them to a relay and a circuit breaker, put it all in a box I had a heap of sitting there, wired it and he took it home thinking I was some sort of genius. I wish!
He's happy as pushing me $100 Note asking will that cover it. Do a quick calc in my head and Figure if he buys me the lunch special at the pub and a couple of drinks, I'm in front.
Could have never afforded to keep what I have on hand now in the old days. It was for most things except the small things like resistors etc buy what you need or a bag of them but I would never have what I keep now and didn't give a 2nd though to. If I was buying it at jaycar I'd have thousands tied up instead of a few hundred if that.
This stuff is just so cheap now you can have it sitting round although I have learned to mark stuff because I forget what it is and have to get a magnifier to read the code on the board to look it up. Of course the boards I buy for a buck each online and are often delivered in 7-10 days are $15-20 at Jaycar, IF they have them at all.
i really don't know how they can stay in business. Can't say I ever saw the local place busy no matter when I went in. I went into the Gold coast store about a year ago when visiting a mate to get some bits to repair his pool chlorinator. Most of what I wanted they kept but were out of stock of. Really? You can't keep Diodes and bridge rectifiers on the shelf?? Managed to scrape enough together elsewhere ( From mates companys repair dept) to fix the thing but very dissapointing on the part of Jaycar.
I son't know how they can/ will survive. The environment of retailing is changing so much and just like my own business where bread and butter markets and several of them have all but dried up, making a quid doing what they are doing is something I can't even get my head around. I don't know if it would even be worth them just doing online as you do that and then you are still competing even more with the chinese/ fleabay sellers that are happy to make 3% markup.
The only way is to do something no one else is doing and what the hell could that be in the electronics market?
I was researching a few months ago. You can have an idea for something now, take it to these companies and they will do all the R&D, manufacture and market it and you get a royalty. They all say you have 2 years to make your money because by that time it will have been reverse engineered or copied and the market flooded with knockoffs.
Be hard to come up with more gadgets than they already have or can buy like everyone else AND find a market at the profit they need.
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