DSG's PC City in France...
I am really not surprised that DSG is making a loss in France.
1) General hardware generally 15-20% overpriced compared to other computer outlets and hypermarkets
2) Slow service: Waiting 40 minutes to grab a sales weenie is really over the top... People walk out after 5.
3) Inadequate parts: Great, you can assemble your own PC with the shop's spares & custom build section... only if you can consolidate the fact that the only CPU's on sale are AMD and the only motherboard on sale are for Intel...
4) Accessories: Strange pricing strategy: can be cheaper to buy an external USB disk drive and cannibalize it than to buy a plain OEM disk drive in a brown box. The price is identical or cheaper...
5) Shops are tied to decisions made by central accounts and not on customer demand: Shops recieve what the accounts decide to sell (generally decided on purchase price), not what the shop actually needs (ergo the AMD/Intel screw-up in part 3), but it's the shop's fault if they cannot sell the products imposed by accounts, even if the customers do not want/cannot use it.
6) Deaf managers: If you can find the kit cheaper elsewhere, then go there instead. They cannot be bothered to align themselfs on the competitors price and close the sale, or even come and talk to the customer.
3 years ago, I used PC City as an emergency one stop supplier (like I get a repair call at 5 PM and I need parts by 8 AM the next morning for small stuff (new hard disk or RAM or mobo that I do not have in stock), I'd buy from them on the way home as they had the stock and choice.
Today, the service is dire, the prices are no longer as cheap, and the chose is severly limited, and I no longer shop there.
This is not only me as they have shortened the opening hours of their stores and no longer open on sunday.
DSG used to be a serious player in the French IT market. Now they are just playing at it, and their profit margins are now showing it like it is.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
