Windows 7 saves Dixons
Dixons Store Group International credited the launch of Windows 7 with reducing its losses for the first half of the year - ahead of the all-important Christmas sales beano. DSGi said sales in the six months ended 17 October 2009 were down one per cent to £3.3bn and like-for-like sales were down four per cent overall, but up one …
Every time you ask a question and the guy doesn't know the answer, so goes to get his mate who doesn't know the answer, so goes to get his mate who actually has an IQ>10 and talks to you while THE OTHER TWO SLACK-JAWED DRIBBLERS JUST STAND THERE WHILE A HUGE QUEUE BUILDS UP, you should be able to pull a gun out of an emergency sort of box thing and put them both out of your misery.
<breathes>
... is that Dixons' senior management spend too much time looking at revenue, and seem to work towards very short term goals.
Former colleagues of mine (I've never worked for Dixons, but know people who have) describe how every case for inward investment would be met with "£35k? We'd have to sell an extra 70 TV's at £500 quid a pop!", thus making the twin mistakes of
1) not looking at the profit generated by the sales (they'd have to sell many more telly's than 70 to have £35k of profit), and
2) ignoring any savings/profits/etc by the investment proposed.
And, of course the further sins of terrible customer services and extortionate pricing for everyday items such as memory cards and Blank DVD's.
They really need to learn that it's not 1985 and that people impulse buy more tech stuff nowadays, so customers are in your store week in, week out, rather than just occasionally to replace a device that's died.
I amazes me that any organisation with the shocking reputation of PC World/Currys has survived so long. My local branch always seems to be almost deserted inside, each time I pass - I certainly haven't been tempted inside in years. I suppose their continued presence on our high streets says more about an undiscriminating buying public than it says about the firm itself.
I wouldn't buy an AA battery in the place, or believe a word I was ever told in there - they're a joke.
Surely DSG are discovering that its time to scrap the PC World brand and focus on having a Currys for the bigger stores, Currys.digital for smaller stores and Dixons for more specialised or business orentated stores. However, they really really should have got the online retail end of things right by now. Their websites are pisspoor.
Windows Vista pretty much helped sink them, took them years to move the stock with that cr@p on it.....
But does anyone else find those windows 7 ads with totally fake people claiming they were responsible for fixing windows just gag inducing(The advert should go, Microsoft paid me to say that I had this great idea so that Apple wouldn't sue us for nicking it).
I though the previous adverts where a 5 year old finds he can infect his nan's PC by emailing malware bad enough to want to kick in the TV screen but these are worse.
"11 new style stores, which combine Currys and PC World "
So....that would be like the old Dixons stores then?
DSG's problem is they charge too much money, not just on the big box stuff but peripherals too. At one time only knowledgeable knew this, but these days with prominent (and cheaper) retailers like Dell & Amazon, everyone does.
The entire chain looks like a dinosaur trying to fleece people with expensive media, £100 HDMI cables and so on. And of course the extended warranty. Frankly someone would have to be desperate, stupid or ignorant to pay the prices Currys/PC World without looking elsewhere first.
If DSG want to turn it around they should start by lowering their prices. And stop with the charade that PC World and Currys are separate entitles. Often the stores are situated right next to each which means doubling of staff, rent, electric, floor space, tills, security monitoring, etc. Close one of the outlets or knock a bloody wall through, carry more stock and cut costs by laying off 30-50% of the staff.
...bloody Microsoft, can't they get anything right?
Or Im invisible or I smell peculiar to the shop assistants, but on the rare occasion I do go in Dixons I/we always get ignored.
Even when I make remarks like "OK, the budgets £1250 for your new laptop" to my son with an assistant in earshot, it fails dismally!
OK, so I dont like being hounded whilst Im browsing, but at least some attention whilst raising the interest level on a particular item wouldnt go amiss
eg...
'AOL are the Dixons of ISPs'
'Hotmail are the Dixons of free email'
They have those Dixons duty-free shops at the airports with a big sign saying:
"Cheaper than high street prices!"
Yeah right, I was in one of those shops not too long ago looking for a replacement for a set of head phones I had just broke, spotted the exact same model in there selling for 35 quid with a sign saying R.R.P is 40 quid.
Now I had seen those same head phones in Argos for 30 quid so I challenged the guy in the store to match to a real world high street price not that "Recommended Retail Price" crap they were spouting in big red letters around the store.
Would he budge? Nah, so I walked away. If Dixons are going to twist the truth on how much things cost then you won't see me in there again.
Sod 'em and their Fuckwit-Have-To-Read-The-Back-Of-The-Box-To-Answer-Any-Question-Staff
