http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/gerry-harveys…
Mr Norman called Amazon a "parasite" that "contributes nothing to society".
I think he might be having a few sleepless nights.
Would you guys still go to places like Harvey Norman once Amazon starts its operations?
Gerry can take a long walk off a short cliff.
A short walk off a long cliff would be better.
Gerry's already there, flapping his lips.
His lips dont lie
i am curious about this reaction. as ozb, wouldn't you go wherever the price is the cheapest? if harvey offers an iphone for $100, there is no idealogical reason why i wouldnt buy
even if it is the cheapest gerry will go and call you a professional for working the system for buying it at the price they suggested of $100.
Keep your money and refund it months on later….
Would you guys still go to places like Harvey Norman once Amazon starts its operations?
HEEELLLLLLLL NO!!!
Willing to bet almost any amounts of money that everyone who upvoted this would still visit Bricks and Motar stores - at least to see what the product is like and play with it before going back to Amazon or equivalent to make a discounted purchase.
You pay retail for being able to look and feel the product before you buy it. They have to pay for stores, staff, utilities and rent. Hence why in his opinion Amazon has not contributed to the Australian economy since you're basically not employing thousands of retail staff this way.
Nope, haven't gone into a bricks and mortar store (at least for sporting goods, furniture, tech, electronics and computing items) for like 3-4 years now… I just read online reviews from multiple sites about items before i make my online purchase.
at least for sporting goods, furniture, tech, electronics and computing items
Yep. For clothes, shoes, food, perishables - retail store? Or you buy that online, fingers crossed and hope for the best that it will be fit for purpose? Same with everything else too, but you are an informed, wise shopper right?
For clothes, shoes, food, perishables - retail store
Yeah Harvey Norman sells none of those.
Shoes I will buy online if its a previous shoe I've worn and am familiar with.
If the food is consistently good with a satisfaction guarantee I will go online.
@bchliu: Clothes and shoes you can add to that list as well, been mainly buying online now through Iconic and Asos, only clothing store I go in to visit is Uniqlo to get pants I buy online adjusted. A lot of the popular clothing stores now offer free returns if the item doesn't fit.
Food & perishables I have to go to a supermarket because it's still cheaper than purchasing online + delivery at the moment. However food delivery in the past has been pretty reliable and convenient (I look at ingredients I need, add everything i need to cart, stuff just comes in a styrofoam box with dry ice to my front door and I bring it in when I get home from work) so I'm willing to switch to online once prices + delivery equal or at least close to costs in store.
Harvey you better start taking those RED pills
I wonder when eBay will make an announcement on how 'upset' they are too
They won't, because they're sane.
Have you sold anything lately ?
I don't sell things for a living, not sure what you're asking for here.
They will start running fake 40% off sales.
eBay suck balls. Shit don't sell on eBay unless it's on "sale"
Aw diddums. The poor, hard working man whose business provides benefit to so much to our society doesn't want any competition?
I haven't stepped foot in any of his stores for years and haven't missed anything.
I recall going there about 4 years ago. For the life of me I can't figure out what I wanted, but I'm fairly certain I didn't buy it there.
Not even for vPay vouchers or to check something out then buy it elsewhere?
What's a vPay voucher?
I bought some bathroom stuff after I'd shopped around. That was ok.
He is the same guy who had the gall to call us professionals.
Maintain the rage. lol
That's a compliment. I'm not even angry, just amused.
It was the way he used it though, pretty much blaming Ozbargain member's for the error. Good way to treat your customers -
Nothing wrong with friendly competition. The worst bit will be loss of jobs. Would be interesting to see what age group buys at harvey normans as older people are less likely to shop at amazon.
But there will be an increase in delivery driver jobs…
For a couple of years until that's automated
Beep Boop
We're not here to take your jobs, fellow meatbag
And by meat bag I mean Human.
Hahahaha. Picture a robot sneaking up to a door, instead of knocking they write a "Sorry, I missed you" card, then quickly run off.
Dey terk er jerbs
You made me think of HK-47.
I buy a lot form Amazon in the USA due to relatives in the USA. Have you seen that Amazon has it's own delivery arm since last year? It's basically like Uber but for deliveries, where dispatch comes from Amazon and whomever is around in their personal cars takes the deliveries. Pretty crap service (stuff is just delivered in some dude's personal car if it fits), but undercuts USPS, FedEX, DHL. Same could happen here.
Nothing wrong with friendly competition
If Amazon's competition is friendly. I've read of Amazon not making a profit off products until other sellers are forced to close and then increasing their prices so everybody pays more in the long run.
So you mean what every big company has done for the last 100 yrs? Qantas vs budget lines, Woolworths/Coles vs independants, Harvery Norman vs Retravision etc. List can go on and on.
isn't that the toothless tiger though? :)
Nearly impossible to prove.
Or if it is possible nobody has the determination to go through with it.
There are plenty of major businesses that have operated at heavy loses (sometime for 5+ years) to force competitors out of town. In my home town bunnings came in and sold hardwood 15% cheaper than the five independent stores. As soon as they shut down it almost doubled in price.
@Jebroni: Thats illegal, there are laws against precisely that. But you would have to prove that a seller is selling below the industry price or some such.
The thing is Amazon employs a huge amount of people (268,900 people according to google), I am guessing many times more than Harvey norman. So this may actually be good for adding more jobs to Australia.
Yeh jobs where Aussies are on zero hour contracts or other screw ball deals. I know this is the future, but the rights of workers to the Aussie way are slowly going down… its a race to the bottom.
For what its worth at least HN was better in this way, you can bet A will be the start of a worser life for a group of people that used to work for HN.
Loss of Jobs is not only with HN, but every retailer. If everyone treats Bricks and Motar stores as a showroom, then who will pay for the rent, the shopfitting and the services?
Competition is great and good for everyone, but when it is unfair competition like not having to deal with showrooms and no need to pay GST <$1000 will mean a hit to the economy on a massive scale to both the Retail sector and the Government sectors.
Gerry may have approached this the wrong way by throwing a tantrum, but underneath his frustrations is a very relevant point of impacting Australian economy in general.
Gerry's problem is his unwillingness to evolve. First he campaigned to stop the GST free import of $1000 purchases, now it is, how dare an online retailer be allowed to compete with me. hiding your head in the sand and screaming for protection is not going to change reality, evolve or die. showrooms need to disappear or reduce in size, the days of the massive footprint department stores are numbered.
It sounds like he will try to fight them in the courts, via 'predatory pricing'.
That's going to be difficult for him, all they have to do is match their overseas prices and he's immediately at a premium. It's hard to argue they are selling at a loss if the prices are the same.
For instance, he does a Yamaha RXV681 for $1148. Amazon do it for US$600, or AU$858 (after exchange & GST) - 34% more expensive in his stores.
Provided that Amazon match their global pricing on goods, I doubt I'll buy much in local retail - I know Amazon are more trustworthy, and cheaper.
Steam and origin don't even match their overseas pricing on digital goods, what makes you think Amazon would with Australian warehousing and logistics to add to the costs.
At least initially, they will drop their prices in order to get business.
Plus "a couple of warehouses and direct delivery" is still cheaper to run than "a couple of warehouses, delivery to stores and stores"…
IIRC the digital goods were priced that way because they were told to do it that way by the publishers. Most probably because EB chucked a Gerry Harvey sad.
I don't think Steam or EA care where you get your games as long as you have paid.
Been buying games in rupees for a while now lol.
Provided that Amazon match their global pricing on goods, I doubt I'll buy much in local retail - I know Amazon are more trustworthy, and cheaper.
There's no way this is going to happen. At the very least Amazon will have to increase the price of products by 10% due to paying GST, and that's not counting the increased cost of doing distribution and logistics in Australia. If Amazon still retains their international pricing, that would be predatory pricing and Gerry (as much as I hate him) would be within his right to challenge Amazon.
Well, first I was taking the GST into account (that 34% was after GST). And second, you think Australia has higher distribution and logistics costs than the US?
There are 6-7 major cities covering 60-70% of the population. Distribution in Australia is easy compared to the US.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if the prices (at least till Amazon have killed places like Hardly Normal) are directly comparable with international prices. It's about time.
Yes Australia has a much higher cost. Wages here are very high compared to USA along with a very small population spread across a large country. Very different market places. Until you run a business you aren't really ever aware of all the costs. For every single staffer I have I could have 2 staff at American wage prices.
@Third_Gear: Australians aren't paid a lot - it's Americans who are paid bugger all. Scale of economy, bruh
There's almost no chance Australian's will get access to Amazon's global pricing. Have a look at similar competitors from USA like Newegg, IKEA, Costco, Jaycar, Apple.
Situation is slightly different from Asian businesses where prices are waaaay less inflated. Eg. DealeXtreme, Kogan. Imagine if there were physical stores of AliExpress.
I wouldn't be so sure.
For instance, that amp that the yanks pay AU$858 for, is the equivalent of AU$660 in the UK store.
They don't just put the prices up because it's not the US.
And much of the benefit of Amazon is the ability to buy from third party merchants, making those SE asia businesses much more addressable etc. and also making them direct competitors, driving down overpricing.
From the story, it seems Gerry is the best bloke in Australia selling stuffs to you and me.
parasites? Harvey Norman sells xboxes to customers via flexrent that are otherwise unable to obtain an interest free card just to make a sale.
GET BACK IN UR WHEELCHAIR GERRY! GET! GET!!
But who wouldn't want
I'd love to be proven wrong but I don't think for a minute that Amazon aren't going to charge us a premium for being from Australia, which will equate to prices much higher than the us site, and probably on par with the current online market in Australia.
I wonder if we'll still be able to buy from other Amazon countries once Amazon gets here…
Also if identical items will be cheaper/dearer after conversion from said alternatives compared to Aus Amazon.
You can already buy from any amazon worldwide if you want unless that item does not ship here.
I think having amazon here will be great best price wins for me.
I buy online most of the but in store if good deals are around.
Its just the way things are going im afraid.
Anything that upsets Gerry Harvey is okay in my book.
Can we be friends? :D
The frienemy of my enemy is my….
…Frenum?
I couldn't care less
Harvey Norman need to get with the times and start actually competing with the market
Its only a matter of time before they too will be a long distant memory like Dick Smith
Why get with the times when you can be Scrooge Mcduck?
You do realise that Amazon give a far worse deal to their workers than Gerry…
This is the start of the race to the bottom…..
You do realise that Amazon give a far worse deal to their workers than Gerry…
Compared to which Amazon company country? US, CA, DE, UK, FR, JP?
I doubt the French or Germans who have good worker rights would allow bad working conditions… Australia doesn't have the best workers rights, but they are a shit ton better than the US.
I would have rather seen him and Harvey Norman go out business then Dick smith! Hes a mad goof!
He's just scared somebody will beat him his own game.
Have you set foot in a Harvey Norman lately? If recent experiences are anything to go by their sales training seminar goes a little something like this:
"If the customer asks you any questions relating to product features or functionality, pick up the box of said product and proceed to read the blurb from the back of the box whilst not directly addressing any of the points raised by the customer. If they ask for a comparison between any 2 products, pick up both boxes, look at them very intently then recommend the more expensive of the 2."
The rest of the training is along the lines of "if someone walks in long like they are ready to spend stay away from them. If they look like they are just browsing with no intention of spending ask them if they need help so those customers know you are watching in case of theft.
I actually quite like the one in QV, granted I've only been there once to grab their $90 urbanites deal, and half of that time was spent in the beds section wondering where the hell I was supposed to go, but the staff seemed friendly enough, and the bloke who got it out of the case seemed to actually know what he was talking about.
Brick and mortar sometimes feels so 90s.. even if it is something like furniture which is weird.. the internet has definitely ruined me
1890s? ;)
690s
390s
190s
90 BBB
Fruck you Gerry.
Cucking Funt!
What… Wait, there is a typo there somewhere 😀
Gerry Harvey can go eat a D.
a durian?
My wife and I stayed in a nice hotel and she liked the Hansgrohe taps, we were in the process of renovating the bathroom.
I went to Domayne and found the same shower tapwear, $1000 but they will do a one day deal and sell it for $750.
Went home and bought it on Amazon $250aud delivered. I could see why GH would be upset about them setting up here.
Have you checked if it's compatible? I believe US and AU plumbing standardsare different.
Been showering under it for 3 years. That's how these cons work, you can't get a warranty for it. etc, not official standard, your insurance won't cover it. It's all a con propigatied by people involved as middlemen. It's a hand shower system that is after the outlet, and it's German.
Oh piss off, Gerry. I wonder if Amazon are still eyeing off all those empty Masters stores? Perfect distribution centres, me thinks…
In my opinion, if you habitually shop at Harvey Norman, I think you're Hardly Normal.
Piss off Gerry, why don't you go off and die somewhere quietly instead of whining about how someone is undercutting you. Amazon contributes lower prices than you.
No prizes for guessing where he spends a chunk of advertising change.
He was being a cry baby, ofc people would buy things a lot cheaper, Harvey Norman is one of the biggest scammer in retail, Gerry should go and get a grip
The sea was angry that day, my friends - like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli. I got about fifty feet out and suddenly, the great beast appeared before me. I tell you he was ten stories high if he was a foot. As if sensing my presence, he let out a great bellow. I said, "Easy, big fella!" And then, as I watched him struggling, I realized that something was obstructing its breathing. From where I was standing, I could see directly into the eye of the great fish.
Mammal
wonder if gerry checks out ozbargain? I really hope he does to read all the slagging.
That (profanity) needs to htfu.
Gerry Harvey famously doesn't use computers or email. Pretty funny for a guy who made millions off the back of them and hosted midnight windows 95 launches etc
HEEELLLLLLLL NO!!! - that guy is just an old coot that wants the monopoly. BRING ON THE PARASITES!