http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/gerry-harvey-says-amaz…
"For their model to work they would need 50 warehouses in Australia. Start with two – one in Sydney and one in Melbourne – and then it's how do you deliver? That's the best-case scenario."
"I know how long it takes."
Still can't believe this guy refuses to acknowledge that Amazon will be a force to be reckoned with. Does anyone even still buy from Harvey Norman anymore?
Yeah, I think Amazon knows a thing or two about warehousing, logistics, and delivering goods.
I could be wrong though.
yeah, but Amazon uses river transportation for distribution.
How do they expect their cloud website to work on clear days?
Really ? Where all are their warehouses ?
Think Masters
umm there are companies like linfox who already offer picking warehouses, I doubt it would be hard for amazon to sublease distribution until they move in completely.
you mean, there are australian companies that may want to work with Amazon so they too can make money?!?! - I wonder if Gerry Harvey realises this.
He knows its going to be a force, all he's saying is that it will take them some time to start building up their warehouses. If they push for the same day delivery model - then they'd need a hell of a lot more warehouses across the country.
When amazon was announced, people thought it would be this year. It takes time to build up your operations and train people.
Does anyone even still buy from Harvey Norman anymore?
Sure. Have a look in there one Saturday. People over 50 and those with low technology literacy are marching to the checkout with overpriced tech with low specs and ridiculously priced extras. They don't know any better and HN exploits that.
Yeah, old codgers & idiots. Can't go wrong there.
Yep, those old codgers ….. you know, the ones with the most disposable income.
How silly of Gerry…..
Im sure the main thing that pulls people thru is the interest free shopping if he didnt have that he would of been broke ages ago
Until people realise they're paying $5/month and $25 setup and all of a sudden that $1500 purchase costs $60 more than if you had just pulled the funds out of your offset at 4.5%
I found they wouldn't discount by much if paying on interest free. So you effectively capitalise the interest.
@JIMB0: Yeh, I noticed the terms mentioned only applicable on advertised price - even more reason to not waste your time and money on HN.
That is due to the fact that with all Interest Free deals, the retailer is paying the interest.
The banks don't loan money for free :)
The banks don't loan money for free :)
I got a 18 month $15k balance transfer from Citibank at 0% and no BT fee that indicates otherwise.
Ahh, but that is a different beast.
The Bank is hoping that you stick with them and continue to use the card after the BT agreement is expired.
With an interest free deal at a retail outlet , what is the incentive otherwise for a bank to fund the loan without someone funding some form of interest.
The fact that a retailer wont often do a deal on interest free sales is the big give away.
It is also why they Good Guy's whole "Less for Cash" mantra was so popular in the early 2000's.
Fees. $25 setup fee and $5 monthly fees. Compared to a 20% p.a credit card, buying something at $1500 over a year, the difference in cost to the consumer is $54. But this is all getting off topic.
My point was that there are so many other options available that if you can't negotiate on these interest free deals, then they are not a good deal. Using the above example, if somehow you managed to negotiate $150 off the price, you're better off at paying the full interest on a 20% credit card than going the interest free option with no negotiation.
I don't care what the banks incentive is, I care how much I can save, and being on OzBargain, I'm sure that feeling is mutual.
Not trying to argue with you about if Interest Free offers are a good deal :)
Just trying to share with the OzBargain community how they work for the retailer so that they are informed and able to find the best deal for their needs.
Have to agree with you, walk into one HN last Saturday during their blockbuster sales and walk out without buying anything because all of them are more expensive than what I can buy online. There are however peoples at the checkout queue waiting patiently to pay for their purchases and they seem to be happy about their buy, must have got a bargain.
all in the eyes of the beholder.
Admittantly I havent been to HN in a long time, but some of their catalogue specials have been ok.
If you can get them to price match then who cares what the initial price is. I prefer to buy from bricks and mortar stores, rather than online, 'cause I have it in my hot little hand rather than waiting for the postman; who might just lose my package or it was never be sent.You guys are hilarious the way you stereoptype people. If the price is right then I will look at Amazon but, personally, Amazons price will probably what I want into a bricks and mortar store and ask if they can price match. If they can't then I will go back to Amazon. BTW - I'll be happy if Amazon actually gets around to paying their tax bills.
Totally agree. We have bought several appliances there by finding the best price and then they price match. Works every time. We would rather buy locally and then we can take it back if there is a pribkem, which we have done a few times. The lady in that section knows my husband and just asks what are we looking For today?
I don't like the cost of extended warranty, but on those big items it has been a life saver a few times - having had the problem just before the end of the extended warranty twice.
Harvey Norman are mostly franchises now. The local one has 3 - one each branch of the store. The one who deals in the appliances is a good company with good service. It is a pain though with a credit, as it is not valid in the other parts of the store. We sat on a microwave credit for a long time, as we thought it was out of warranty and bought something else. Then, found it was still covered. Glad it wasn't thrown out yet!
Therefore, HN depends on who your local store is run by.
$14 OTG cables that can be bought from aliexpress for 25cents
not saying there aren't examples of rip offs, and given I don't know the comparison of the cables hard to tell whether we are talking comparable quality. There is a lot of crap you can by from aliexpress that may, or may not, be particularly fit for purpose. But the fact they can sell anything like that for 25 cents shows how badly the world is screwed in relation to over production and unethical disposal. The cost of disposal should be built into the cost of every product so we can pay for things to be reused, recycled etc.
exact same cables- I compared them.
they are perfectly fine OTG cables and I've posted a few deals for them here and have used them myself with out problem.
HN just grossly over charges - but he is a business guy who is in business to make money , so good for him.
For some products an element of the cost of disposal is built into the cost in Australia.
For TV's and PC's the importer or brand pays an e-waste tax.
http://www.environment.gov.au/protection/national-waste-poli…
Another reason why some items are more expensive in Aus.
Retail pricing here in Australia is not always the "ripping off of the masses" often perceived when all the hidden costs are factored in.
@Rhino rush: people also tend to forget the conversion between the Australian dollar and US dollar, when doing the comparison as well. The waste tax needs to be built in to provide better options than just dumping so much waste. Does Ozbargain include something like a freebay concept so people could pass on things they don't want anymore?
@cheesecactus: an OTG cable is basically an extension cable with different plugs on each end. there is no "magic ingredient".
I compared the physical aspect of the cables - shape, design, pattern, logo (if applicable), etc.
they were identical to look at.
@altomic: I can't comment on cable I don't own but their is a difference in most cables that I have bought cheap compared to brand name that come with equipment. Once they break I scrap them for parts like repurpose the cables. Cheaper items may use thinner wire gauge and aluminium instead of copper. Usually the strain reliefs are worse so the cable will break easier. Cheaper plastics are used on the outside. Overall not much of an issue unless you use cables for high current transfer it may effect data speeds also.
It's funny I can't buy the same gauge wire inside these for the same price as the cables lol.
I was looking for scrap cables the other day and found some tronsmart cables that where broken they are an okay build and fairly cheap.
I have bout a dozen items from Aliexpress and not one of them lasts longer than a few months at most. Dearer items have have lasted a lot longer. For example charging cables etc break so soon so it just goes to show you get what you pay for.
Weird how people on this site downvote people who are explaining their own experiences. For the trolls who do it, you weren't there, you don't know. The cheap iPod cables I've bought either broke or become "incompatible" with the next release of the IOS. The problem with sites like Aliexpress is it can be a bit of a lottery. However, YMMV so people should do what they are comfortable with and how much landfill they want to support.
HEY…over 50…I resemble that remark…JUST! And I cant remember the last time I was in Hardly Normal! Maybe when they had a 20% off on itunes vouchers or something.
Poor Harvey, he's shaking in his boots, but he'll never admit it. He'll just pretend he knows better and when it all goes belly up he'll go on ACA and whine to the government about it.
Amazon will be trembling in their boots, I'm surprised they even showed up.
Good ol' Gerry "Online? What's wrong with a fax?" Harvey.
If you want a good laugh, have a listen to this: http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/local/melbourne/201101/r697852_5… from a few years back. Gerry starts at 5:30, skip to 5:55 for the 'fax shopping', stay for the 'avoid GST by sending your wife to New York for some duty free' insight.
A follow up to that is here: http://media.mytalk.com.au/3AW/AUDIO/050111_Gerry_Harvey.mp3, where Gerry whines that competing with overseas sellers is unfair, but wiping out local manufacturing by selling imports is a-ok.
Even though i hate harvey im sure amazon wont be cheap here in Aus due two high prices in labor/lease/power and so on but it is these companys that need to make a start and pull prices down from these money hungry companys.
I still remember the first Aldi and companys like woolies and coles didnt think it would make a difference in peoples shopping now look at Aldi they have over 200 stores and rising.
The more companys we have the more lower pricing for consumers.
Harvey made a killing back in the days but now people are more wiser with there spending and online pretty much killed the industry world wide dont no if its for the better or worse as a lot of jobs are at stake :(
Gerry Harvey would do much better if he stopped talking crap and actually figured a model to provide consumers with competitive pricing and good service, surely he could pay any number of consultants to come up with this for him.
A lot of people wouldn't mind spending extra if they can go in store to buy an item and check it out, I myself have and will pay 20%-30% higher than online prices, just so I can check it out a couple of times and be confident with my purchase and take it home with me that day.
Instead the guy chooses to hack on "GST for online purchases" and now this.
I had a friend many years ago that worked in furniture at HN and I wanted a table, so he sold it to me at cost price, the listed price on the table was about 350% higher than their recorded cost in the computer, so I am assuming if the employees have a dictated cost price which comes up on there computer, there is still some profit left in that to safe guard the company.
cost price would be price from head office, not manufacturers price.
You'll also find that in Australia manufacturers give rebates to companies as well, so the "cost price" can be what the company has bought it for, but they might get $$ back after selling it.
Everyone who sells a product or service in Australia should have to start from a level playing field as far as GST is concerned.
I agree with the GST argument - It is only fair and it contributes to our economy. I'm not a supporters of internationals bypassing this rule. However I'm more focussed on the fact that Harvey Norman also have one of the greediest pricing models around. They can still make a lot of money without such large mark ups, yet they insist on maintaining their ridiculous mark up and instead place political pressure on potential competition.
It is not the mark up that I'm concerned about because I try to educate myself on what is in the market so I can do a price comparison before I buy anything. I'm not above checking a price online and showing the sales assistant what is around with a "can you match this please". I got Myers to price match an online store for my Vitamix and it saved me $200 on Myers usual price. (If you are really lucky they don't even take postage into account). Mark-ups are a "tax" on people who can't use Google, or negotiate, effectively. I'm happy to pay a little bit of a premium for being able to take things home with me and to have someone to whine to when the thing I bought goes belly up. You only need to read the number of comments in the forums about people getting no assistance from online stores to appreciate that a bricks and mortar store often provides better responses, particularly when you stand there and insist on it. As near as I can tell the only thing Gerry has tried to pressure is the level playing field from a tax perspective, however, I am happy to be educated beyond that.
Does anyone even still buy from Harvey Norman anymore?
Yup, I still do for big purchases and appliances, but never at the ticketed prices.
My local one gives very reasonable prices. Cheaper than the online store, plus you can bargain with them and pick up the same day.
Having said that, I can't wait for Amazon to come, prices will drop everywhere across the board, but not for a minute it will be anywhere as cheap as Amazon US, UK or Germany. Australia has a lot of land, but rent, labour and couriers are expensive.
A bit like Costco, some products are cheap, most you can buy cheaper when Colesworth have a sale.
The problem with Costco is a lot of the products are in superjumbo sizes so you need to be feeding an army to make it worthwhile. That and you have the upfront joining fee "tax" and it is just not worth your while unless you are after something substantially cheaper.
people go on about the joining fee but you can cancel your membership anytime just join up buy your goods then cancel on the way out of the store
so you get a full refund of the fee?
or if you know someone who is a Costco member you can go with them as a guest get them to buy stuff then pay them back
I read the link SMH, as Shaking My Head… took a moment to realise its actually the Sydney Morning Herald : \
TIL - Shaking My Head
I see SMH a lot on "US" sites and always think to myself "Sydney Morning Herald???"
"Does anyone even still buy from Harvey Norman anymore?"
Only if there is an ozbargain deal then I will
2 years ago Remember that awesome unisurf 7" tablet with windows deal with the bonus $25 welcome bonus and combined with virus software rebate. You could score 2 tablets for ~$29.50 each.
Does anyone even still buy from Harvey Norman anymore?
People who don't know any better do. The amount of people that just automatically make the connection between needing to buy a technology or home applicance item and purchasing it at HN is staggering.
I actually do, and I'm not an idiot. (thanks for the label, not.)
I just bought a fridge, washing machine and a clothes dryer. They were on special (I did a fair bit of price research on them), I considered the prices to be quite fair and I got $230 of eftpos cards with which I bought a microwave which I also needed.
I agree some of their prices are a rip, but don't completely write the place off.
I don't buy tech items from there though.
I bought a DSLR from HN thanks to a deal here. on massive discount and had a bonus $200 cash back to sweeten the deal. awesome deal.
this is ozbargain. we are usually informed buyers who don't blindly purchase without research.
Don't forget there's DFO type clearance centres for these stores in every state as well
Hurry the bloody up amazon i wanna buy stuff
When the new Logitech racing wheels came out a couple of years ago I bought from HN, within a couple of weeks they had the full package on sale and since then I've rarely seen a deal as good from anyone since. That was pretty much the last thing I've bought from them. Sometime they have good deals, most of the time they don't, it's usually worth comparing them.
That won't be the case forever though, Jerry's plan is clearly to keep is head firmly in the sand and wait for Amazon to butcher the rest of him, lest they take off his head.
Does anyone remember back in the naughty 90's when every suburb/town had a computer store? That all finished when HN bought PC's in cheap form China or wherever by the container load and sold them for a much discounted price. That was the end of the small time PC shop. Now someone (Amazon) is showing Harvey at his own game. Ands all he can do is whinge.
HN was also one of the first to whinge to the gov't about GST on goods imported under $1000. Now eBay, Amazon and others have threatened to blacklist Australia. This guy is a nightmare!
Does he forget utilising overseas businesses and warehouses for the same effect to reduce his overheads bypass tax in Australia but still make the full profit.
Harvey is being Schooled by the bigger fish that can actually deliver
The new world model is the getting the best at the best price when you want it.
no crap
I personally don't know anyone anymore who shops at HN. Everyone I know shops at JB HI-FI. Bigger range, cheaper prices, better stores, better staff, easy to deal with. Since JB moved into white goods, there is little reason to go to Harvey's.
If Amazon can run a similar model to the USA, with Prime shipping (free 2 day shipping or cheap 1 day shipping), lowest prices and 'no questions asked' customer service, then they will kill it. I wonder if they will offer the Amazon Delivery Service (Amazon's own shipping company) in Australia. I have family in the USA and buy a ton from Amazon and in the past year some of my orders are using this new service. It's like the 'Uber' of shipping - every day people use their own cars to do Amazon deliveries at a cheaper rate than DHL, FedEx etc. Obviously they aren't delivering 65" LCD TV's in their Honda Civic, it's certain items only - but that is still hundreds of thousands of items.
Astonishing that anyone doesn't shop at Appliances Online for whitegoods. You must like paying for salespeople to talk to you.
I think Amazon will be in for a bit of a shock considering our small ass population, our wages, our vast distances and consumers who aren't spending money like we used to
you would hope before they started a massive expansion into a new country they would take these things into consideration
i doubt they will have a massive workforce it's not like they are opening up 20 brick and mortar stores everything is online
Course they will do their homework but to be honest I don't see Australia adding much value to Amazon but I'm going to love seeing what our retailers do to compete :)
They've been making moves to compete for years. Just look at the number of Woolworths Online and Dan Murphy's deals over the last few years.
@JIMB0: Nah that's because of Coles and woolies fighting over customers then Aldi came so it kept going. The fight against Amazon hasn't even begun yet but I bet behind the scenes they are planning some things
One thing about Amazon is that although it will lower prices for us consumers, it will return those profits back to the US - that's if they actually make any profit.
The Amazon model appears to be expand as much as possible for minimal profit whilst automating as many things as possible.
It's not necessarily the best thing for job creation considering Amazon is replacing everything it can with machines
Needless to say I still think it will create a large number of jobs, just perhaps not as many. THe problem in the US could be that these people already had jobs and now they are being replaced with machines whereas, here these people do not have these jobs yet.
I guess that could be countered with how amazon may put other people from their competitors out of jobs too though.
THe problem in the US could be that these people already had jobs and now they are being replaced with machines whereas, here these people do not have these jobs yet.
Unfortunately, this is just going to continue to happen as time goes on. It's important to look at careers that will avoid automation.
Train/tram conductors, switchboard operators, milkmen, etc.
They should open up pickup spots in the cities for people to collect their stuff. Even if its for prime members and you can get around postage costs - after one of the JBhifis moved in Brisbane CBD leaving an empty store the other week I thought it would be the perfect location for something like that.
Haven't been to a HN store for a decade. Their stores are too inconvenient and their items are too expensive. Why would I spend more time and pay more for the same thing else where?
I only buy at HN with price matching at a minimum. Even better when those amex offers come into play. For miele appliances the prices are set by manufacturer. I just bought a dishwasher with $300 miele discount and $150 amex credit.
Only the white folk over 50s buying from him, the one's that know how to bargain buy elsewhere
I recently bought something online from HN. I needed an invoice to claim it back from my work.
After ordering, I get the initial email which is just an order and it states a tax invoice will be sent when the item is dispatched. A few days later I get a Toll notice. I thought "it couldn't be the HN item, they haven't sent me an email telling me it had dispatched". Lo and behold is was (all 60kg of it which I had the take back to my house).
Still with no tax invoice, I emailed them. I got no response. I called them and after an hour on hold I pressed '1' for them to call me back when I was first in the queue. They didn't.
I eventually called again early in the morning, and after being on hold for an hour, I finally spoke to a human who said the tax invoice would take 1-3 business days to be emailed to me - EMAILED!!!
He's got a lot to learn when Amazon arrives.
Gerry doesn't get Amazon!
To say Australia needs 50 warehouses is a laugh, in April 2015 Amazon reportedly had 96 warehouses in USA and that market is a bucketload bigger than Australia!
Australia is a pissant volume compared to the USA.
https://www.fiveaa.com.au/shows/leon-byner/Online-retailer-s…
Another interesting interview from Gerry Harvey so amazon only has 3% of the US market place?
This makes me a feel a little dirty, but that is not exactly what Gerry said.
He was referring to Amazon's market share in Fridges and Washing machines only being 3% and not Amazons total share of the US retail market.
This has been one of his main arguments around how much Amazon will affect his business, considering the volume of white goods and furniture he claims to sell. Amazon is not as strong in large items like a Fridge.
What do they have a strong market in?
From what you read and see on the Amazon website, I would assume in the USA they sell a bucket load of anything that is either easily compared without seeing the product or is freight cost friendly.
I really don't think Amazon will be a big deal, don't think the prices in Australia will be as fantastic as what people think.
Was the same with Costco , yes some is cheap, a lot is normal prices.
I really don't think Amazon will be a big deal
Really? I think Gerry is in his death throes as the days of ripping Australian's off come to an end which is why he's making so much noise.
See Amazon is in people's mind in the same way Harvey Norman is already - and they haven't even advertised yet (that I know of … I think advertising is cancer so I don't consume media that has it .. maybe they are advertising …). So when typical Mum and Dad with no time to think about anything due to being serf wage slaves hard working decent people think i need to buy a TV, they'll think Amazon and HN - and HN is crap.
Its funny, Amazon already has multiple warehouse locations? Dont know what he's on about. I know this through work.