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DSG International, the company behind PC World (UK), Currys, Dixons, and Pixmania, among others, has revealed more big losses today.
I have to confess that my own experience of shopping in DSG stores is far from positive. If you read my blog from [URL="http://dpnow.com/forum2/blog.php?b=69"]earlier this week[/URL], I was shopping for a new microwave oven. Currys was the first store I visited. I spent less than 5 minutes before exiting and went across the way to rivals Comet and within 10 minutes I was loading my purchase into the car.
My local Currys store is big and packed with shiny goods, but for me the reality was that the selection was limited and uncompetitively priced. I feel the same is true of Dixons and PC World stores.
Over several years I have made a (sad!) hobby of comparing prices in Dixons London airport duty free shops and, in general, you can buy the same goods there for, often, significantly less money in rival high street stores and almost always from online retailers, including the shipping charges.
If you are going to charge a premium, you need to back it up with some kind of added value. In general I find Dixons, Currys, and PC World staff poorly trained and uninspired.
DSG bosses need to cross the pond to the US and visit Fry's Electronics stores. These stores have a huge and much more comprehensive range of goods, very competitively priced, and all the stores I have visited are staffed by well-informed and well-trained people.
Considering that the UK has a high population density, big store companies like DSG should be able to provide a good shopping experience with a wide range of competitively priced goods, and inspired staff to deal with.
Alas, DSG is actually representative of the general malaise in retailing in the UK. We seem to have a huge enthusiasm for shopping, but many retailers are less enthusiastic and imaginative about their retailing. How many times have you spotted high street stores closing up their shutters way before closing time? And why is closing time on a week day often just 5:30PM. Even on the continent there is a tradition of later closing times, even if this is compensated for by lunch time closing in some countries. Closing your shop as everyone else is leaving work just seems daft to me. In the US the shops are usually open until 8, or even 10PM.
So what do you think? Are shops - especially those selling complicated goods like electronics, and especially cameras and lenses, providing the level of service you desire?
This afternoon I visited my local B&Q store which is only a 5 minute drive away. I collected a trolley and entered the store in the usual way. Now I'm not one for browsing, I just visit the area of the store were the products I want are stored, make my selection and head out. I suppose I visit the store once or twice per month and never have any bother. This visit was a total disaster and I finished up upsetting several people including myself.
In my trolley I had 4 x 2.5 cans of paint, 2 brushes, 1 roller, some other odds and ends and 2 x 8 foot lengths of wooden beading resting across the top of the trolley. That's it, I'm done and I make for the checkout and it took around 10 minutes.
It was only then that I discovered that the checkouts had been replaced by self service scanners. I just stood looking totally amazed when an assistant approached and told me it was now self service and she proceeded with her scripted customer introduction to self service. I asked if all the checkouts had been replaced and she said there are a couple left but they are unmanned at the moment. It appears that this service had only just started recently.
There is a scanner around 15 inches square with a small shelf on the left hand side onto which the goods are placed after scanning. The shelf nicely held 2 cans of paint!. I watched as she struggled to balance the other 2 tins on the top plus the other smaller items. Now it came to the beading......immediately to the left of the storage shelf is another scanner which was being used by a person not at all deterred by the system until my 2 lengths of beading intruded into his space. Honest you gotta see this to appreciate the chaos. OK the beading has now been scanned. I asked her what I was supposed to do with the beading while I went through the payment process which would need both hands and I also I asked the assistant how I would manage this system with bags of compost and several plants, She said in that case you would use a regular checkout. "What about long lengths of wood" I asked with raised eyebrows. "They would be best at a regular checkout as well" she repled. :well don't you think that my goods warranted a regular checkout then" I asked her. "Yes" she said "but there isn't anybody on them at the moment". I gave her a long silent stare and then told her that this system seems to have been badly thought out and certainly wasn't suitable for a d.i.y store. I gave her my prediction that within a few days they would be up to their kneecaps in injury claims and that the nearest 'Focus' store could look forward to a very high increase in customers. I rounded this off nicely by telling her to return all my goods to the shelves and to place a large sign outside the store as soon as sanity returns to the management team then, and only then, I would consider visiting the store again.
Do you think self service can work in a d.i.y. store?
I have sympathy with your predicament.
I get dragged by Janice off to the shops and totally agree with Ian the staff in the main chain electrical stores at best need more training and certainly a better product range.
I can't remember the last time i was in a diy store lol.
In Germany the stores are closed on Sunday and to be honest i prefer this option if it moved back to the UK (yes I understand the pro's and cons of this) but i think it would mean more family time together - personal view of course.
Good luck with your shopping - internet for me.
Dave r
To see the way staff are allowed to conduct themselves, know nothing (management fault here, staff training) a total lack of any manners. How often have any of you stood attempting to get help while staff chatted, or will not look up or around to see if help can be given? Anything to aviod serving a customer.
I remember once in PC world at the checkout part way through paying, an under manager totally ignoring the fact the cashier was attending to me, butt in for her to sort something out for him that took several minutes. When I asked him if I was invisible he looked at me as if I was daft or something, he didn't even know what he had done. All it would have taken was "excuse me would you mind for a minute". I would have got a rocket if ever I had been seen behaving like that.
Then there are the policy for faulty goods, PC word are dreadful. Its an hours job to get an exchange or refund if they agree with you and if they don't O'boy does it take some time to sort.
As to selection I can't see any difference between Curry's and Comet, they usually have the much same selection and brands, and much the same staff attitude. They possibly even have the same script writers.
On the other side of the coin, last Saturday we were at a designer outlet site in Mansfield. I was in one of the shoe outlets, Famous Shoes I think it was called looking as you have guest for a pair of shoes. The young lady couldn't have been more helpful, searching for size & styles that were not immediately on show. all this in the sale and a second mark to only �24. The shoes are great going back for another, if not two pairs. Good service has won here.
Patrick