The collapse of Dick Smith Electronics is sad for anyone who grew up with the retail giant being the place to go for computers, TVs and other electronic bits and pieces.
I remember that my parents purchased our first home computer from Dick Smith, when it was located on the corner of Riley and Henry Street in Penrith in the 1990s.
I also remember deleting the folder called ‘Windows 95’ because it took too much room on the hard drive. A fatal error, it seems.
But like Brashs, HMV and Tandy before it, the evolution of time and changing consumer wants and needs saw Dick Smith unable to compete with the likes of JB Hi-Fi, which has become the modern day giant of home entertainment.
Where it all went wrong for Dick Smith is anyone’s guess. The fact that every time I go into JB Hi-Fi I find myself battling huge crowds and dealing with long lines would suggest that the online shopping trend is not the main reason.
From personal experience I found that Dick Smith’s stock was often low, prices and stock on its website rarely matched what was happening in store and there was an almost unfriendliness about the shopping experience.
Whether Dick Smith ultimately survives or not is up in the air, but one thing that’s made people rightly angry is that gift vouchers won’t be honoured despite retail outlets continuing to trade through voluntary administration.
Consumer laws need to be changed to protect consumers who have gift vouchers, lay-buys or other unfinished dealings with a retailer, when the worst happens and the business in question falls into administration.
If the doors were locked and the shops shut, perhaps there’s an acceptance that you’re just unlucky in this particular situation. But when the stores continue to trade through administration, gift vouchers should be honoured.
The store has the money, you deserve product to equivalent value.
As it stands, legally the administrators of Dick Smith haven’t done anything wrong. But this isn’t the first time we’ve seen gift vouchers turned into confetti because a company has collapsed yet continued to trade.
Laws must be changed to protect consumers – especially given how popular gift vouchers are these days.