Narh...I remember Walton's...they were crap! I remember when Harvey opened up in Nth Qld it was great. Must've just gone downhill.
Poor old Gerry is still spewing because he failed miserably to meet his performance targets last year and didn't get his massive bonus cheque from the board. The biggest problem here is he is having to compare current sales/profit with the previous decade of cheap credit and artificial demand. All the while consumer spending habits were changing to embrace the internet and the ability for individual consumers to tap into this "World Wide Economy". If he really was a genius he would have been able to see this change in habits unfolding and adapted the companies business principles to suit. But of course his original business model that made the mega bucks is no longer a good one and he is just having a whinge and blaming everything else but himself and his company. For the last year he has been bleeting about the 1k GST exemption on imported goods to individuals. Gerry needs to get with the times or fad away as another has been.
I don't shop at Harvey Norman as I can usually find better prices at other retail stores. You can't blame consumers for not spending money as nowdays consumers can chcek prices on the internet at the press of a button if they wish.
I read somewhere that to combat this, shoe shops are beginning to charge a fitting fee. Before you try any shoes on, you have to hand over $50. If you buy any of their shoes, the $50 comes off the purchase price, if you leave without buying, your $50 is forfeit (for feet ).
Article from todays herald sun, good old gerry having a right on whinge. http://www.news.com.au/business/not-a-merry-xmas-for-harvey-norman/story-e6frfm1i-1226209463445
I sort of picture Gerry Harvey as a Simpsons' Mr Burns figure. Surrounded by yes-men who constantly tell him that everyone is out of step apart from him.
I bought a laptop the other week when HN had that up to 50% off sale. The original price of the laptop was something like $1600 - 17.3 inch screen, 1gb video card, 1tb hard drive, 8 g ram, Windows Seven, i7 processor - not bad for $799. Anyway, I managed to grab the last one in the store and the guy who served me kept trying to make me buy some power thing to make it not blow up (i think it was like a circuit breaker), then he tried to sell me a $190 software thing with Norton antivirus and some other rubbish. I said politely that no, I already have an Antivirus at home I prefer to use, and don't like Norton. He then tried to tell me I needed to pay $398 for some warranty - again I told him that for $799 the lappy was a bargain and I would be extremely happy if it lasted past the standard two year destruction date most laptops have. He started sulking and moping, and was really really persistent in trying to sell me all these things. Basically, if you look at it, he was trying to sell me the difference in price that I was saving for the laptop. The software package at $190, plus the warranty at $398 and I think from memory the power thingy was either $110 or $120 - he actually cracked it so bad that he stomped off toward the register when i continued to say no and then walked off without even saying goodbye or thank-you or anything. Honestly, if it wasn't for the bargain price, I would've just left it there, but considering my other half needs the laptop I did not want to let him win. So yeh, my experience with HN, not just this one, has been nothing but a money grab. Unless I really really have no other choice, I do not shop there. Why should I line his pockets so he can live it up? Entrepreneur or not, he's a liar and a schemer.
He wasn't to worried about anyones whinging when he went to asia to buy cheap washing machines instead of buying the ones that used to be made here. But now that anyone can now deal with asia thanks to the internet who do you think is doing the whinging now.
This is the going rate for some i7 laptops (some are even cheaper at $699). Chances are you didn't get a bargain at all (unless your specs vary markedly in other areas). But you do have that bigger screen and decent specs so it's not a bad deal. But I doubt Hardly Normal's half price claim. http://www.msy.com.au/ Check the notebook price list on this page (PDF) As usual, Harvey Norman decided to inflate the regular price so you think you're really getting a deal.
So everyone on this thread agrees that Gerry Harvey is a has been. He used to be an innovator, a problem solver and a doer. Now many years of success turned him into a complacent whinger, which is often what happens to a lot (not all though) of highly successful people. He is in the process of fading into the background.
Mr Harvey isn't happy with $20+ million profit and is whinging how we're tight arses. What a creature.
Maybe i can buy another one of his heap of shit coffee tables, get him to sit under it. I'll put my feet on it and collapse it on him. Wait that won't kill him, then throw him and the coffee table off the balcony. job done
The consumer society.................. I recently needed to get a new hotwater system. The old one was a "saxon" installed in 1971. This house got 40 years out of that unit. When I replaced it, I got the best I could find and it came with a 5 year warranty. I wouldn't be betting my left testicle on the chances of getting 10 years out of that unit let alone 40 years like the old saxon. We're a consumer society. Goods are designed to break down after x years in order that we go back and buy another. Quality of workmanship and the concept of "lifelong" service are things of the past in the main. Consumerism and debt. Two things actively encouraged by big business it would seem. Gerry Harvey would go broke if he sold quality products with long life warrenties. His business is designed around selling x units per year and fits nicely into the "consumerism and debt" model. I have little sympathy for his ilk and treat both his stores and products like the plague.
