WHS - Warehouse Group

[winner69]

Hoop - below are the price deflators from Stats NZ Retail Sales data - the %ages are how much prices have fallen over the last 2 years

Yes appliance stores the biggest falls but you can see that even department stores (The Warehouse) have suffered a fair bit of deflation as well

Tough for a lot though - food and fuel just keeps going up

[ratkin]

The Leeming purchase makes sense to me.

The purchase price isn't particularly expensive and the retail cycle is at a low.

Is the cycle reaally at the low? The internet is changing things for ever.
The Comet stores that just went broke in the UK were quite similar to Noel Leemings
The big box retailers just cannot compete with the etailers. NZ is behind in that
respect but it wont be long before we catch up.

Another personal anecdote, was on the phone to my old mum in England the other day,
she was complaining her TV had broken down and being 85 was a bit stressful for her
as not easy to get to shops or know what to buy.
Thought i would do good deed and went on Amazon UK and bought her a sony Bravia,
it arrived on her doorstop the next day, and was far cheaper than she could of bought
from any of the big box retailers

[winner69]

Prices (and product costs) down 20% - maintain gross margin %age and keep operating costs the same - means one needs to sell about 25% more units to make the same amount of money - that is a heck of a lot of extra TVs eh

[winner69]

...... was on the phone to my old mum in England the other day,
she was complaining her TV had broken down and being 85 was a bit stressful for her
as not easy to get to shops or know what to buy.
Thought i would do good deed and went on Amazon UK and bought her a sony Bravia,
it arrived on her doorstop the next day, and was far cheaper than she could of bought
from any of the big box retailers

Ratkin --- that's one of the nicest things I have heard for ages

You are a hero - esp to you Mum eh

I'm sure Santa will be nice to on christmas morning

[BIRMANBOY]

Thats not good deeds old son...thats called filial duty. Whats wrong with some Pizza Hut vouchers? Smiles ALL year round Sparky not just Xmas. Bah humbug to all and to all a big ham.

Actually, it is bloody heartwarming. Good job, always nice to be able to look after your Mum.

I did my good deeds earlier in the year when my Mum was recovering from spinal surgery, then a double hip op. Basically cooked her dinner (pre-made and easily repeatable) for several weeks, helped her gad about. One of the nice things about being self employed as an investor is that when things like this happen, you can easily slot in your good deeds around business.

Tis the season, and all that. Hope everyone can use the blessings from a positive year's investing to help put smiles on the faces of loved ones.

[emearg]

The internet is changing things slowly but surely. Have you wondered how long it will be before you can go directly to the big ticket item manufacturer and buy direct cutting out the retailer completely? Pretty easy to hop onto the Panasonic, or Sony, or whoever's website, select the product you want pay via credit card and it is delivered to you. Why have a retailer at all? Some will want one for comfort, but as long as the manufacturer can provide support warranty support how much value does a retailer retailer add? Now that will be a real problem for these types of stores!

This approach is less likely to effect most of the lines stocked by Warehouse, Briscoes etc. But large appliance retailers?

An example of sorts was recently we were looking for LED downlighting for the kitchen renovation. Over a grand at Lighting Direct. Over $700 at Bunnings. Almost $500 on TradeMe. $220 delivered to the door when ordered direct from China. Like I said, the internet is changing things...

[CJ]

Emearg - Apple does that (ie. with iphone, ipad, ipod) but then they are very strict so their prices are constant, whether bought directly from them or a retailer. To offer a lower price, you have to parallel import them.

[arcticblue]

Emearg - LED lights, do you have a recommendation for where to get them from?

Cheers,
ArcticBlue

PS: sorry I know it's slightly off topic.

[Halebop]

The internet is changing things slowly but surely. Have you wondered how long it will be before you can go directly to the big ticket item manufacturer and buy direct cutting out the retailer completely?

For a manufacturer channel conflict dictates what you can and can't do. If you try to disrupt the status quo your retailers (Both online and bricks and mortar) retaliate via alternate manufacturers and volumes suffer.

[BIRMANBOY]

Well SP is still dropping which is slightly strange since the media/publicity/ forums seem to be equally divided on relative merits of the purchase. I guess the punters dont like change. Personally am happy to see it drop so I can buy more but just goes to show the effects of change and uncertainty on the market.
I did go online last weekend and purchased some stuff from WHS stationary.....fast, efficient and very user friendly. Delivered free on Monday. LIke it...opening up a whole new market of buyers for WHS. Their programmers are on to it. I did a google search for Twix bars since my usual source New World has discontinued them. Lo and behold one of the early results said WHS..click click...if you buy more than $50 get free delivery..good oh so added some stationary supplies and gum. I see this online portal as being a game changer and hugely positive for the future.