Yahoo!7: Dick Smith in dire straits: Aussie household brand faces closure
Seems like with the domination of home brand and supermarket brand products, it's become too difficult for Dick Smith Foods to compete. Consumers are often choosing price over brands made in Australia.
Do any of you buy any Dick Smith foods?
Same here.
The only DS food I ever bought was peanut butter, but I find myself going for Sanitarium sugar and salt free PB all the time now. It's the only brand that offers a sugar and salt free peanut butter spread.
Looks like good old 'brand power' isn't enough.
I think there isn't even 20 products in any supermarket that stocks them, a bit harsh to say we're not supporting them if we can't buy them, how often do you buy biscuits, sauces and spreads? Every couple of weeks at best for me..
I'm a creature of habit, I buy brands I know I like. I wouldnt buy an alternative to vegemite, I have not enjoyed other tomato sauce brands and when I buy things like Jam I suppose I would consider DS branded but ulimately his brands are never high enough on the shelf for me to see and Im in a hurry. Sorry Dick, Id like to support Australian made and owned but Im just a bad person
I buy them, but the supermarkets alsways made it as hard as possible to find most of them.
So true.
Found some in the international foods section at woolies. Just a joke, someone trying to support Australian made getting hindered so much.
I always buy the DS jams - pure fruit (not 50% sugar), great price and easy to find in te supermarket.
tried the ozemite the other day, absolutely hatted it. nothing else though!
their peanut butter is good, but now I cant find it anywhere. So i get Sanitarium now as the ingredients are the best (natural)
How does one grow "unnatural" peanuts?
I said 'ingredients' not peanuts…… peanut butter is not just 100% peanuts. There are other ingredients and that is what I was referring to as being unnatural.
Just another middleman…
meh.
Tried to do the right thing and tried a lot of them but didn't like any of them, sad.
My local Woolies no longer stocks any of the products, they only ever had the PB in the past which I used to buy and like. I want to buy his products and support my fellow Aussies and so do my family. I ask the staff where are the products, and they have never heard of the Dick Smith food brand nor have any clue as to who the man is either (nor seem to care). He has no hope if Coles and Woolies dont support him, and neither do all those people who will lose their jobs if he shuts down, not to mention all the great Aussie charities he gives every cent of his profit too. How many companies do that nowadays?!
I doubt there would be much profit left for charity anyway with declining sales & the big two squeezing every dollar out of their suppliers.
the big reason they never got any shelf space is because they weren't prepared to pay for it. Coles and Woolies will place your stuff at eye height but you have to pay for it. So basically if you're lazy you're paying twice- once for the product and once for the 'marketing fees' associated with the brand.
The painful truth? Good riddence!
Not only were the products never cheap, they weren't even close. They were either the most expensive on the shelf, or amongst the two or three top-priced ones. After a couple of years checking his prices, I gave up and stopped checking. It didn't have to be the cheapest - just not $$$.
I remember when he took over one company he was on TV encouraging people to buy Australian - and said the products would be a competitive price. Not only did the products coming out of that company INCREASE by a huge amount after he took over, I never once saw "competitive" prices, unless "competitive" means sitting in the same area as similar products, but costing 60% more.
As for him giving all profits to charity… Big whoop, Dick. Surely it would have been best to lower the price, so people had the opportunity to buy and taste the products, and make NO profit (if keeping Australian jobs was the priority). But it obviously wasn't. So I have no guilt for not buying overpriced products.
That's a good point, you gotta sell stuff to give profits and I too would rather see them break even then give to charity
their Peanut butter isn't that much more, like $1
It may well be, but as we stopped looking because for a long time (where we shopped at least), it was amongst the most expensive.
I always purchased OzEnuts and OzEmite. Sure there not the cheapest but I preferred there taste over Kraft peanut butter and Vegemite. Just a pity they will no longer be available.
I would have to agree with the other comments on pricing. If they were a little more competitive maybe more people would have purchased and tried them and they wouldn't have to close.
I buy DS Bush Foods cereal. I rate it highly.
Can't say I buy any of DS foods at all.