Retailers that OzBargained themselves

cyssero on 06/09/2018 - 02:01

With the recent demise of Telecube it got me thinking about the many retailers over the years who once had a great reputation, particularly on OzB, that are no longer.

In particular this year we have seen the demise of:

  • Telecube
  • BuzzTelco
  • Toys R Us
  • Warehouse1

Of course their downward trajectory may not have been the result of Professionals, as One.tel managed to do it all those years ago.
'
Does anyone remember 9289.com.au? This was a particular favourite store of mine.

Not intended to be a list of the many liquidated stores that happen for any number of reasons yearly.. just some of those who had a reasonable impact here. Have I missed any?

General Discussion

Comments

  • garetz on 06/09/2018 - 02:18
    +17

    They didnt ozbargain themselves, they mismanaged themselves, there is a big difference. If they ozbargained themselves then they would be doing great and still be operating and profitable.

    • tranter on 06/09/2018 - 09:24

      There are plenty of ozbargained scenarios where professionals have taken advantage because of greed.

      I agree with your comment but I don't think it's all one way.

      • cyssero on 06/09/2018 - 09:29

        Of course, I entirely agree. The community can't force them anyone to make a bad business decision, retailers do that all by themselves.

        • tranter on 06/09/2018 - 09:48

          You demonstrated my point.

  • Godric on 06/09/2018 - 08:09
    +15

    Toys R Us had good rep?

    You mean overpriced plastic and video games = good rep?

    • HighAndDry on 06/09/2018 - 10:31
      +1

      They had a good rep maybe 15-20 years ago?

      • Godric on 06/09/2018 - 10:41
        +2

        Actually even then when I was a child (mostly still am) i'd browse Toys R Us looking for PS1/Gameboy games to buy with my pocket money and would always skip over TRU to Kmart as they had better prices.

        I do remember TRU having decent console bundles but even then i'd always pull the plug at either Kmart or Target as they were more compelling and better priced imo

  • Davo1111 on 06/09/2018 - 08:52

    9289 were great, until paypal forced them to close down. :(

    • cyssero on 06/09/2018 - 09:30

      I didn't realise it was PayPal! Do you remember why? They were awesome and had great engagement here. I bought plenty from them in that time, including my primary monitor today.

      • Davo1111 on 06/09/2018 - 09:31

        afaik they held onto the funds too long and the company couldnt pay suppliers.

  • dust on 06/09/2018 - 09:07

    Dicksmith and Eneloops?

  • spackbace on 06/09/2018 - 09:39
    +1

    Even companies that came out of the gate strong, then realised they couldn't maintain the cheap deals

    Look at Geardo for example. Dirt cheap power banks to start with, but can't do those deals any more.

    Sadly they pushed Moshtato into oblivion!

    • Clear on 06/09/2018 - 10:27

      Mushtato always seemed like a side business anyway.

  • Clear on 06/09/2018 - 10:30
    +1

    Gearbest is one of them. They entered the market quite rapidly and had a several year long strategy to get to the top by selling products near cost or at a lost. Now with Australia no longer being a top 10 selling country and their new make-profit strategy we now have to pay for shipping on most products and the GST introduction has hurt it more.

    • HighAndDry on 06/09/2018 - 10:33
      +1

      Noooo! There are still regularly good deals on things I need want and buy from Gearbest!

      But yeah - lossleading isn't as viable a strategy anymore since the cost of entry into the market is so low, unless 1. you're Amazon and have billions in cashflow and a world-class SCM system, or 2. you're actually obtaining stock for much lower than competitors so they can't match it.

      • Clear on 06/09/2018 - 10:35

        Gearbest are owned by a clothing empire worth billions anyway. I think the company taking a dive as well as their shares dropping quite significantly played a role. They also put loads of funding into their other sites that import luxury goods into China.

        • HighAndDry on 06/09/2018 - 10:40

          sites that import luxury goods into China.

          I feel like that's a lucrative business too, and probably has far higher margins to boot.

        • Clear on 06/09/2018 - 10:44

          @HighAndDry: You're not wrong. They really love our baby formula, weet-bix and vitamins.

  • Savas on 06/09/2018 - 11:41
    +3

    the companies you listed are dodgy, its not like they got ozbargained

  • [Deactivated] on 06/09/2018 - 13:19

    Telecube

    They had so many fanboys on whingepool and I could never understand why. If you followed the threads on there they had quite a few serious outages in the last few years, there was literally one guy who seemed to be hacking an asterix system to run the whole thing, and there were a few times where that said guy was really not nice to some of his customers. I wouldn't have ever considered them as a provider myself, especially for a business service (which is where most of the money is)

    • cyssero on 06/09/2018 - 15:30

      Telecube were fine for me - they were the cheapest by far to host my local DID (for the few times a year anyone called it) and their NBN plan, for my needs, was very cheap. No speed issues and just a handful of outages. Definitely not a business grade service, but for a home user there was nothing on the market for same speed and data unless I spent another $20/m. This obviously didn't help them survive the market though, perhaps they should have just stuck to VoIP.

      • [Deactivated] on 06/09/2018 - 15:38

        they were the cheapest by far to host my local DID

        people kept claiming this on whingepool, but MNF's whirlpool DID rate was cheaper.

        NBN plan, for my needs, was very cheap

        and apparently thats what broke the company, they sold their NBN services at an unprofitable price

        • cyssero on 06/09/2018 - 16:23

          Right you are. I was paying $0.55/m whereas MNF is $0.416/m. Thanks, I know who to move my DID to.

        • [Deactivated] on 06/09/2018 - 16:39

          @cyssero:

          thats where i keep mine, and I find the network to be really stable. I don't know how competitive their call rates are but I basically have mine for older relatives to call in on.

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