Up until recently I worked at TGG. Various stores, various positions, total of 4-6 years. Given the sometime opaque nature of behind the scenes in retail, I thought I’d do an AMA. I’ll be here for the next couple of hours, let’s see what happens.
Former Good Guys Employee. AMA
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I started right after it happened, from what I heard a lot changed (and even from when I started there were lots of changes). The biggest one for a lot of people was that under the franchisee model there was a lot more flexibility to do promos, give bonuses, choose stock etc.
Getting staff price at both stores was a benefit though.
Did you have to die your hair or pierce any body parts as a part of the merger?
Were they good guys?
Corporate level - just another company looking out for its share price. Some efforts to do (or appear) good, helping out charities etc. But no more than any other company conscious of their image.
Staff/colleague level - depends. Some were in it for themselves and would take sales/customers etc. so they got the commission, others didn’t mind and were decent people and honest to customers.
On large screen TVs I’ve managed to negotiate some pretty solid savings.
I’ve saved over 2-3k on TVs over 7k+ just by negotiating and being somewhat a regular customer.Going into some retail stores, some salesmen don’t budge much and are very pushy for a sale.
How much flex do sales people have?
Do they earn a commission if they make a customer pay close to or the full amount?At TGG, once a salesperson discounts below a certain amount they’ll lose commission and the only reason for them to sell that product lower than that price is to hit targets and get a small bonus for hitting it for the week. Otherwise if you’re buying cables, wall mounts etc. They might take the loss (of commission) on the TV and get a smaller amount on the accessories to close the deal.
Salespeople can discount down to pretty well staff price but it is monitored and reports are generated which managers use to chat to staff who are discounting “too much” to often.
If you were buying a 7k TV, that’s probably a fifth or sixth their weekly target, so some would be happy enough to not get commission on that one item, particularly if it means they can speak to someone else sooner.
How much of an impact did covid make to the management of the logistics and stock at the store? Did that make your job more difficult?
Why former employee?
It was nuts. Stock management alone became a nightmare (still is difficult) because what would once take 2 weeks from a supplier (who would almost always have regular stock arriving) would balloon out to 2-3 months at best. It made everyone’s job more difficult because it had consequences across the business.
And you’d still have customers complaining that whatever they’d ordered wasn’t arriving soon enough. Of course the website didn’t help. Saying things were in stock or “arriving soon” when they were out of stock with no ETA from the supplier.
Former employee because I’ve joined the corporate world after finishing uni in 2019
Oh, and add to that the hourly cleaning that corporate mandated to cover all bases, except there were no additional staff… so it was a challenge.
total of 4-6 years.
Hmmmmm I'm not too sure how trustworthy someone who can't remember if they worked 4 or 6 years at a place can be…..
Just keeping things a little ambiguous, just in case.
Fair enough then. Carry on! :)
So you was there for 5 years?
You can work it out…
Up until recently I worked at TGG
Then a question about JB hi-fi merger
I started right after it happened
So late 2016 until early 2022. My guess is 5 years and 3 months.
When is the best time of the month / week to negotiate a deal?
Whenever a competitor has a cheaper price!
Seriously though, that gives you the most leverage. Otherwise towards the end of the week, particularly if you’re taking it with you.
Commission is calculated fortnightly on products that have been delivered/picked up so you’re more likely to have someone willing to discount to hit targets.
What day is the 'end of the week'? Friday? Sunday?
Sunday
What was the commission % or amount?
If a employee didnt try to sell, does that mean they dont get paid or earn the minimum wage?Every salesperson earns award wages for retail (adults are about $22 per hour). Commission is on top of that.
Commission is a percentage of the sale price of the product, between 0.3% and 1.2% depending on the product. But if the salesperson discounts it starts decreasing. There are also supplier incentives ($50 every time they sell x product within a set time). But this disappears if they discount too much too.
Commission on accessories, services, and Gold Service Extras is a bit higher (3 - 4%) but they usually don’t cost as much as the product either.
What was your best experience with a customer and what was your worst?
Best experience from a salesperson perspective - I answered the phone, guy says “I’ve been looking at getting an OLED, I’ve been thinking about it for a couple of years, I want to buy the W9”
“No worries, what size?”
“77” ”
“No worries, I can get that organised for you, there should be one at the warehouse”
All the while wondering who this guy was spending $20k on a TV and not worrying about haggling on the price. Trying to keep my cool but knowing that it was about $500 in commission.
From a human perspective, I had a few people cry because I was able to help them fix a computer or phone that had photos they didn’t want to lose. Or replace an essential appliance that was technically outside warranty but they couldn’t afford to replace.
The worst was always the same - people acting entitled because something wasn’t in stock, or faulty, or it took too long to find.
One guy told me to “step on it and not take all day, he was in a real hurry” and “couldn’t I see it was urgent?”… to find him a sandwich toaster. So, in a moment of vindictiveness I went out the back, found it, then went on my phone for 5 minutes. “Thank you so much for your patience, I managed to find one for you”.
Thanks everybody- that’s me out for the night. Any other questions, feel free to send me a message
Is it part of official employee training to mention that (you/your uncle/cousin/friend/GF) has the same appliance the customer is interested in and that it had been working great? I'm asking because about 90% of shop floor staff at GG I've dealt with as a customer use this as part of their sales pitch so I was thinking this could very well be due to the training they received.
Clearly 10% of TGG sales staff are not following company procedure.
Sorry I missed this (and the ones posted after it).
It’s not part of the training, probably just a salesperson culture that’s filtered through by people telling other people what “works”. Personally I think it’s a terrible line and was reluctant to say it even if I did own the product in question.
What's the best way to get a good deal through haggling?
In my response to El-Rhi above, this is sort of answered, but essentially if you know the cheapest price it’s been in the past (as long as it’s fairly recent - within the last couple of months) you know that it’s possible for them to do that price.
Now, there may have been supplied kickbacks that impact their “cost” price, so they may not be willing to do that price when you ask, but usually those supplier promos will come around again.
Ultimately you just need to decide on a price you’re happy to have the product for, and ask for it. Unless it’s ridiculous, you’ll eventually find someone willing to do it for you.
do you even call Harvey Norman the 'Bad Guys'
Not officially haha. And let’s be honest, it’s retail, so very few people are really “good”.
well you can't be called the "Good Guys" if there no bad guys ?
Every time I walk in to buy something the salesman has the exact product at home, or his family does.
Coincidence or is the salesperson trying to relate to get a sale?
EDIT: I just noticed a similar question a few posts above.Yeah see above, but usually telling porkies. That being said, brands do run competitions, discounts etc for staff so it’s more likely they’ll have a product that the store sells than a random off the street. But not to the extent they say they do.
What ever happened to 'pay less, pay cash'
A few years ago they moved to “Pay Less, Pay Less” and then “Pay Less, Everyday”, apparently in an attempt to move away from people always asking for a better price.
Of course, they then put in a price scraper on their website that does this for the customer anyway so…
Possibly also to try to reduce the amount of cash they have to process (longer transaction times, banking etc.)
What was it like with the JB Hi-Fi take over?