Bored, ask me anything. I'll answer to the best of my ability.
[AMA] I am a JB Hi-Fi Salesperson
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Every single item has an amount that it can be discounted, and we can see it when we try alter the price. Some people are afraid of losing their commission, which they would lose anyway if they suggested price matching, so that leaves me to believe they are telling the truth.
Most cables, plugs, adapters that are $30 can take $7 off, most $99 items can have about $20 taken off etc. But then a $2000 iphone? Can't take more than $20 off.
Personally, when someone asks me for a discount, i genuinely give them the lowest price possible because I don't want to spend much time there, but customers think i offered them a price in the middle and try to get more out of it 😅 awkward to ask a manager for permission to round an item down $3
Yes, just like in the US.
Of course you can. Same at Harvey Norman, good guys etc etc.
This price after discount is obviously not your cost price though. I know Apple is a special case and tightly control discounts, but there is no way in hell JB is paying $23 for a $30 cable. That's just the minimum JB is prepared to make on it.
No one said $30 cable being sold for $23 is cost price. It's just the limit in the program we use to sell.
@despavr: The question was about cost price statements made by JB sales people.
I'm simply clarifying that this is not cost price. it's the minimum profit price, which you have now confirmed.
ie it is simply not true when they say it's below cost price.
@lunchbox99: Perhaps when they say 'cost price' they mean 'break-even' price? Seems logical to me that they wouldn't bother to sell at break-even or below, given they run a profit-making enterprise.
@Shoocat: There is no way $23 is the break even price on a $30 cable either. I don't want to get into semantics or uninformed analyses about JB profits. I'm simply clarifying that when they say an item is below cost price, it is not true. it's just the minimum price they are allowed to accept.
@Shoocat: A retail store I frequented back in the day had the cost price listed on the pricing label so sales staff knew what they could discount an item to. It was a simple code where a letter corresponded to a number. I think cost price was what the retailer paid for it. It was genuinely the cheap junk items that had huge mark ups, not so much on expensive items.
@Hardlyworkin: Jb hifi make a most of their profits from all the accessories they sell with white goods/tvs etc… Mark ups on those are like 200-300%,so that $30 hdmi cable probably has a <$8 cost price, plust their margin to $30…theyll shave 10-20% and make you think you got a deal…
cost is a very loosely defined term, cost doesnt just include the cost of the item, but also rent, labour, overheads etc
@chk: Again there is no way the break even price on a $30 cable is $23 even with apportioned fixed costs. Cables are one of their largest profit items.
@lunchbox99: want me to demonstrate?
you can pay a salesman a salary of $1m, now your cost price is $0.2 for a cable plus salary totaling $1 million and 20 cents.
pay the same salesman $50k a year and your cost price is now $50,000.20.
cost price is a very loosely defined term
@lunchbox99: If they sell their cables and other accessories for only $10, they wont make a profit anymore as this is one lf their largest profit items. So given their profit relies mostly on their accessories (it is weighted that way), it is true that their break-even price is a higher percent of their stock price.
Trying to play devils advocate :)
Sorry that is wayyyyy below our cost price.
Hahaah… how ironic… I got this excuse only 3 days ago at JB for a phone I wanted price matched at OW that was only about $18 cheaper at OW but it would have saved me a drive out of my way to get it.
First of all they said they would have to add "shipping" because there was no OW near them (they only price matched in the same suburb) and then when I bucked up saying I would just drive down there and not pay shipping because it was a 30 min round trip… Then got told… "cant do it anyway, as that price is under our cost price"…
I just laughed and went to OW.
Suburb is a bit of a wider net! My local EB would only price match if it was the same building (which only has Big W and JB now as competitors for gaming - and that Big W is shutting up in 6 months I'm told)
From what i notice there are different breeds of salespeople and it's literally rng who you get. The worst type are those who are commission hungry and won't discount you cause it would hurt their comms or it would be too much effort. I hate working with these types of people personally 😬. They never discount or usually give off the 'cost price' line.
Second type are the newbies who don't know all the ropes yet and often say shit that they shouldn't or are completely wrong. Not gonna say which store I work in but in my case that is due to the training managers doing a shit job at training new staff and often offloading that responsibility to the new staff themselves. These type of salespeople are new so again they might be struggling so I cut them some slack. They may say 'cost price' out of accident.
Third type are the type who literally could not care less and discount the most we are allowed. I do this myself cause let's be real that power bank is just a rechargeable battery I can get online for 30% less. That said i would never push past the limit we are allowed to discount under since again that's hurting the company. While our job is to serve customers, we still work for the company. I only really push past that limit for special circumstances but that requires the manager to approve, which is rng depending on the store. I'm fortunate since my manager is a gem and has faith in us to sell appropriately, but im aware some stores are very stingy but im sure they have their reasons (area managers and so on).
For me personally, if you're a nice person and bring good vibes I'll give you the discount without hesitation. But having seen the cost prices for certain products, there do exist some items that have unusually high cost prices when there are alternatives that we sell that are much lower. I don't decide the prices I just work with what i'm given.
So tell me about commissions. Why are sales happy to point you to another sales if you get commissions?
Is commission a % of product, or flat $ per product, or what?
Is the wage enough or is commission a big boost on top?
How do you answer lazy people who just say "what's your best price"
Wage being enough really depends on the person. I know for my coworkers who are part time they generally rely more on the comms for the pay. Myself, I am a casual and still living with the fam cause rent is crazy at the moment, the pay is enough. Hence why i don't need the commissions as much. Everyone's circumstances do be different tho.
How commission is allocated is honestly a mystery but there are these things called SPIVs that companies pay JB to reward salespeople for selling certain products of theirs. They sometimes happen and sometimes don't but depends on the product. SPIVs give the most amount of commission generally while the base commission of the product isn't that much. You lose the spiv if you discount a lot.
For customers who ask what's your best price i don't really hate on that. That's what i'd do myself but it really is how you go around it. If you act distant or cold towards me as a salesperson, or are generally dismissive of me I am less inclined to give you one or as big of one. But ofc if you're a nice person and are friendly, then i'd happily give you one if you ask. Good vibes make the difference and you'll notice that for a lot of young experienced sales staff.
@hunk42: So when you price match and you have to call your manager to approve, does that mean you are actually going below the cost price on the system?
For me personally, if you're a nice person and bring good vibes
Noted.
Nailed it, it makes so much more sense to lose $5 in commission by saving the customer $50 for me. I always factor in how much i lose vs how much they gain, especially for nice customers. I guess me and you are quite similar in that aspect.
People like you are rare these days, where you care about others winning, because I think similarly too.
Are you a perks member?
What is the average staff discount?
I am a perks member on multiple accounts.
The average staff discount? This is hard to answer. Almost nothing on an iphone, yet a $650 massage gun can go under $300. Everything is based on the "cost" price, as that is apparently what we are given.
I am a perks member on multiple accounts.
Is that just different email addresses? But same name, mob, address, etc?
They are different phone numbers and DOB for sure, but im not sure about names. I don't think i ever put an address when making an account.
How many tattoos and piercings do you have?
Actually none 😅 but i was asked what music i listened to in my interview. I think my store manager hearing deftones put my foot in the door hahaha
Good taste!
Gold. Could have also asked if their hair is blue or green
Do they still give out rather crap cheap engraved pens each year for the "> $1 million dollar club" for salespeople like they use to, and has the $ threshold increased inline with inflation?
Honestly, i couldn't tell you because i don't perform that well in sales anyway.. but i've never seen it with anyone else. All us staff got a custom JB Hi-Fi vinyl this year though as part of an anniversary event which is pretty cool.
I worked there for 5 years and was never offered a pen although the comission was way better until they bought out the Good Guys
They use to have yearly lists of top salespeople that did over a mill in sales, and as a token of 'appreciation' you got a pen. Recently found one in a house clean up and binned it.
This was many many years ago though :)Ah ok i ranked 9th one year and got a free dinner although the storemanger who was useless came too
as a token of 'appreciation' you got a pen.
You could work at Coles and get a plastic water bottle with your name on it for all your hard work being a good slave.
JB Hi-Fi has diversified its range over the past few decades e.g. they now sell hairdyers and kettles in their stores too. What do you wish JB Hi-Fi sold in addition to what it currently sells?
I would love if we sold actual PC parts. Isn't it kind of crazy you can't buy an internal hard drive from JB Hi-Fi? I think that would be more beneficial to the company compared to anime figures.
think that would be more beneficial to the company compared to anime figures.
Thems fighting words
No margin, compared to amazon etc, so you're not mixing out unless you have a tech bay like dm, hn.
Then you have the hassle of migrating data, and if the customers 10 yo drive dies whilst transfer, can be nightmarish.
Many core PC parts have single digit margins (GPU's, memory, CPU's). See Reddit discussion on https://www.reddit.com/r/bapcsalesaustralia/comments/16dsht5…
The best margins are on accessories rather than DIY components, that's why JB Hi-Fi would rather stock gaming peripherals, monitors, iPad accessories. The margins on those are several times better than GPU's or CPU's
If there’s a good guys and a jb hifi home in the same shopping centre do you think it’s silly for still to have both brands open. Stores are Erina NSW. Like still keep both open but revert jb hifi back to a normal non white goods store.
In Castle Hill, both do white goods and they are 100m from one another in the same building on the same floor.
Same in Carseldine, QLD
Jb hifi Home + good guys next door (other side of parking).Really handy for getting them to beat a price because sometimes you get lazy sales staff.
Whilst they do share a lot of stock, some items/models are unique to each brand.
They also reduced their range in actual hifi of you look closer. No HT AVRs or speaker setups. Just shitty sound bars now.
Yeah; the CDs section has shrunk heaps compared to when I used to dig for $10 CDs in the Dance section a long time ago
All the kids are listening to vinyl now.
RIP Car Audio also.
But to be fair car audio even on base models is pretty OK now.
Yeah forgot about that.
What is the secret to getting a discount
I was told bring a crying baby so the salesperson can feel some empathy or show show cleavageBeing nice.
I'm not a nice person.
What is the next best option?
cleavage
Show a bit of skin
(Ymmv)
Ever got a discount by showing your beautiful feet Jimothy?
Was planning to get little business cards made up with a little QR code to my linktree and everything
Im now banned from bunnings and jb hifi… damn it jimmy.
(Ymmv)
It's actually
(.Y.)… but whatever works for you :)Preferably your own, or at least some that's still attached to the owner.
I work at JB as well. To be perfectly honest, I only give discounts out to people who ask for it and never just throw them out for free. The only exception I make is when people are genuinely nice and show respect, that I give discounts even if they don't ask. Often times it's our managers that get at us for discounting too much but even then if the person we are selling to is nice person, they too don't mind (a lot of rng required for good sales managers)
Thanks. Which store you work at?
Why the f**k would your manager care? Sale is a sale, more out the door the better. Does he get a commission off your sales? Don't tell me he does! Omfg…
Why do so many Jb sales staff look stoned
Probably stressed by the instore music playing taylor swift all the time. ;)
Maybe its not a look and they are stoned.
Got an escape plan?
Yes. But i think i'll stay as a casual. The staff discount can be so useful. And i rack up a lot of credit card points buying stuff for my relatives when they ask. I have a few coworkers with full time jobs who are only available thursday night, and weekend. Great pocket money
Interesting.
I used to work at a competitor many…many..many years ago - and there was a dude there who had a full time job in IT. But did shifts Thursday’s and weekdays too, he ended up mega burnt out.
Though, now the same age as he was, like, who isn’t burnt out from this absolute horror show of real life? Might as well get paid aye?
See the above post of
Why do so many Jb sales staff look stoned
Wasnt at good ole dick smith electronics by any chance?
That's the reason my daughter still works at jb, plus the samsung discount on mobile phones. ;)
Shout to my fellas with escape plan?
Why does JB phone plan saleman hate ozbargainers? Do you lose commission whenever they cancel the plan?
As someone that worked for a mobile phone competitor, the answer would be YES.
Sorry don't listen to that guy. No i don't lose any commission from you guys cancelling your plans. We are actually paid the moment we put it through the system (it gets added to our commissions that are paid weekly).
My local JB person seemed to kind of imply they knew about my Ozbargain intentioned plans, they did not mind at all
My local seem annoyed when they spot ozbargainers come in to sign up lol
They get paid and it boosts their stats. We won't ever recommend it but we usually can't deny you from it either
Whats the JB Phone plan bargain you got going on? Is it to get one of those get a JB voucher and then downgrade or cancel the plan and keep the voucher?
How old are you? how much is your hourly base payrate and are salesperson pressured to make a sell of a certain threshold amount?
Casual:
Base $32.06
Sat $38.48
Sun $44.89And of course + commissions.
Every salesperson has something called a budget, an amount of sales to do within a month. It varies depending on what days you work, what department and a few other factors. They are broken into mini goals (weekly) but don't matter as long as you hit it within the month. The consequences of not hitting that target vary depending on how close you are to your managers and what not lol
When you say base, you are including the 25% casual loadings? If so, that is 24.045 p/h and the minimum wage is $24.10p/h.
If that is your actual base rate (+25% casual loadings) then that would be surprisingly good, :O.
(Typically base rate is your p/h amount without casual loadings then 'casual rate' to show the 25% inclusive)
I am including the casual loading yes. Thanks for that clarification
Do you have pink hair and also refer to anyone over 40 as a boomer?
Why you guys always say
Sorry that is wayyyyy below our cost price.
Hen we try to price match