Wesfarmers today announced Catch will cease trading by the end of the financial year and Kmart will take over fulfilment centres
Interesting to see what they do with Catch mobile
https://www.wesfarmers.com.au/investor-centre/company-perfor…
Update: the Catch website homepage states that trading will cease as of 30 April 2025.
Competition is not being reduced though, they are effectively rebranding it to Kmart to mirror Big W Market / Everyday Market.
no, they're not being rebranded. It's being shut down completely.
Interesting to see what they do with Catch mobile
Drop dead.
I thought they're moving to amaysim?
I remember once the founder of catch was showing off his state-of-the-art warehouse and said to the reporter (this is pretty much word for word), "people will always buy s". By his own admission, he sells s. If someone doesn't respect their customers, then why would anyone respect him. I've never purchased from them again.
ah, note to self - be careful when typing asterisks, they come out as bolded text. I thought jv got to my account or something.
The first asterisk makes italic the second two make bold
You can put it in inverted commas to show the asterisks "s***" or just write shit
Wesfarmers bought his business for $230 million.
https://www.wesfarmers.com.au/who-we-are/our-history/acquisi…
Dont forget the time when Catch of the Day database was hacked and customer details were stolen and despite rumours there was no admission until ~18months or so later .. FFS
MyDeal next year.
For real? It would be for the best. Too much negativity around that website.
All the shitty Catch products are now available on the websites of all the major stores now. it's really messed up product searches when all the overpriced Chinese crap now appears on Bunnings/Target/Kmart/etc.
I absolutely hate with a passion all the "market" products they have on all the shopping sites now (Bunnings, Target, Kmart, BigW, Woolies, etc.) like they think they're ebay or Amazon.
They all want a clip of the ticket for doing nothing more than having a popular website. Easy money with very little investment
Why do they do that anyway? I've been wanting to ask someone "Why do these major retailers now allow 3rd party stores to sell on their websites?" and now since you brought it up I get to ask… lol.
It really pisses me off especially with Woolworths. I used to find electronics from Woolworths without issues until they started flooding their website with marketplace BS. Yes I'm aware they have a filter that just shows Woolworths items but holy [BEEP] I shouldn't have to filter out all the Marketplace BS every time I search for anything! Even the marketplace BS is starting to flood groceries… Coles being awesome not following the trend (I'm surprised).
I'm so sick of this Marketplace crap man… I've never purchased from a marketplace seller and I never will yet these websites try so hard to get you to do it. I wish there was an extension out there that auto hides this crap.
100%
I listened to a podcast with the Kogan founder and he said he added a marketplace and it just blew up his revenue. He had an existing customer base, popualr website, and so why not give their customers more choice, he thought.
It also looks very good on the balance sheet, as its just a minor technological cost, but the revenue jump is so great.
So yeah, all will do it. BigW does it (woolworths owned).
I dont mind it on kogan TBH.
But woolworths and bunnings it's just awful. Particularly woolworths how you have to hide it each time. Shouldnt be allowed for groceries.
Why do they do that? It's very simple: Because [redacted]loads of people buy it.
It's all well and good for us to sit here and whinge that "it's all overseas cheap crap", but all businesses are out to do one thing: make money. It's quite simple: If people weren't buying all this cheap crap, they wouldn't be doing it. You can't buy diamond encrusted whipper snippers at Bunnings because nobody wants one. But a bunch of cheap plastic bathroom accessories that are half the price of what they normally are? I'LL TAKE THREE.
These places are doing it because it expands their product range (which looks good on paper, and they can brag about how big their product range is) and they don't have to worry about the actual biggest cost: supply chain logistics.
Man I can't even buy my GOD DAMN GROCERIES online without having to filter out / avoid the marketplace only items.
I'm making an order for delivery in 2 hours , I've already chosen my time window, marketplace is just inappropriate.
Thanks woolies
That said, if you hunt around across all these stupid markets you can save a bit of money. Needed a particular benchtop dishwasher, I ended up saving like $70 by buying it from woolies marketplace. The other day my girlfriend decided to punch out the clips that hold the microwave closed by accident, saved like $20 on a new microwave via catch (just an anko one) with some voucher that was floating around.
I've had quite a few instances like that tbh.
Speaking of Woolworths if you're someone like me that hates that marketplace crap someone posted a tampermonkey script that auto-hide that crap so you don't have to keep clicking that button anymore!
https://pastebin.com/raw/8UqBJCmf
(found from here: https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/1i678t7/aussie_r…)
Just tested it, works great.
thats handy as
Lol. Interviewed for Wesfarmers in a graduate investment role in 2021. They seemed very, very interested in my answer to one of their interview prompts about the way to grow the Catch business.
Guess their strategy of crowdsourcing business ideas from graduate interviews didn't work
How are you meant to answer that? If you give a solid answer do they steal it for free without hiring you? That's like the stories you hear of people showing their coding skills by solving some programming task that's been one of their bug bears for free without the reward of a job.
Yes.
And yea
Was it don't use a spreadsheet to manage the entire company
One less for One Pass.
Most the cheap stuff on there doesn't qualify for the free shipping anyway, you have to buy the same product but for 4x the cost if you want the OnePass free shipping option.
You must be looking at the wrong items? Because from my end practically all the grocery items give the free delivery option with OnePass. I've never had this issue before and honestly this is the first time I'm hearing about this.
It was a slow death, they just lost their unique identity over time.
member when an ex worker leaked out that catch of the day did not encrypt their customers credit cards and that said worker got threatened with a lawsuit?
This aint government related. More like mismanagement by higher ups.
If sky news after dark is your source, everything is Albo caused.
What about when it happens on the LNP watch haha.
Coke and Pepsi same 💩
I mean it hasn't actually been a very relevant business for about 10 years. It's just a generic marketplace site with Temu junk except double or triple the price and if you're lucky the goods are already in Australia rather than on a leaky boat from China that takes 6-8 business weeks to arrive at your door.
I BLAME DAN DANDREWS
Many have tried. Few have been worse.
What will you do for someone to blame if Dutton gets in?
Global inflation? Albo. That watery coffee you ordered this morning? Albo. A build up of hair in the shower drain hole? Definitely Albo.
You’ve convinced me if a lot off aussies like u were born in USA you’d be some extreme supporting right or left wings,
and to think Australians were any smarter, the only people proppin up Australia’s literacy and numeracy are the ones with parents born from more strict countries
Aussies iq average would drop if no internationals lived here 😂
When will they have closing down sale discounts?
This could solve Kmart's issue of buying online. Currently they have to pick stock from shelves and most of the time they either can't find the stock due to the poor inventory system and shelves being trashed. Put a heap of Anko in the Catch warehouse and problem solved.
Not surprising anyway. Catch of the Day was awesome and once they shifted it went downhill.
Last time I bought something off Kmart (cat litter), I got sent a bedside table. Then never sent the litter the second time.
They need it.
That seems like a good trade.
Wow! Bedside table over cat litter? How in the hell did they screw that up? I wish something like that would happen to me lol.
I believe recent Kmart online orders are actually processed by Catch warehouse in Moorebank (yes same area as Amazon's)
Yep. Kmart's online ordering is a nightmare and quite frankly archaic in this day and age.
Yeah I hate their delivery system! To this day I still haven't figured out their same day delivery system! I've contacted Kmart but can't get a straight answer from those clowns.
One time I was gonna order their Egg Cooker and I wanted it same day delivered… I added the item to the cart and it didn't offer me that option BUT I then added a $1 candle to my cart and guess what? I was given the same day delivery option! just for giggles I added another candle and the option disappeared until I removed the candle and it came back! I freaking don't understand this system! Why can't it be like Big W's system that actually tells you on the item's page that it can be same day delivered!
Such an ancient system.
I sorry everyone, it was my fault. I finally stumped up the courage to buy from Catch despite the dodgy reviews (price was too good to ignore) and the very next day it announces it will cease trading. Surely it can't be a coincidence!
Catch used to have genuinely good products. Then they decided to flood out all the good products with drop shipped/marketplace items that you could find everywhere else.
Pretty soon it became impossible to find anything, and you were better off looking elsewhere. Psychologically going to Catch you knew it was going to be an annoying experience.
Note to stores - Don't flood your site (looking at you Bunnings) with cheap marketplace items. It's a big waste of time for the customer and people get exhausted with scrolling through pages to find what they want.
Yep, if I want cheap junk I'll buy it from Temu, unless I want it within 9 weeks, in which case I'll just go to a real junk shop like kmart.
Cheap junk = Temu
Value items = Kmart
Branded Items = Amazon
Marketplace and markups = Catch
Kogan?
@abc: I put Catch and Kogan on the same level, probably Kogan worse since they have such horrible warranty support. Also not included in OnePass.
Kogan might be next, I'm not sure how they're not being eaten alive by the overlap from Temu/Amazon/Aliexpress.
Temu and Kmart is on the same level
I have $100 worth if catch gift card, expiring in 2 yrs…..any idea on what happens to those…
Thanks. So no provision of converting these gift cards. What if we can't use all amount by apr 2025. That's not good
Use it while you still can.
@suzta: I had to return something a few months back and got a credit (was the only option). I had no idea what to get so ended up with like 40kg of moisture absorbing crystal refill things delivered for dirt cheap. Don’t expire and will be used over the years…
Use it or lose it.
From their email today :
We will cease selling Gift Cards on 21 January 2025. Existing gift cards can be redeemed until Catch.com.au is closed on 30 April 2025.
Looks like you can get a refund for unused gift cards. Not much details yet though.
https://help.catch.com.au/s/article-display?id=ka0W200000020…
Be considerate of the employees working there and give them a few days before you contact them asking for more information.
Thanks. And agree with you, sometimes we forget ppl working there are more affected than us.
Can anyone remember the name of the similar 'one deal per day' online store that was more popular just before Catch of the Day launched? It was like 2004-ish? Did I imagine it? This could be a Mandela Effect in action
Good find! It’s not a name I recognise but it must have been it.
There was another one, had a short name with q in it?
@BartholemewH: Ye I am thinking of another one with a short name but I just can't get the name, I know it when I will hear it. Driving me insane!
1 - day
Actually found this page on OzBargain wiki that lists those one deal a day sites. Haven't updated for quite a while…
There was a lot more than I knew about out!
I used to buy a bunch of stuff of Catch even when it switched to doing huge discount sales on categories of items like menswear/electronics. eventually i started to notice that the prices for items werent actually any better than buying this years/seasons product (laptops and shoes/clothes especially, the cheap USB junk was always cheaper than getting it from ebay) and stopped visiting the site pretty much then and there.
I did get a lot of good deals! but they quickly evaporated when it turned into yet another season end/runout sale warehouse.
edit: apparently my last order was 2021 for something that I remember i could not find to purchase literally anywhere else but on catch. checking my email receipts, it was 2016.
surprised they lasted this long
It went from a website offering good deals, to overpriced marketplace junk.
I just recharged my old uncle's catchconnect mobile sim card last night for $90 a year. Hopefully no problem with Catchconnect as the cost should be low for MVNO.
Good riddance, their website was utter shite and completely full of overpriced garbage. The ONLY reason I ever visited it was to purchase the river port Portello, which while overpriced at catch, is bloody hard to find in shops.
My local cafe sells them. Such yum. But much sugar.
They are literally the only sugary soft drink I ever buy. but even then it is like 1 every week or two.
Pretty sure they are ranged in all Woolworths (at least in Vic)
I am in ACT and definitely not in woolies here
Yep, checked on the system, Vic only stores unfortunately.
less competition makes JB feel like a king now
JB Share price going gangbusters!
Wesfarmers is shutting down the deals website on April 30, after it has been operating at a loss. ABC News understands 190 jobs are gone as a result. Wesfarmers say it will refund any unused Catch vouchers after the website goes dark.
ABC News understands 190 jobs are gone as a result
Don't worry NDIS will absorb them in like 1 week.
I placed order for rather rare lego set on Catch, after 2 weeks no sign of order being shipped, so I msg the seller and immediately got a reply saying the item was OOS and that I'd receive a refund.. Makes me wonder if they would have informed me if I hadn’t reached out haha
what set and how much?
wtf i just bought the catchconnect sim. any official news about if they will still work?
edit
yes no issue
Email from Catch I received today -
Dear ,
We are writing to you to share an important update.
Catch.com.au will cease trading and stop selling products as of 30 April 2025. Until this date, we remain open for business, meaning you can continue shopping our great range of brands, at even better prices as we continue to trade and clear through products.
Orders delivered by Catch and our Marketplace seller partners will continue to be delivered as normal. You may access your order information via "My Account" portal including order tracking status and past order information.
We will cease selling Gift Cards on 21 January 2025. Existing gift cards can be redeemed until Catch.com.au is closed on 30 April 2025.
We understand you may have additional questions. Please refer to our Help Centre for further information including our Returns Policy, Gift Cards, and Store Credit usage. If you have additional questions, please contact our Customer Service team.
We thank you for being a valued Catch.com.au customer. We look forward to continuing to deliver great brands at great prices to you until 30 April 2025.
Thank you from the team at Catch
now lest wait if they will do 50% off clearance
Do they own any stock though or is just a drop ship marketplace model
Both.
For example, this item is listed as "Sold and delivered by Catch"
Catch didn't do a very good job of distinguishing between marketplace and non-marketplace items however
Competition is not being reduced though, they are effectively rebranding it to Kmart to mirror Big W Market / Everyday Market.
I would expect MyDeal (owned by Woolworths) to also get closed down to funnel traffic to the other two big-name marketplaces they run.