Abandoned - Dick Smith Electronics 

The less electronic components they sold the less I shopped there.... sad demise ☹

Woolies massively miscalculated the gap in the components market by discontinuing what was the core business, and the consequence? Jaycar now has basically a monopoly on the components market.

I love what you're doing, we need an Australian based channel with content like your 'Abandoned' series. But the long pauses with a black screen on your videos, keep on making me think my computer has crashed. Apart from that, keep up the excellent work. :)

You really glossed over the reason for the "poor stock management". It was done deliberately. They first wrote off the stock as worthless and called this 'restructuring'. The next year they sold the stock - so all the revenue from sales was 100% profit because the stock was on the books as worthless. They then used this to post a massive profit and claim the company had turned around. They then sold the company to idiots who brought it without even looking up the detailed financials. Anchorage brought the company for $120m, used $100m of stock to pay for it, and then sold it for $500m. So basically a $500m profit, and walked away. Its widely considered the greatest equity heist in Australias history.

I used to love Dick Smith as a kid, Nowra NSW was my local shop. Still got one or two kits lying around from them. I've even got a temperature controlled soldering iron, which, from memory, was the last thing I ever bought from there. I use it all the time, and it still runs like a charm, even after spending a whole summer in the back of my 4WD. The staff they employed by the end had absolutely no idea what was going on. Half the time I thought I knew more about the product then they did (and I'm not very tech savvy!) "Talk to the texperts" was definitly a bit of a stretch. Wasn't surprised to see them fold in the end. I thought the staff not knowing what was going on may have been limited to just one store, but after looking at things at their Shellharbour NSW shop, their Wollongong NSW shop, their Nowra NSW shop, and their Baldivis WA shop and getting the exact same stunned mullet "I don't know response" to simple questions like "where are your USB sticks?" from all those shops, I concluded that it was a far deeper problem.

I love that Dick Smith always used humour with his company, with the sign writing on the truck "the electronic dick" to years later with the calling his matches "dick heads"

Failed the day they stopped selling components

Great video dude. I use jaycar now.

It is interesting to see Dick's comment that the failure was due to the greed of the previous owners. During the period of them closing down, Dick made the comment to news media that he was "disappointed that it had come to this and he was sorry to see what had happened to the brand". If he hadn't been greedy and sold out to Woolworths he would still own the company and been in control of it so this may not have eventuated. One of the main reasons for them going bust which wasn't mentioned here in any detail is their shift to custom branded products. DS televisions and things with the DS logo (the square with the tail) were never going to sell. People want known brand products, not mass produced no-name junk from china. The change of direction to selling home appliances was never going to work and seemed to signal a last ditch attempt at staying afloat.

I worked there from 2005-2007, it was my first job. Learned some great skills there but it was clear management had no incentive to keep the best salespeople there. Most of them moved to other retailers who were paying significantly better in commissions. The stores ended up being run by young kids on minimal wage rather than more experienced and knowledgeable people, and slowly started going downhill from there. I left at a very good time

Dick Smith wasn't just selling remaining stock during the closing down sales. They were also selling the shop fit outs. People were able to buy the display tables and cases for collection/delivery after that store closed.

Used to work for him at North Ryde, woolies came in and destroyed everything, also worked for Radio Shack so I am sad with the whole industry

Great series. Love your dedication and research. One additional bit you could add to the Dick Smith scenario is the Tandy/Radio Shack link. Woolworths also took over the Tandy stores, also retailers of electronics for hobbyists and a range of radio shack gear. For a while they kept both chains operating (even in the same shopping centres) before pulling the plug and rebranding everything as DSE. When they went wholly to consumer electionics, that was the real death knell. As others have noted, it left the market completely to Jaycar who have expanded into that vacated market. It also brought the company into direct competition with Harvey Norman, a consumer market juggernaut, and other retailers. In the end their branded consumer products were junk compared to what the other companies offered. Most sadly, they continued to sell "gift cards" right up to Christmas and then immediately went into liquidation and did not honour those cards given as Christmas presents by unsuspecting customers. Into whose pockets did that money go?

DS had a store in Berkeley, California a few blocks from Radio Shack in the late 80s, early 90s. I still use a DS multimeter. Works great.

Cool vid mate ,lots of research in this and a total lack of BS. Dick's shops went from a place to buy electronic parts and consumables & be greeted by some geek in a business shirt with 3 pens in his top pocket that could answer any tech question ,into a shop that sold crap quality consumer toys, staffed by bimbos with an IQ of 3 ! Warringah Mall was my local DSE also .

They strayed from their original business model to compete with JB, Bing Lee and Harvey Norman, but the market was already full and their prices couldn’t compete

Great Video, I’ve recently stumbled upon your content and it’s very interesting. I use to work for Dick Smith, started at Broadway and ended in Gore Hill, that’s we’re i started in my retail experience... how sad it was see it go. Gore Hill was its second store that opened, head office in Chullora and wish you dived into it relationship with JayCar... I still can’t believe JayCar is open...

South Australia's Power House store was in Elizabeth.

been a while since your last video. Great video BTW!

Good video though I'll add Dick Smith primarily collapsed due to Anchorage Capital performing a classic pump and dump. They pumped the numbers by selling Apple products at a 5-10% discount while a lot of their other stock didn't sell. Growing Apple sales made the company look healthy, pumping the stock, but the company was anything but...then it all came crashing down in a classic debt spiral.

Woolworths opened too many stores to quickly. Greedy.

Jaycar sorta still alive

If anyone needs any DSE batteries. You can find them in just about every off-brand dollar store in Canada!

DSE went downhill ever since they stopped selling components and tools, which is why jcar still survives today as they sell what people want

Dick Smith wasn't "abandoned" they were to close and then bought by Kogan. Dick Smith is still a store, it's only online but basically a mirror of Kogans site. (9:40 yep.)

I was an Employee of DSE back in the 80's. Back then you had all the experience in components, Alarms and radios, our customers were primarily hobbyist, electronic enthusiast and kit building people, I was experienced and fluent in all areas of electronics, however sadly after Tricky Dick handed his only child over to Woolworths for a bag of peanuts it slowly got ripped apart, Tricky Dick took this advantage and concentrated on is passion for flying and geography, the stores lost control and became more of a silly shipment and supply chain for business marketers overseas who were trying to offload their junk into DSE stores, importing more plastic breakable items from cheap china or Taiwan. Woolworths had no idea or professionals on how to operate a electronic Components store, so The store became a harvest for imports, it sold commercialized components with a few that was rebadged as DSE items. ;P after 1988 I left the store/s and went onto studying engineering and also became a fully qualified trades technician. why would you want to work for $16 ph under woolies. When I look back i really enjoyed the deep technical conversation with the customers and staff at Dick Smith Electronics, we were all Technical Gurus in all areas. We also had a modem bulletin service going between technical staff, (before the internet came about) and used to swap ideas, programs etc, I am broken that Richard started this business from Ground up with blood sweat and tears and ingesting it it for a mere 20 million, minus the taxes later Woolworths making around 300 million profit from the shares, smart move from a corporative level, if you move up too fast you will also fall Hard. You would think that Tricky Dick would of been the smart guy and kept his chain, He would of been worth over 2 Billion Dollars Today. but his days are over and so is the name. Jaycar Put Dick Smoth to shame and now is probably the leading components store front in Australia, but now everything is purchasable online from many other small business competitors.

I notice J&b hifi have capitalised on that black &yellow..stands out like a dogs behind !

My nearest Dick Smith is now a Reject Shop which is in Albury NSW, just before they closed I recall they opened a kiosk in the store which fixed phones, computer's or something along those lines

Hi. Since the early 80's I use to always get all my electronic bits from Dick Smith Electronics at Chermside on the north side of Brisbane.

Thank you for the interesting videos! Would you consider doing an "Abandoned" video about Brashs?

0:35 - 60p, we meet again! Nice work finding hi-res videos. 9:11 - 240x160 resolution compressed JPG. You are on a roll now. What other garbage can you dish up?

I remember we used to regularly shop at Dick Smith a decade ago when I was a kid and I do remember that the location we mostly went to was to the left of BIGW in Box Hill shopping centre however I remember that it closed in 2012 possibly because of that particular store under performing! :)

I still have an old classic Dick Smith Scorpion ssb CB. They are quite rare these days.

The biggest mistake was to stop selling electronics components, this used to keep the shops busy with customers. When the became the same like Harvey Norman, Betta Electrical, selling only TV'S, computers, etc. theirs shops were empty there is nothing worse than seeing stores with no customers inside because it doesn't encourage passing by people to enter the store and take a look.

The same mob that brought DSE also Brought Tandy and Radio Shack at the same time all three of them are now gone. Incidentally both Altronics and Jaycar are still trading using largely the old stock (largely electronic components) model but with online sales

Awesome videos! Maybe one on wow! Sight and sound?

The Dick Smith store in Grafton NSW is still empty and the signage remains on the roof. The black paint is also faded and Chandlers can be seen underneath it.

Loved listening to Hydrocity theme during this video :D

hell yeah, warringah mall was also my local Dick Smith besides warriwood square when they still operated.

Great Video

Good video. I worked for Tricky Dicky's in the mid 90's. Let's of cheap rubbish sold in the stores even then and a very backwards business structure even then.

Dick Smith Electronics started in an era of electronic hobbyists. They did well for a few decades selling electronics kits and CB radios until people stopped building their own gadgets and started buying them assembled. DSE couldn't keep up with the shift in consumerism. It was only a matter of time before they succumbed.

When I was a kid, Dick Smith used to sell electronic components like Jaycar does now. I remember buying two 12v water pumps from them years ago. But then they changed the business model and it became irrelevant to me then.

I shopped there when I would visit AU they were like our Radio Shack used to be a place to get parts and radio equipment sad to see them go here in the US I miss Radio Shack in high school we had a ham radio club and all the kits were in radio shack part numbers and the school paid for all the parts and we got to keep what ever we built .

Do a video on the 2008 Sydney Metro proposal.

This was my childhood...

Sydney Motto: Removing things we love

Woolies might've understood the supermarkets business but they were completely clueless about the electronics component business. That an exceptionally talented DSE marketing protege, Gary Johnston would then leave DSE to go onto create Jaycar completely thumping Woolies at the entire entire electronics component business is further proof of the brilliance of this amazing Australian individual otherwise known as Richard Harold Smith (VK2DIK), a man in every sense of the world & one of the worlds great leaders. Dick's talk at the Manly Warringah amateur radio club rooms as showcased on EEVBlog is one of the most amazing, insightful, mind blowing & funniest talks you will ever experience in your entire lives

I worked in one of the last PERTH stores to sell components. At that point there was no training for staff, it was sink or swim. If you didn’t have a background hobby In componentry which a lot of us didn’t, customers would fume and leave the store. It was a shit job, I saw incompetence from the floor all the way up to the area managers. No one really gave a shit. I remember when the ‘ask the techsperts’ branding came in and everyone just laughed because we didn’t know what we were doing and we were only being paid base Woolworths salary anyway and were just ignored by the company. I remember opening up a DSE brand DVD player that came back faulty and the customers DVD was stuck inside. There wasn’t even solder on the wires it was just Blu tack. I’m a public servant now and couldn’t be happier.

i remember my experience shopping in dick smith quite vividly. like it was yesterday. i even took pics of the stores when it closed down.

Kinda like Radio Shack. Oh how I loved Radio Shack in the 80's and 90's... Now it's called Circuit City and has the appearance of an Apple store. Just products, no components. ArG!

Jaycar is the place to go now for electronics

Here in the states, conventional brick and mortar retailers have been dropping like flies. Best Buy is the last electronics retailer and they really don't carry much stock anymore.

I remember the days when i worked in a Dick Smith Powerhouse it was awesome back in the day, always busy and buzzing, then jb Hi-Fi poached most of Dicks good staff (including myself), from then it was never really the same again.

From what my dad said to me. He stopped shopping at dick Smith when they went into the consumer market and left the enthusiast market. To quote him around 2004 he went in there when I was 3 to look for a transistor for a toy train and they gave him a strange look saying we don't sell transistors. It was at this point that I reckon jaycar electronics boosted. I fucking love these videos you do though man keep up the good work

Are you available Multycooker plus Airfriee

I still have my Dick Smith's Fun Way into Electronics books.

What about Truscott Hi-Fi, Cunningham's Warehouse, Movieland Video or A&R Computers? they once existed in S.A. and have long since gone.

I bought my first CDs at the first ever powerhouse... That's kinda cool lol. I don't know another store that was like that. I loved it lol. Used to deliver the drum magazine there

I never purchased any consumer electronics from Dicksmith. They hired people that had very little product knowledge at all. I once went in there asking about a laptop and they didn't even have the specs sheet and I was sure that they confused a OSX and Windows, when they tried to makeup up stuff. I used to get antena parts from dicksmith, but that was the only thing I recall purchasing from dicksmith. I remember Tandy employees had better product knowledge of electronic parts than dicksmith employees.Now I much prefer getting components from jaycar or online for the hard to find components, at least jaycar employees look like they give a shite and know their products.

I still have a small movie player from them.

I worked there from 2008 to 2013 and I saw the removal of components, kits and bread boards etc. and the “Textsperts” rebranding that killed the business, it was a sad place to be...

Good video's but please....the "b" in debtor is silent.

I wish they were still open

Local woollies is closing, store on market. Other woollies owned brands have closed too including target stores

My local store was also Warringah Mall I remember going there within the last 2 weeks before closing down I bought some logitech speakers only to find half the stuff missing when I got home I had to call up my parents and ask them to take it back and refund it as i had work and couldnt get down there during the week each day more and more of the shop was shut and i think they got in there to get a refund with like 2 days left my dad had a big argument with them cause they were not excepting refunds anymore after my dad blasted them about the ACC rules they finally gave in a refuned me what little money they had left

I grew up in the fun way to learn electronics era that dick smith promoted.when that stopped and the components I stopped going.

I see Parallels with Radio Shack in the U.S ... Dick Smith was smart enough to sell the business in its heyday and invest in Commercial Property. The only true electronics hobbyist / gadget store is Jaycar now, which appears s to be doing ok. I remember going to Dick Smith to buy my aftermarket cordless phone batteries & inkjet printer cartridges.

Kogan owns the name now, online only for the Dick Smith.

When a business is put into administration it can be restructured, the administrators usually keep the business running until a buyer can be found or make changes to try make the business more viable. When all is lost they would resort to liquidation to reclaim as much money as possible

Aye 2:40 was the local dick smith store in Maitland NSW, where I live, I still remember going there when I was younger.

I recently went to Princess Auto (tools/hardware shop) in Canada and bought a wireless mouse that was branded "dick smith". Never heard of the dick smith brand, so I googled and ended up here. Interesting that a defunct Australian/New Zealand brand being sold here in Canada in 2020.

If anyone thinks the components and bits market is dead go and see how busy Altronics and Jaycar are on a Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

Why does every single electronic store close when I’m not here WHY

where did they go

Can you do a vid on the failed “ Oasis “ project in Liverpool please

sad day it was coz i like electronics and prefer to have hands on with products before buying and still have full 5.1 speakers and 3 of the 2 channel 50watt amps with cambridge decoder also with jaycar electronics still in play i dont go to them anymore due to there lack of product and overpriced shame though coz i liked there response range for car audio and still using the 4x100w amp in car also like looking through car wreckers for parts and now alot of wreckers are disappearing not sure why abc spares gone now

In 2005 my employer - a retailer went into voluntary administration. Stock was outdated before it arrived & there was a diversification away from electronic retail. Together we had incompetent staff who were selling items below cost after you account for ONCOSTS after a customer paid with a credit card (5% surcharge) as some moron discounts to price match another retailer. A 10% Net Profit shrinks to 2% or even a loss. But poor management leadership was the key issue.

I always vetted for DSE rather than JBhifi, sadly they won... I will forever miss going to the powerhouse in Ryde

What no corruption and manipulation to make the shares appear to be valuable (and saleable for a price that did not represent reality) followed by a precipitous crash in value when the truth came out after the big rats had left the ship they had helped to sink. You surprise me sir.

Still have a DSE branded 9v multimeter in use

A lot of experts here that seem to think that not selling kits killed the business. it didn't.

Could you do one on “Walton’s “ stores pls as I remember mum getting all sorts of stuff there when I was a kid the salesman would go door to door later they even had stores and had one in Albury Also another idea could you do one on a bisness called “the warehouse “ Just that I have been watching your videos and they have had me thinking about memory lane thanks

Nice tunes at 14:18

What ultimately killed them...They opened up a Sister brand called MOVE - targeting the female market (it lasted about 5 minutes) in high profile retail centres. Didn’t focus on their core market and lost their brand identity.

I remembered this sale and dick Smith by my house closing down so sad

America's Tandy's is probably non existent these days too

Nice video, but I can't help thinking that you should stick with "content creation" rather than attempt factual analysis. As a late "baby boomer" I consider that devoting 75% of the video to post-Dick Smith ownership misses the point entirely, which is something that most late Gen X's, Gen Y's and Millennials do where history, the present and reality meet. From personal experience as a teenager interested in technology, there were many "bricks & mortar" component stores around before DSE started which served both the hobbyist, amateur and professional sectors. You only have to look at the popularity of magazines such as "Electronics & Radio", Electronics Australia and others, to see the range of suppliers advertising a wide range of products and components in the magazines. DSE's success was built on good stock selection, wider general product range, AND most importantly - the convenience of a local store and GREAT MARKETING - I doubt that the electronics magazine ETI would have got off the ground without DS's support. Need that one transistor on Saturday morning? IMHO as a technology and manufacturing professional, DSE was doomed from the moment they were sold to Woolworths - a jelly bean retailer with no knowledge of the electronics industry at all. Everything after that was a foregone conclusion! As a further note, the opinions regarding "bricks & mortar" versus online stores are not particularly accurate, unless you're just looking at retail consumer products. Yes, we now have access to an immense range of online components and products, but slow as it was, mail-order was the forerunner to today's online marketplace. I bought my first commercial Single-board-computer by mail-order from the USA, regularly ordered electronic and computing kits from England and the USA, and all while shopping at my local DSE at the same time. As the real kicker - if it was a simple "bricks & mortar" versus "online" argument, stores such as Jaycar, Altronics, Radio Parts, Oatley, RS, etc. wouldn't still be profitable either. We know that those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it, but those who don't understand history are condemning themselves to rewriting inaccurate pseudo-history from flawed research and perspective. IMNSHO

hey i got one in nz and it abandoned

You didn't mention Tandy.

The majority of shops are Woolies, coles and Kmart. That may be a reason why they closed because of these 3, or maybe others.

Dick Smith Electronics Dick Smith Powerhouse

I think Dick Smith lost its identity. It tried to hedge its bets between what it used to be ( Electronic components and tools when a competitor to Tandy and like a Jaycar) and a big box electronics store like JB. It also had a period where it had a lot of own name brand items that were usually very poor quality and lacking in features. I stopped buying from there as I found it was either cheap crap or more expensive for the same item elsewhere.

Dick was smart, he got out early before he was married to the problem! Nice work Dick!

5:42 that's Armidale

Yeah I reckon this is accurate. I actually began working at one of the last dick Smith electronics stores in WA that still stocked components. Probably around 2005 or 2006. In my two and a half year career with the company I worked at one other Tandy store and two other Dick Smith stores in the city of Perth and I saw a lot of things change in that short amount of time. Then I got permanent a job as a public servant and never looked back haha. Worst job I ever had.

Always went there i think i even bought my xbox360 day 1 from there

They are really the canary in the coal mine for all retail, pushing huge margins against online and direct internet purchase options makes them dinosaurs. Throw in disinterested staff with no idea, marketing execs who have no idea, senior management who are groping in the dark.. it's the perfect storm.. and they were unwilling and unable to compete, locked in a last century retail mindset. They got away with thousand plus percent markups on components and many stock lines, and inevitably once buyers became aware that there were so many better options, it was game over.. All retailers should take a good hard look at the way they do business if they want to avoid going the same way.

I walk into Jaycar now in rockhampton and it feels like I'm inside the old dicksmiths shop I went to in the 90s that store is layed out exactly like it was dick Smith's was in the 90s. I used to buy components kits and make them doorbells intercoms microphone bugs you could tune into a household radio.... I think hooking up with Woolworths is what fukd him.... look now big w is fukd because of online shoppers so watch the price of your bread and butter go up now they have to make up for their losses somehow

Anchorage fucked the company what with their over inflated valuation when publicly listing. The consortium that bought it, used the company to purchase a shit load of cheap nasty consumable shit from his buddies, go into receivership and end up 'working' for his buddies. Several senior members of staff at the Chullora HQ, next door to their store informally advised me of this.