How the hell do Currys stay in business?

I went in there to look for a TV for the house I was moving into. When the guy saw me and my friend looking he asked could he help us. I said "I'm just looking for a TV for my new place: x spec and x budget" . As soon as I mentioned I was moving out his eyes lit up and he asked did I have internet yet? I said "no, but I'm not really interested in buying internet today" which he ignored, and then spent 15 m inutes trying to sell me internet.

I left, walked across the road to tesco and bought a TV. They lose themselves sales just by being so pushy when the customer is clearly not interested.

I did find them decent for when I needed something instantly and don't care about a higher price vs online. Those are rare scenarios for me though.
 
Went into PC World/Currys near me, only member of staff who approached me was from the Carphonewarhouse outlet which had a section of the store also. Thing is she did it whilst I was standing looking at monitors (bought online from another retailer later obviously).

At least 6 PC world/Currys staff on the floor at the time, this was midweek mind but I was the only customer in the place.

It'll be one of the next big chain to close stores IMHO. PCWorld when it opened was awesome but it never kept up on the internet side much like Maplin.
 
You saw a deal on HUKD and you thought all the staff would know about it? I'm sure you're one of the guys who ask a random shelf packer in ASDA if they have the beans that were advertised in the Daily Mail yesterday...
 
I work at a small independent retailer (2 shops). People will often drive 20 miles round trip to buy a laptop or desktop a bit cheaper @ CPW, then bring it to us and pay to have it setup / data transferred etc. They often come equipped with a McAfee (which is trash) / Office 365 bundle (when most really don't want O365 - they think its a one off £60 / £80). If people are in the know or don't really require our services & expertise then sure buy it online and save some money, but it baffles me when they do what I just mentioned and end up paying more overall. The amount of 32GB laptops people come in with is shocking as well, especially when they continue to have issues whenever a new feature update comes out for W10.

Thankfully most of our customers are ones that require assistance and appreciate the service we offer and are happy to pay a little bit extra on some things in exchange for actually getting what they want / need.
 
Raumarik said:
It'll be one of the next big chain to close stores IMHO. PCWorld when it opened was awesome but it never kept up on the internet side much like Maplin.
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Sorry, can't see it. The financial results are fine. They're a public limited company so have to publish all the accounts.

Maplin are totally different - they were privately owned. They were making an operating profit on the stores, the issue was crippling debt (at extortionate interest rates) they got saddled with after a private equity firm bought them in 2004. Tens of millions every year in interest payments put them into a death spiral.
 
Mmmmm, curry.

Oh that place? Yeah it's (sometimes) OK if you don't talk to any of the store staff. Not that they're rude or anything, just always entirely clueless about most everything they sell. I guess nobody really wants to be store staff in Currys, and it shows.
 
I last used them to buy a 2.5" hard drive there and then as I needed to fix a laptop the same day so buying online was a no no. This was about 6 years ago and in fact I don't think I have visited a retail park since never mind a Currys/PCW.
 
How the hell do Currys stay in business?

Diddums said:
Rant time. I've been to Curry's many, many times over the last 13 years I've lived in the UK. It's always, and I mean always more expensive than I can find online, there and then on my phone. The service is non-existent, to the point I've actually wondered if anyone works there at all. On the very odd occasion I've actually had any service or witnessed their "experts" provide "service" to a customer, it's invariably obvious within seconds that they haven't got a clue what they're talking about.
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Dude, be the change you want to see. Namaste.
 
They stay in business because they have the scale to sell laptops at ridiculously low margins (sometimes loss leaders), and your average punter knows next to nothing about tech. Unfortunately for them, that also means they have to push margin rich services and products really hard to stay afloat, which is where they get that awful reputation from.
 
I dunno, I've found in the last couple of years they have really adjusted the prices.

Our fridge was price matched there and no cheaper online , our tv was the same and actually came with a sound bar which it didn't online, got them to price match online for our Wacom tablet.

Just bought a Nintendo Switch and the best deal to be had at the time was in Currys.

They have the stupid staff still and tbh I feel hounded when I go in, but unless you are looking at the online prices from places I wouldn't dare order from they are pretty much inline with most or can price match.
 
I’ve had mixed experience with Curry’s, their Longton (Stoke-on-Trent) branch is staffed by uninterested cretins whereas the Festival Park (Stoke-on-Trent) branch seems much better, I had a chat with one of the “experts” whilst the o/h was browsing and to be fair he knew his stuff, wasn’t pushy at all and when I thought I’d see what his PC knowledge was like I was surprised when he straight away suggested I took a look at OC/UK’s website as they had a better range of components at better prices - he said he was a regular on the forums too!

I’ve bought plenty of white goods from them and my TV and the experience has been simple, quick and good value.

Like any big chain, you get a variety of experience depending on which branch you go to.
 
ColEx said:
Yeah we did that, waste of time.
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Funny you say that, just before Christmas I pre-ordered a three pack of sprockett paper from currys to collect. Drove all the way into another town, parked up, stood in the queue only to be told my order had been cancelled as they were out of stock.
I said, "why didn't you call or email me?" blank look!
 
They are a joke! I love how they push HDMI cables that cost £50 each and sound bars as the new TV's sound isn't very good when buying a new TV. I friend of mine nearly brought 2 sound bars and 6 HDMI even though she was only having sky plugged into each TV. It was lucky she rang and asked what sound bar to get (I had told her which TV's to buy) that one call ended up saving her over £600. I got her a couple of HDMI's for less than £12.
 
They probably know you so choose to avoid you.

Curry's is naff though, like pawnless said, they tell people the wrong information and upsell crap that many don't want or need.
 
Apone70 said:
They are a joke! I love how they push HDMI cables that cost £50 each and sound bars as the new TV's sound isn't very good when buying a new TV. I friend of mine nearly brought 2 sound bars and 6 HDMI even though she was only having sky plugged into each TV. It was lucky she rang and asked what sound bar to get (I had told her which TV's to buy) that one call ended up saving her over £600. I got her a couple of HDMI's for less than £12.
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Were these Monster cables?
 
I'm not sure she just said Curry's insist the cables have to be gold or they wont work :rolleyes:. I just told her to buy the TV's with the digital vouchers I had sent her (I get 8% off) and walk out.
 
Not my first choice I'll admit, but they have beaten like for like prices on most of my last white goods buys even if the ppl inside the store are clueless. Also if you have kids or someone with special needs and go through a lot of washing waiting an extra 2 or 3 days for a washing machine when you can just pick one up the same day makes a lot of difference.

Also last time my headset broke they also had the one I was looking at online in store for £10 less than anyone else - seeing as it broke Friday night the earliest I would have delivered would be Tuesday morning it was a no brainer. The only concern in store was the price was higher than online, asked if they would do a price match was told sure and showed them their own website, wasn't needed because it scanned at the online price but they were up to honoring it either way.
 
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