How the hell do Currys stay in business?

V F said:
Were these Monster cables?
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Ha ha I remember years back I think it was Curries or Dixons that used to run a scam in the store where on one TV they had a £60 hdmi cable plugged in and on another they had a scart cable plugged in and they used to trick the customers into buying the £60 hdmi leads because of its superior picture quality.
 
MagicBoy said:
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.
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People will eventually get tired of being upsold for the hundredth time and their "old people scam" method wont wash forever, it may not be the next store to go but it will go eventually imo. (mind you there are still plenty of stupid ******** running around, so maybe they still have a market, but i'd assume eventually it'll be described as unethical at some point to tell people they need functionally useless ****, but who knows).
 
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.

This hasn't been a one off, this has been consistent, every single time, and when I say don't know what they're talking about, I mean trying to sell me an ADSL modem for a cable connection, or not knowing the difference between Full HD and HD ready (remember those days? heh). I'm not talking about enthusiast level stuff, but the basics, their bread & butter, they know none of it.

Yet there they are, on the high street, selling stuff. I saw a deal on HUKD today and wanted to pop in store to pick one up, walked around for about 15 minutes, nothing. Not a single person. Asked at customer service if anyone was available, was told someone would be with me. Another 10 minutes, nothing. Eventually I collared someone who was clearly dashing through the store in low-profile mode in the hope that nobody saw him, and asked him a few questions. Again, he knew nothing and was more interested in shaking me and buggering off.

I honestly don't know what I was thinking, expecting anything other than such crap service, but my optimism regularly fails me.

The only reason I can think of that this company makes any money is finance, or those who want their stuff right now dammit!

/whinge over
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Posted this in the last Currys thread - but I popped in there last year, to pick up a new tablet - decided to get one of the fancy 'S' series Samsung ones, but not with the huge £500+ price tag. I digress.

Anyway, after following deals online, I finally bit the bullet and popped in after work - arrived about 17:45 and the store was closing at 20:00 - I headed straight over to the tablets, located the one I wanted, and proceeded to look for help... nothing! Not a single member of staff came over, even when I did the polite English thing of "glancing in their direction" (whilst moaning under my breath) :D Stood next to me were another couple, I commented to them about the lack of service, and they confirmed they had been waiting over ten minutes so far.

Long story short - I grabbed a display tablet and yanked the security thing off of it - that set the alarms going, and brought over a member of staff; who had been laughing and chatting to fellow members of staff, in a gaggle nearby!

Now I'm usually not someone who likes to moan at stores and staff, as I have worked in retail a few times, and I know how soul destroying it can be - but following this (the the fact the lad gave me the wrong bloody tablet!) I emailed their CEO a summary of my visit to store, and the debacle that had ensued. To their credit, I did get a call from an area manager for the Southwest who took the time to apologize and listen to my complaint. I even got a £50 goodwill voucher - so better than a kick in the balls.

As for the knowledge of the staff - I have only ever dealt with their computer sales people, and it's laughable and scandalous the things they tell people - my very best being "you shouldn't use free AV over this Norton we offer, as whenever you come to uninstall the free one, all of the viruses it has caught get released".
 
StriderX said:
People will eventually get tired of being upsold for the hundredth time and their "old people scam" method wont wash forever, it may not be the next store to go but it will go eventually imo. (mind you there are still plenty of stupid ******** running around, so maybe they still have a market, but i'd assume eventually it'll be described as unethical at some point to tell people they need functionally useless ****, but who knows).
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Don't hold your breath, it's worked for nearly 40 years. They're the last national chain standing in that retail sector.

"People" are stupid - look at the brexit mess.
 
Scort said:
As for the knowledge of the staff - I have only ever dealt with their computer sales people, and it's laughable and scandalous the things they tell people - my very best being "you shouldn't use free AV over this Norton we offer, as whenever you come to uninstall the free one, all of the viruses it has caught get released".
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Sounds like Del Boy when he said he caught one of those computer viruses when he was in the hospital bed.

MagicBoy said:
Don't hold your breath, it's worked for nearly 40 years. They're the last national chain standing in that retail sector.

"People" are stupid - look at the brexit mess.
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It didn't take long to throw Brexit into this.
 
If i'm in market for kitchen appliance or washing machine then I would like to be able to see the product first, they do occasionally have good deals in their bargain bin. I bought a brand new 2TB WD external hard drive for £38, they had them selling for £60+ on their shelves.

I remember in my first year of uni I went in to buy cheap laptop,one of their staff members approached me and asked if I needed any assistance, I said no but I told him i'm looking for a laptop to use for programming..backed off completely.
 
V F said:
Sounds like Del Boy when he said he caught one of those computer viruses when he was in the hospital bed.



It didn't take long to throw Brexit into this.
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To be fair Brexit will hasten the end of a lot of "on-the-edge" companies keeping these buildings occupied and paying council's revenue/pension funds, it's entirely relevant, but it's not the reason why these companies are failing tbh.
 
Friend bought a TV from Currys recently and got a 'bargain' as they included a £20 HDMI cable apparently... I've no doubts he could have got it cheaper elsewhere and with better service.

Few months ago I bought one of their Xbox bundles, had to interrupt a 4 way conversation between staff who seemed to then get into a silent standoff over who would have to serve me. It genuinely took about 15 seconds of silence before one of them said he'd go check out back if they had the deal in stock that they were advertising all over the shop.

I think the only reason they're still in business is that they're the go to place for people who have no idea about electronics etc.
 
I used to go to into these shops and let them dish out BS and then shoot them down.

Always great telling them i'm an IT professional and then telling them why everything they just told me is rubbish :D
 
XeNoN89 said:
I used to go to into these shops and let them dish out BS and then shoot them down.

Always great telling them i'm an IT professional and then telling them why everything they just told me is rubbish :D
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You must have lots of time on your hands, i'm not sure which is worse the ill informed underpaid employee or someone like yourself.

Purchased our Rangemaster from Currys, they had the best price on the internets, so they do occasionally come good.
 
I went into the VAST one off the M6 at Walsall last week, I believe their biggest store. It carries so much more than your average store including some stuff you would not typically expect to find and in terms of choice was impressive...right up until I asked a store personage for some stock advice (they had one of the ASUS ROG monitors on the shelf) if they had them in stock. It was like pulling teeth as I had stopped him from stacking boxes, which made him sad. I had to go to another colleague who pulled up the system to check, but first one was useless. Think Kevin from Kevin and Perry.

I left having not purchased anything, tempting though it was to spend my 10 pounds from my mum. (this last bit was made up it was 5 pounds)
 
TheOracle said:
It obvious how they stay in business. Most people don't know of an alternative. Currys in a lot of people's eyes is the only place to buy electronics from.

Not every family has an IT friend who can help out. Plus a lot of people have given up helping because of the hassle it can cause.

Few years ago I built the mother in law a PC. It's ready to be replaced and I've told her just to go to Currys. Whatever they buy will be enough for them and if it goes wrong they can deal with it in store.

There's still a huge number of people who like to see before they buy so online is a no no from the start.

If they pay a few quid extra so be it. That said my new surface laptop came from Currys and only cost me £680.
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John Lewis for tv's, fridges, washing machines, kitchen appliances, etc.

the reason why curry's stays open is because majority of people don't have a clue. their dad shopped in currys so they do too. there is one in every retail park whereas john lewis is in city centres.

it's the fact it has stores everywhere and no competition in that regard apart from Argos. but in argos you cannot see the actual tv until you have it home so i can see why people choose currys over argos
 
My mum bought a laptop from purple shirts recently. She paid online and went in store to collect it. At which point they declared that they had 'helpfully' set it up for her - At an additional cost of something like £50. This wasn't mentioned at any point prior to turning up to collect it and it took about half hour to convince them she wasn't going to pay the setup fee. In the end she didn't pay anything extra of course but it's ridiculous that they try it on this way.
 
RobHu said:
My mum bought a laptop from purple shirts recently. She paid online and went in store to collect it. At which point they declared that they had 'helpfully' set it up for her - At an additional cost of something like £50. This wasn't mentioned at any point prior to turning up to collect it and it took about half hour to convince them she wasn't going to pay the setup fee. In the end she didn't pay anything extra of course but it's ridiculous that they try it on this way.
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I would have turned around and left tbh. If you buy something new, you want the joy of the full unboxing experience dammit.
 
I've bought 2 TVs from Currys in the past 12 months - a LG OLED and a Samsung something or other (40" for the play room).

They were cheaper than I could find online.

At the time I bought the OLED (which I think was about £1400), they were doing a promotion where 1 in every 25 TVs would be free (i.e. you'd win back the cost of the item), which we duly won.

Not sure what they sell that is more expensive than online, certainly for the stuff I've bought they've been the same as online or cheaper (2xTVs, Google Home Hub, Nest Hello).
 
They're often quite competitive with pricing these days, they were the cheapest place for my Dyson V7 last Christmas and I got an amazing deal on my Samsung soundbar and speaker kit from there too.
 
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