JB Hi Fi has removed flat panel TVs from several of their stores replacing them with music, DVD’s games and computing gear for the home. The move say store management was initiated because of the size of some stores and the difference in “return” from large footprint TV’s Vs small fast moving consumer electronic goods.
Among the stores where TV’s have been removed are two inner City Sydney stores and Leichardt in NSW.
A manager at the JB Hi Leichardt store said “We removed TV’s from this store because of space restrictions and the fact that we could sell a lot smaller items that delivered a quicker faster return. The TV’s were replaced with PC’s and notebooks however we are looking at ranging smaller 32″ HD TV’s which can also be used with notebooks in a bedroom or study”. They said.
Management at JB Hi Fi were not available to comment however at three JB Hi Fi stores that ChannelNews visited this weekend all had had TV’s removed and all were packed with customers queuing at cash registers to be served.
In other JB Hi Fi news the company was last elevated into the top 100 S&P/ASX listed Companies.
“We’ve pleased to get the acknowledgment that we’ve been resilient in these times where others are falling by the wayside,” chief executive Richard Uechtritz told AAP. “But unless we continue to execute and innovate and retail the way that we should, we’ll be yesterday’s newspaper.” “We’ve got a very unique model we don’t follow the traditional retail model.”
In a interview after this story had been posted Uechtritz said” We have never had display or car sound in our inner City stores and we removed display from our Leichardt store last year. We are now getting a better bang for our bucks and we are selling more computer related gear this is giving us a better yield and we are doing better without display in this store because of the stores size and location”.
