Don't panic: Dixons Carphone's share price crashes 30% after statutory losses hit £329m

No surprises here

Merge a flagging tech retailer with an almost obsolete phone retailer and you'd expect the thing to sink like a stone.

When you can find detailed phone specs on an online seller's site up a big river but can't find them on display next to the phone in a Carphone Whorehouse, and when a SIM-only Android One phone with 2GB RAM, 64GB storage, and 8-cores costs under £200 online with next-day delivery, and you can get 4GB (or more) pay-monthly deals for a tenner from the Mobile network providers, what exactly is the point of these stores?

The last time I walked into a mobile phone store it was to get an upgrade because I was excited enough about the phone to get it there and then. That was probably 10 years ago now. I'm no longer excited enough by phones to care. I get everything I need online now sim free and pay on my own terms.

Uniform big retail is dying on its ass all over the country, the successes now are niche shops that savvy individuals open where you can appreciate the unique products they offer and make an impulse buy. I won't be surprised if Carphone Warehouse retail is shut by the end of next year.

Shops?

Isn't that where people used to go before the internet was invented?

the local phone shops do OK

Cover "emergency needs" - youngsters can drop in a phone for inevitable screen repair (& maybe a case for next time!), people less bothered about "latest & greatest" can get SD cards, batteries to reinvigorate old phones, or if someone has a provider locked phone they can get it unlocked.

If you do want a phone / contract, you can get them too.

But for the sort of "box shifting / contract flogging" stuff Dixon's do, online does the job & no pushing you to take out insurance almost more costly than the phone .

The move to SIM free, less frequent purchases has been discussed lots on else regarding over the years, most (probably all) commentards have more clue than Dixon's management about the phone market

Dixons is a fantastic place to shop!

No I'm not a Troll, but I have 13 years in a final salary pension scheme from many moons ago.

They offshored their IT a decade ago

Funny it hasn't helped their actual business!

So..share price dropped?

Good.

Fresh thinking required

I sometimes find Curry/PcWorld useful. but they do need to buck up their ideas . They offer lots of stuff, in store and online but forget that some customers actually prefer to shop the traditional way. They go into a shop, get approached by a member of sales staff and get shown their item of interest. Get it wrapped, got to the cash desk ( that's the old term for checkout) and pay in cash. Now Currys have many options of how to buy from them, too many to mention here, but there is no option to reserve online and go collect and pay instore, it's order online, pay up front then collect. They need to look around as see how other retailers do things. Despite all their wonderful displays, it is hard to buy and take home on the same visit. Too many times have I heard, 'we don't actually have any in stock right now'.

Complacency is to stagnate and if they do go under, then some other company will take their place, after all we don't miss the Comets or Travis Perkins.

Interesting reponse to a profit fall.

So, turnover dropped a tiny bit to about £10.5B, profits dropped a bit of a chunk to "only" about £300M and the share price plummets. And yet there are dot coms out there that have been running for years, spaffing through £billions in losses every year but are still seen as valuable properties worth many billions?

Why even bother buying on-line?

My last 2 phones - 5 years ago and last month have both come from Argos because they usually have what I want in stock, it's the same price as everywhere else, they don't hassle you about pointless insurances, and I can walk there plus there's a decent pub on the walk home.

Too be honest the pub nails the deal, the closest pub to my PC World is a bit rubbish.

All these markets which look like they're growing exponentially aren't. It's really a sigmoidal growth curve. Yet every time folk are amazed to find it's levelled off. Every time.

PcWorld - New Stores

I think the group as a whole is making some really poor decisions which must be eating into their profits. Example - there is a fairly large retail park where I work, with at least two decent sized vacant premises. There is a mixture of clothing, food and places to eat. Couple of months and few hundred grand later - shiny new Pc World. But no, over the road is some crappy unit which was completely ripped apart, refurbished, new carpark made, many many months later they opened.

I mean who are the morons making these decisions for the brand? Away from the main shopping centre, more than three times longer to open and more expensive?

Oh and I went in there the other day - I was the only shopper there, apart from the enormous amount of sales staff trying to get me to buy something.

Terrible shopping experience

So they are called PC World 90% of the time the PC component shelves are out of stock (yes normally I buy online but emergencies do happen).

Price/Spec labels on shelves are generally wrong.

Staff are not trained on any of the products they sell.

Demo products often not charged or plugged in (I even had to educate one staff member on which adapter to use to charge a speaker)

Expensive Credit.

If John Lewis can give you a free 5 year warranty, why are you trying to sell me an additional two years for the price of three

In retail you can bet that the shopping experience is generally a reflection of the actual business and how it is run

Anybody remember Woolworths in the UK, Shit shops and their head offices where just as tatty, just like decisions made from above, especially around IT.