Poor retail millionaires. It’s our fault they aren’t making as much money anymore. Instead of a 45ft yacht, they had to buy the 30ft one. Such a sacrifice they’ve been making and now, they’re banding together to let us know how angry they are about their profit margins.
The loudest of these millionaires is one Gerry Harvey, founder of Harvey Norman, who by all accounts, is having to cut down on his caviar fund, all because I bought my kids toys online this Christmas.
“You’ve got every second person in the country importing things from overseas, evading duty, not paying sales tax,” he said. ”You’ve got an awful lot of retailers that are going to be going broke after Christmas.’‘ [source]
He’s been all over my TV and the newspapers, complaining about online shopping. The way he speaks, you’d think that online shopping was the devil incarnate.
Can we all hear the sad music playing?
I shop online, for a variety of reasons.
I have two small children, with sensory issues, among other things. I also have incredibly bendy joints, that dislocate regularly. Getting into a shopping centre isn’t easy for me.
I tried to shop in store before Christmas and it didn’t end all that well. I tried to browse the books, as quickly as I could, knowing that I had my partner and the kids (4 and almost 2) in tow. 30 seconds into browsing, my son bolted. I chased him and brought him back to the books, wherein he promptly melted down. Screaming at my feet, I couldn’t look at books anymore. Amy was getting overwhelmed with her brother screaming and started to whine.
I picked Isaac up and slung him under my arm, dislocating a few ribs in the process. My partner grabbed Amy. We looked at each other and left, fast. We’d been in the shop for 5 minutes and bought nothing.
I ended up buying all the kids presents online, slowly. My son has a birthday in a fortnight, his presents should be arriving in the mail this week.
We live an hour from the major city, so shopping isn’t something that we can do on a whim. It takes time and preparation. It’s much easier for me to just sit down with a cup of tea after the kids are in bed and order online what we need, as the actual logistics of remembering to buy new fitted sheets for the beds (because Amy cut holes in our other ones with scissors) or getting to the DVD section, it’s a bit beyond what I find easy.
At the end of the day though, it’s all about price. We survive on a shoestring budget and shopping online saves money. With cheaper products, even with shipping included, it works out better for us. We don’t have to waste petrol on a trip to town, I don’t get exhausted and dislocate things and the kids don’t spend the next few hours screaming. Instead, I wait for the postman each morning, when my parcels are delivered direct to my door. Win win.
Gerry Harvey expected the Internet and online shopping to be a passing fad, that he refused to participate in. This is what he had to say just two years ago:
“I’ve got an online part of my business, but I definitely would not put more into it. That’d be a recipe for a disaster.”
“Online people do not make any money,” Harvey also told SmartCompany. “The whole world was conned with online retailing. People say I’m a dinosaur, and I’ve had people coming to me with sites and saying, ‘Oh, look at this, they have 10,000 or 20,000 hits!’ – but it’s a con, a complete con.” [source]
Poor Gerry Harvey. If we’re not careful, next time we see him he’ll be sitting on a street corner, begging for money so he can buy some smoked salmon, and it will be all our fault.
Because of online shopping, dollars have been taken away from a very rich man.
Shame on us for wanting better deals and spending our dollars carefully.
Shame on us.
Uhuh. Oh look, Gerry Harvey, here’s the world’s smallest violin to play a sad, sad song just for youuuuuuuu 😉
Did you see that tweet too? Loved it. http://twitter.com/#!/cosmicjester/status/22257570773209088
He’s a boring old fart, too much media asking his opinion about politics and who gives a rat’s clacker what he thinks?!
Ken Morgan, on the other hand, puts his money where his mouth is, he founded and runs Kids Under Cover.
What philanthropic thing does Gerry do…?
*crickets chirping*
Oh, wait!
He claims donating to charities is ‘wasted’.
Ahuh.
Too much media asking his opinion on anything, imo. The donating to charities thing, when I read that yesterday, I was shocked.
If we hadn’t lost over 30% of our retirement income because of the strong Aussie dollar I’d almost feel sorry for him. As it is I’ll continue to shop wherever I can get the best deal – and it certainly won’t be with any of the big retailers here!
No, I can’t seem to bring myself to feel sorry for him. I admit, the strong dollar is doing a number on some of my ad revenue. My Book Depository commissions are paid in pounds, and other ads in US $, which isn’t working out so well at the moment.
gah.
I can uderstand if the gov wanted to charge GST on our imports, but they will still be waaay cheaper than retail here in au
They will be indeed. It’s why it’s called ‘competition’.
he really has done a number on himself hey x
He has. Public opinion isn’t great for him at the moment and I’ll be interested to see how his PR company try and save him.
They’re claiming they’re broke??????
Let’s all send them a detailed breakdown of OUR incomings and outgoings, they’ll see who’s broke!!
I don’t do much shopping at all, with no small kids anymore, I don’t need to. My own clothes last practically forever and I wear them until they fall apart; my whitegoods don’t get upgraded just because TV ads tell me I must have the latest model; groceries for one don’t cost that much.
My indulgences are books and dvds. I buy a lot of them onlinenow, not to purposely avoid taxes or gst’s, but because they’re much cheaper and I’m on a much more limited budget now.
How dare they whinge!! At least they’re still making some profit. If they need money, let them sell a car or two, or holiday at home instead of overseas.
I barely make it from one month to another.
Well, they’re claiming that we’re being all unfair to them and they deserve to have less competition. I may be paraphrasing, badly.
Interesting. Between you link to Gerry Harvey’s comments about the passing fad of internet marketing and Jayne’s about how he won’t donate to charity, I don’t think I’ll ever buy anything from Harvey Norman again. The GOFA agrees with me.
I do think that the big retailers with shop fronts are complaining about companies that have marketed themselves better. Smart marketing. Good on them, I say. that’s what competition is about!
I don’t shop at Harvey Norman generally either and won’t be after this.
I agree that the whinging by the major retailers is a bit “rich” and am generally dismayed by the mainstream media’s message of rampant consumerism that especially accompanies this time of year. I would like to do more of my shopping online but aren’t sure of where to go. Which online stores do you like? I enjoy all your posts Veronica but have especially enjoyed reading your perspective on social issues and recent events eg refugees, St Kilda badness etc. I nod enthusiastically as I read them!
I’ve been using Kmart online for some things – not much range, but decent prices. Most of Isaac’s birthday gifts are from Kmart plus my replacement sheets, because $12 for a fitted queen size sheet? thankyouverymuch. The last ones I bought were $30 a piece and that was pre kids and the cheapest ones I could find.
I use the Book Depository for all my books, so so cheap and if you shop through the button on my sidebar, I get teensy commissions.
If I know exactly what I want, Ebay can be good, but I find it hard for generalised clicking and browsing.
And Ozsale is good for different things, it has sales that come on every night, I picked up some good toys through there.
Goodness, those poor retailers. Who’d have ever thought that people might actually want to shop around for the best price for things. Obviously our place in life is supporting the great gods of shopping. Silly ol’ us.
I know. It’s funny though, the way he speaks to the media, I think he thinks the average Australian is pretty stupid.
Awesome post Veronica (found it via twitter). Love the quote from Gerry about online shopping being a passing fad!
Twitter is excellent for things like that! I know, his quote was pretty priceless.
I do loads of my shopping on-line too….Irish prices are ridiculously high and I don’t feel remotely guilty about shopping abroad, despite the government constantly telling us to buy Irish. The recession isn’t my fault. And my autie kid also doesn’t handle shopping too well. Gerry Norman sounds like an arse. XXX
I sometimes feel guilty, but honestly, there is no competition in Tasmania, so the guilt is fleeting.
Have you heard what Gerry Harvey is planning (or was talking about it) on setting up an online store where they will be sending us stuff from overseas so that he can get some of that profit back in his coffers?
I hadn’t heard that, no. I can’t say it surprises me though.
Brilliant post Veronica. It certainly didn’t look like he was losing money before Christmas when we went to get our photos done with Santa at their store. It was packed. I had to line up for an hour with a screaming baby just to pay for the photos. That was how busy they were.
After what he said, I will certainly go elsewhere to get Santa photos done this year.
Wow, that is busy!
Count me in as a very happy online shopper who was, and still is, blithely unconcerned about that dude’s profit margin. 🙂
Me too. And I figure, all his shouting about how we’ll be sorry when jobs are lost, it’s going to take a teensy little bit more than me shopping online to cause the collapse of the economy.
Roll with the times, baby. Hire some college geeks and listen to them.
I agree. Young people are a lot more switched on than he gives them credit for.
I love online shopping. Love it. The book depository is fantastic & I am able to get most furniture I need from ebay, thus avoiding new for the sake of new.
As for Gerry Harvey, yeah, I feel so sorry for him and his tiny little mind. What an arse.
The book depository is my very favourite online shop. Love them and their prices. You can’t get books that cheap here in Aus.
He MAY be a dinosaur? I think he labelled himself quite accurately two years ago. Watch them scramble now, silly lot. They could have been riding the crest (and not having to sing on street corners for his smoked salmon – mate, that was a funny line!) if only they had kept abreast of the trending technology and not shunning it as a passing fad.
These guys have been taking advantage of consumers for so many years because they lobby governments. Now it’s public, it’s out there, visible. They are ugly old greedy men. They should just shut up and let the evolution happen and be satisfied that they got away with so much for so long.
I have no sympathy for them, only disgust.
I reckon, Gerry Harvey had the business sense to make all that money in the first place, he worked hard for it, and no-one is forced to shop at HN so we contributed to his wealth fairly willingly.
BUT — to get there, he and the rest of this greedy group knocked probably thousands of small retailers out of the playing field, thus wiping out who-knows-how-many jobs and fairly thoroughly buggering some peoples’ lives.
It’s a bit hypocritical to now be whinging about possible job losses! Why don’t they tell the truth — they’re concerned about PROFIT MARGINS, not employees.
I shop on-line a lot — for products that I can’t get in Australia, or can’t get without a lot of hassle, generally. Yes, price is a consideration — I paid under $300 (Aus) for a craft cutting machine, delivered in 5 days to my door from the US, when the exact same product in Australia was over $700 and would have taken a couple of weeks for delivery. You generally get better service on-line, better delivery times, better outcomes all round.
Gerry, your problem isn’t GST. It’s that you need a new business model. Stop blaming us for your failure to keep up.
Online shopping is the bomb!
I loved watching this unfold on twitter…
And I’m never shopping at HN again.
Brilliant post!! Well said – in what age does he live in! I get all my make up and clothes online because there is more of a selection, plus it is way cheaper. He needs to get with the times!
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