Ann: JB HI-FI NOW to change the way Australians l, page-22

re: Ann: JB HI-FI NOW to change the way Austr... I think JBH has run out of steam, for several reasons:

1. They make money from selling significant items, like televisions, Blue-ray players, Playstation 3 etc, not CDs and DVDs from the 1990's. People can only ever buy so many tv's, and then they stop. Most people I know now have flat screen tv's, and they have no need for new ones.

2. I have been keeping an eye on the price of the PS3 as I would like to get one. The price is not the cheapest around, and they have not reduced it for christmas at all, hence there is not really much incentive to get it from JBH.

3. I have visited several stores in the past week, and although the number of people browsing the stores is still encouraging, I saw that people were doing just that - browsing, and not really buying.

4. There are waaaay too many stores now. In the Sydney CBD, off the top of my head I can think of 4, and I am probably missing one or two. With electronic retailers, you don't need that many stores selling the same thing. It's not like Macca's where more stores will mean more sales. If people queue too long at Macca's, they can go to Hungry Jack's, and some people may prefer Hungry Jack's simply because the next Macca's is too far.

But with JBH, people are willing to walk an extra 500m to get their ipod/CD or whatever. And if people think they are getting a bargain, they're not going to mind waiting a few extra minutes in line, because obviously they're not going to walk off and buy the same thing for a higher price at Harvey Norman/Dick Smith.