Dixons Closing 77 stores

This a fairly old story now but I think it is indicative of a trend Link to news story Basically Dixons and PC World despite huge buying power and buying up excellent shop locations are producing dismal returns on the capital invested in them. The guys in the City have obviously noticed the result in the numbers on the bottom line. But I don't think you need to be a top analyst to see what the problem is from the other end. Buying stuff in these shops is a hideous experience. With a computer of some kind being effectively a necessity nowadays, most of us will have visited this organisations outlets in the recent past. They don't get everything wrong by a long chalk. The chances are that there will be ample parking. The shops themselves are invariably clean and airy and the stock is attractively laid out. Particularly in PC World with the constant changing of categories and technology, I think they do a marvelous job of arranging their goods so you can usually find what you are looking for without too much difficulty. But boy do they get customer service wrong. The staff in the last one I visited seem to be armed with a special kind of ESP which makes them only aware of your presence when you don't need help. Asking for any kind of advice usually gets you the particular prejudices of the young person you have managed to stalk succesfully. They don't make much effort to find out what it is that you need. Buying technology is a strange area. It is possible to spend lots of money on the wrong thing. But it is also easy to lumber yourself with a purchase that is going to waste a lot of your time. You really need a sympathetic person who has the time to understand what you want and what is available. I am sure that many people would happily pay a bit more for that kind of service. In fact, in reality you would probably end up paying less overall by avoiding buying something that might be cheap but which doesn't really meet your needs. I think that there is a really big opportunity here for independent technology and gadget shops.