Hardly Normal

[artme]

Anyone else notice the drastic change in Harvey Norman's advertising style??

[Dengue]

No.

[Wongo]

Where lowest prices are just the begining. Wait I got them mixed up again.

[Sir Stinkalot]

Anyone else notice the drastic change in Harvey Norman's advertising style??

Let me guess. Something along the line of:

When we first started we drove out all of the smaller specialty stores and forced everything under a one size fits all roof. After all of the smaller specialty stores were gone we made truck loads of money as there was no alternative any more. To further increase profit we cut back on any knowledgeable staff and you couldn't do anything about it. Now the internet has come along to do what we originally did to the smaller specialty stores, our old school business model seems to clash with these interwebs. To combat this, and the fact that we well and truly missed the internet boat, we will try and outlaw internet shopping and constantly winge and moan until people come back around to our way of thinking.

Close?

[Dengue]

Down , down , down?

[wheelinround]

Wasn't it hot topic on here some years ago mayb e all those who commented should be paid for stolen ideas.

[Master Splinter]

On a related note...I do like how the two big supermarket chains are claiming that food prices coming down are all because of them, and not at all related to the rise in the Australian dollar and world economic conditions.

I also like how they've heavily retracted their range of cheap generic offerings in favour of 'upmarket' generics that are typically only a few cents cheaper than a name brand. Which explains why I now do most of my shopping at Aldi.

[Bushmiller]

I did hear a comment a while back that Christmas is not Christmas without Gerry Harvey having a winge about the poor state of retail trading.

Regards
Paul

[Sir Stinkalot]

On a related note...I do like how the two big supermarket chains are claiming that food prices coming down are all because of them, and not at all related to the rise in the Australian dollar and world economic conditions.

Would it be a coincidence that "food" prices are going down as the big two still have competition from the local butcher or green grocer. The big two drop "food" prices to make them more attractive and then increase the prices on all of the other household grocery items to make up the shortfall. There is much less competition for the big two in grocery items than in the fresh component. Even Aldi cannot compete against the range of grocery items that the big two carry, sure you can get a bit of stuff from Aldi but it is difficult to the full shop there.

[rhancock]

At the risk of highjacking the OPs thread on Harvey Norman, one of the things Aldi does very well is in listening to its market. Have a look at the Aldi Mum page on Facebook and you'll quickly get an idea about the amount of feedback Aldi has access to. This means that a company which is paying attention to its customers (as opposed to Gerry Harvey) can change its product lines to meet its market.

You might be right that there isn't the choice of brands in the same product category that you get at the big 2, but to be honest, who really cares what brand of plastic sealy bags you're putting the kids sandwiches in?

In fact we (family of 2 + 4 kids) buy 90% of our groceries at Aldi, and only go to the big 2 for a small number of speciality items - dried figs or the like. Even then, most of the speciality items that Aldi don't sell, we buy from specialist stores, like asian supermarkets or similar.

Gerry Harvey's problem is that he's stopped listening to his market. In the old days, customers wanted one shop to buy a tv, washing machine and kettle. These days that's less important.

[artme]

Great set of responses, just not quite what I expected!

I was actually referring to the soft sell approach being used
now as opposed to the former hard sell.

On the subject of Aldi vs th big two I am always interested in the
petrol discount. When that scheme began the discount rate was about 8%
on a 4cent docket an sometimes 10c dockets were given. Now the big two
consider 8c to be their upper limit and we are at a much smaller percentage
rate of discount.

I don't know about others but we figure we get about half a tank of "free"fuel
by shopping at Aldi.

[Big Shed]

Well Arthur perhaps you should have been a little less cryptic in your question?

As to 8c being the upper limit, about every 2 weeks Coles send out an email to Flybuys members offering up to 20c (12, 16 and 20) for larger purchases, valid only on that Friday/Saturday/Sunday.

We never shop at Hardly Normal, their "customer service" is atrocious.

Buy a fair bit at Aldi. There was a funny story about Aldi soft cheeses (which are second to none) in the Age the other day.
Apparently Aldi entered their range of soft cheeses in the Royal Sydney Show this year and walked away with nearly all the top awards, wiping the floor with all the "boutique" soft cheese makers. They were up in arms, saying that companies like Aldi should not be able to enter (and show them up by implication I guess).

The Aldi soft Blue Cheese is one of the best Blue Cheeses ever.

[FenceFurniture]

The Aldi soft Blue Cheese is one of the best Blue Cheeses ever.

Fred, if you look closely, it's Product of Denmark. My firm belief is that it's Blue Castello sold in a different size, shape and wrapper. I never have done a side by side taste test, but I'd be mightily surprised if there's any difference whatsoever (except the Smooth Blue is always moist).

[nrb]

Coming back to the original post,have you noticed a change----WHO CARES??

[artme]

Didn't reeally think it was cryptic Fred. Thought the two approaches (then and now)
to advertising were as different as chalk and cheese.

No matter. The thread has proved very entertaining.