I didn't hear anything about that.

As the Rabbi said: You don't ask, you don't hear.

Hi GTC, up to about Y2000 the buyers and product people were generally trade, hobby or industry people who used parts and built stuff themselves. Any thing that was dodgy never even made it to the boss for approval.
As the firm gained size buying staff came more from non technical career areas, not hands on users.
Thus the impact of a fuse not blowing at its specified amps ( for example) did not have the impact it should have.
Buying drifted towards getting the best price, meeting import and government paper work demands such as correct compliance papers.
Whether the device or part actually complied or even worked was sorted out last by the customer!
Of course that then created a slow loop of response.
Slowly bad items were weeded out, making a loss by having to replace a large percentage of a product on warranty soon gets attention!
If a big ticket box item is a dud, that is a big problem.
If a pair of side cutters bends when you use it thats tough luck, buy another better one.
By and large when I retired most Jaycar stuff was ok, other peoples comments on the sort of quality/price of the product range is spot on.
Complaining about the performance of a bottom range tool or instrument is silly.
Jaycar at least carry a range of product in each category. Just buy a more expensive side cutter or multi meter and there is no problem.
You get what you pay for, is true.
Fred.

You get what you pay for, is true.

Agree.

Jaycar is (currently) located conveniently for me, but there are times when I drive out to Altronics at Auburn because they have a better range of some items.

Thanks Fred for your memories of Jaycar, very insightful.

My first memories of Jaycar was the Hurstville store when I was a child. I think this might have been one of the first few stores in the 80's (no longer there). They used to sell bargain bags of mixed goodies near the counter, full of surplus components, which were always a delight for a child trying to amass a component collection!

I was wondering who were the current owners of Jaycar when I was at their warehouse sale in Rydalmere on the weekend, question answered (the Johnston family). I wasn't aware Gary had stepped down as CEO before he passed. Do you know if the move to relocate the warehouse to Eastern Creek, and automate it, was made by Gary or was it a family decision?

Hi Austfox, yes Jaycar was a hell of a journey.

The whole passage of Jaycar was centred around the warehouses.

From memory there were 6 locations that were "head office" or a "warehouse".
1/ City. The start in York St Sydney.
2/ Concord. Parammata Rd. Thats where I came in via Bill Edge.
3/ Auburn. Rawson road. Hated by the truckies and van guys and me. Bad access.
4/ Rhodes. Leeds St. Thats where the vision really got under way. Lots of hard work and fun, but ran out of space.
5/ Silverwater. Silverwater Rd. Amazingly I actually worked in that building for another company (BTR) before GJ bought it at fire sale price.
We will never fill this one....wrong!!
6/. Rydalmere. Victoria Rd. Well we filled that one as well, GJ built it up, back, and spread sideways, not big enough boys!
And I guess you could call Eastern Creek the 7th.

To clarify the company structure a bit, Gary Johnson was always the Owner of the buisness.
The company had to comply with red tape ect so had your company structure to comply as required.
Past about Y2000 you would have a CEO and your trad departments under the CEO control.
The CEO's job was to keep all the papers signed correctly law wise and ducks in a row and do as told by the Boss.
I was just a loose cannon rolling around, as directed by the Boss owner.
CEO's came and went, as they do, the last CEO I reported to was Toni Martin.

As with Dick Smith, a lot of wealth came by property movement.
The Boss nearly always bought the properties the warehouse and stores were in.
He had a healthy aversion to renting anything.
Also had an amazing ability to improve property and sell high, buy low.
Just as each move had a lot of planning and years of thought behind the moves, Eastern Creek was GJ's vision of the next step from Rydalmere and doing it totally right.

By Silverwater I just did whatever the Boss asked, held onto my begging cup and enjoyed the ride!
Thats all you had to do, just do what was asked and dont argue.
After "retiring" (from 3 jobs) around the Y2000, I just worked for the Boss on tech projects, customer help desk, know it all, full time until about 2014 or so when I turned 70.
By that time they had plenty of young people coming through and I was pretty sick of it all. The last thing young people need is some old guy getting in the way, I remembered how that pissed me off 50 years ago so I retired back to lab and workshop at home.

The company is HUGE and it will take lots of 100's of millions of dollarbucks to aquire it.
Gerry Harvey does not want it, too hard(my opinion), somebody with the cash like Wesfarmers or Bigbank will buy it.
Then without a genious "see into the future" brain at the head projecting forward, they will run it for 5 years and then start breaking it up, despite having some very clever people still there (no names) there who understood the Bosses direction. They will chop out low return products (like resistors, relays, capacitors) and then as less customers buy stuff and profits fall , will trim staff, reduce store numbers to restore flagging profits, fire people ditto, sell off "non profitable" parts of the buisness and so on and so forth until its all gone. Why, because professional managers have no idea WHY they are there! how do I know this? Hint: I worked for BTR and first hand watched them buy successful companies and see them turn those into wrecks only good for a fire sale.

Well thats my grumpy old mans opinion any way.
Hopefully the smart guys and girls at Eastern Creek will work around that.
Time will tell and with a bit of luck I will live long enough to see (Hey boss I beat you at something!!)

Fred.

QUOTE: They will chop out low return products (like resistors, relays, capacitors) and then as less customers buy stuff and profits fall , will trim staff, reduce store numbers to restore flagging profits, fire people ditto, sell off "non profitable" parts of the business and so on and so forth until its all gone

That's what private equity companies do.

Dick Smith's philosophy was to sell for a big cheque and damn the consequences, and by selling to a grocer the result was predictable.

Seems that Johnson had no one at home hand over the reins to, hence the family apparently not knowing what to do other than to sell, again for a big cheque. Jaycar is probably far too big for a management buyout.

Here we go again, I fear.

On a related tangent: I wish that Altronics would open more stores in Sydney. They can generate enough business for 6 stores in their home state of WA. Beats me why they can't do more in Sydney.

QUOTE: The Australian’s Dataroom reported on Tuesday that the main contenders to land Jaycar were JB Hi-Fi and Super Retail Group as well as a swathe of private equity firms, including BGH Capital and Quadrant Private Equity.

Both companies are understood to feature prominently on the list of suitors for the $500m Jaycar as it prepares to receive first-round offers in a bidding campaign run by investment bank Barrenjoey.

https://agadir-group.com/jb-hi-fi-and-super-retail-group-in-the-running-for-500m-electronics-firm-jaycar/

I remember the Leeds Street store running out of space early in the peace and Jaycar bought the joint next door to expand, and then next door again before shifting to Silverwater and then Rydalmere. Leeds Street was about the time that offshoots like Electus kicked off and for operations like that, floor space is needed.

Jaycar is probably far too big for a management buyout.

A good chance of that. Gary had an ambition of buying his own private jet - a big one, not a mere Learjet, etc. To do that, some serious cash has to be coming in. Jaycar's sponsorship of the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs wasn't a cheap exercise either.

Interesting that JB HIFI would be keen. They have kept their promise not to mess about with their purchase of The Good Guys so if they buy Jaycar it may be for the best, if that scenario continues. Anyone but Woolies.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

I hope whoever buys Jaycar considers my recent scenario before they decide to stop selling individual components... I went to my local Jaycar to purchase 2 capacitors. While I was there I purchased a few pliers, an aerosol can, and something else I can't recall. My $2 purchase quickly became $60. I'm sure this would be common.

I agree with GTC... I wish Altronics would open a few more stores in Sydney. I'm about a 40 minute drive away, but this is my usual go to place when I need a number of components. I am under the impression (maybe incorrectly) that switches, connectors, and components are better than those I have seen in Jaycar?

Altronics also have a good range of their own audio and fire alarm products (the Redback brand) and most of the people I see in there are tradesmen, possibly doing alarm or audio installations. This would certainly be a sustainable model for a few more stores. Perhaps one on the North Shore, one in the eastern suburbs, and one in the south or south-west of Sydney?

Altronics sells a tone board that gives off the alert and evac tones for EWIS systems. There is a third tone on these boards which schools use for class bells. These were in use at a school I once worked at.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

Anyone but Woolies.

As has been mentioned, after the Masters debacle, Woolworths wouldn't dare.

"I hope whoever buys Jaycar considers my recent scenario before they decide to stop selling individual components"

Austfox, quite so.
I witnessed the destruction of a firm selling water pumping equipment back in the 90's.
They were a bit of a "Jaycar" store and sold ALL the stuff you would need for an installation, from the water pumps down to the sealing tape for joints. they sold 10,000 buck pump sets down to 5c seals.
The professional clowns that took over deleted all the small low profit parts, like tape, washers, threaded joints, bolts etc.
That move was to improve the profit bottom line, by getting rid of slow moving parts.
Then they pensioned off old Micks and Jims behind the counter, who actually knew pumps and AS installations like the back of their hands.
That was to lower the wages bill and improve the profit bottom line. So they then staffed the shop and office with professional sellers or young kids with no pump set experiance.
Funny thing was all those cost saving moves dropped the profit line, simply because if a Fitter could not buy the pipe, joints, saddles and sealing tape to top the van up why would he bother to buy the pump? The Fitters would just go to the other shop that had all the bits instead of the place that had idiots behind the counter and no parts. The shop collapsed from lack of turn over and it was gutted within 6 months.

Austfox is right, as you cruise around the store you grab consumables that add up to your purchase.
Jaycar stores were always a catalogue show piece with carefully considered internal layouts that drew you in.
You have to have clear sight lines from the front to the back to show all the stock as much as the floor plan will allow.
I learnt a bit about shop psycology by working for GJ.
We walked into a well known dress material and fabrics chain shop at Westfield and saw the worst layout ever.
The display and stock counters were installed parallel to the front door and all you could see was the first row.
Worse still all the large items like fabric dispensers, curtains, sheets were at the front and the smaller craft items at the back!
You taper your stock items, low height at the front and tall at the back.
The staff did not know what they had in the shop, there were no stock locations, it was just a mess of stuff thrown in.
God knows how they made a profit. I just bought a bolt of cloth and never went back.
OOpps I wandered a bit there.............

Fred.

Ever since cash registers were computerized decades ago, retailers have had the ability to mine that transactional data and analyse the habits of buyers. For instance, they can readily examine all sales of cheap or slow moving products in relation to the basket of goods purchased by each customer, as well as graph product stock movement over time.

A year or so ago, Woolworths ceased to stock an item that I buy every week. Coles didn't, so I now shop at Coles (even though it is less convenient for me) and Woolworths loses out on at least $100 from me, every week of the year. If they had bothered to analyse historical sales transactions which include the dropped product, then they would have seen that consequence. I had it in mind to write to Banducci and point that out, but frankly I couldn't be bothered to teach him how to suck eggs.

BTW: Here's the approved development of the Jaycar Gore Hill site (even though the URL incorrect says Pendle Hill):

https://keylan.com.au/planning-proposal-at-pendle-hill-approved-2/

...even though the URL incorrect says Pendle Hill

They were close. There's only about 20km (and five or six Jaycar stores) between the two suburbs...

Here's the approved development of the Jaycar Gore Hill site

Wonderbar! Another block of flats. It's a good thing that there is a new railway going in for this area but it's a bit of a hike up the hill to the future Crows Nest station.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...