Today’s Dominion Post discusses electronics chain Dick Smith:

“Tim Morris, a retail analyst for Coriolis, said Dick Smith had given up a viable niche to try to foot it with mainstream electronics retailers. “If you needed some little connector, say if you had a phone and computer and were trying to plug the two into each other, where did you go? You went to Dick Smith.

“They reduced their range and … tried to move to a new position but they really didn’t make a go of it. They’ve lost their way. The whole space is so competitive.”

Jaycar had moved into the space of selling cables and connectors and in mainstream retailing JB Hi-Fi appeared to be “eating everyone else’s lunch”, he said.

JB Hi-Fi had a strong value message and its model of selling a big range of media including CDs and DVDs, as well as the big gadgets, was working. “You go in there because you think you might get a CD or the new video game … and you end up buying a MP3 player or a tablet or a television.”

Cutting Dick Smith loose would let Woolworths focus on Masters – its store set up to challenge Bunnings in Australia, Morris said.”