Dick Smith is throwing a huge clearance sale in Australia and New Zealand today as it prepares to shut down the business for good. Here are all the details we have so far, including the types of discounts you can expect to see.
Today, Dick Smith’s receivers announced that the beleaguered electronics chain would be closing permanently after failing to find a buyer. With the exception of Move airport locations, all stores across Australia and New Zealand will be shutting their doors by mid-April.
As reported by Business Insider, store managers have been informed by Ferrier Hodgson receivers to wait for sale signage and further instructions. In other words, an impending fire sale has been confirmed. Here’s everything you need to know.
When Does The Dick Smith Sale Start?
The Dick Smith closing down sale will be kicking off when stores open — typically between 9am and 10am. It’s worth checking your intended store’s trading hours and getting there with plenty of time to spare. Queues will probably be forming well before doors open, so set your alarm clocks and get in early!
Where Is The Dick Smith Sale Happening?
Everywhere. The Dick Smith sale will be held across all 363 stores in Australia and New Zealand. You can find the outlet that’s closest to your location here.
Is Everything At Dick Smith Going To Be On Sale?
Pretty much. This is not some over-hyped attempt to sell last year’s TV models or excess stock. Instead, Dick Smith is essentially trying to gut its entire inventory. To borrow an old cliche, everything must go! You can see a complete list of all the bargains here.
How Big Are The Discounts?
Initially, most items will be slashed by between 20% and 40% although some discounts will be significantly higher depending on the product. Dick Smith has indicated that the sale will continue over the next eight weeks or until stocks run out: whichever happens first. You can expect further discounts as the sale continues, although by then all the good stuff might already be gone.
According to OzBargain, there will be some exception products and brands that will have a lesser discount. A small range of items, such as iTunes gift cards, will have no discount applied.
How Will The Sale Work?
It’s going to be a free for all: like-products will be grouped together in-store with one discount applied to that location, bargain bin style. Expect some jostling.
Can I Get A Store To Hold An Item For Me?
No. Store managers have been specifically instructed not to hold stock for either customers or staff members. If you can’t get time off work, you’ll just have to take your chances in the evening.
Won’t Dick Smith employees just nick all the good stuff again?
This is something Dick Smith has been accused of in the past, but we have reason to believe that this sale will be different. Firstly, the sales should be much larger than previous promotions, with Dick Smith trying to get rid of everything.
Secondly, Dick Smith’s 2500-strong workforce has just been informed that they no longer have jobs. We imagine they have more pressing concerns than landing a cheap bargain. (Commiserations, guys!)
Plus, the thought of handing over money to the company that just made you redundant probably doesn’t sit too well with a lot of these staff members. For once, the odds are in the customers’ favour.
Will The Sales Be Available Online?
At the time of writing, Dick Smith has not updated its website with clearance sale information or online deals. It’s definitely worth checking back later in the day though. (With that said, we’d be extremely leery of purchasing online goods from a company that’s just gone bust. A product in hand is worth two on the web!)
What About Dick Smith’s Competitors?
It will be business as usual for JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman and the rest. However, don’t be surprised if some sales start to pop up over the coming weeks as Dick Smith’s rivals attempt to cash in on the surge in consumer sentiment.
So to summarise, the closing down sale will be in every store, it’s likely to include most if not all stock and you should definitely get there early. Good luck!
Are you going bargain hunting at your local Dick Smith’s today? Let us know what you find in the comments section below!
Comments
38 responses to “Dick Smith’s Huge Closing Down Sale: How To Get The Best Deals”
lol as if the best stuff won’t be bought by staff prior to opening. Considering the staff are owed money by the bastards too, good on em!
seriously… i dont think there’s a need to rush in. Prices will be pushed down over time… 8 weeks is a long time.
lol you think the stocks gonna last that long? Nothing will likely be replaced, within a few weeks most of the stores will be closed anyhow. But either way, in this case with how staff have been screwed and owed money, I don’t begrudge them getting in first for deals and even reselling if they do.
Damn I have to be at work tomorrow but I might pop in after work and see if anything is around at the DSE store in Midland gate – not counting on too much its a small store.
Don’t buy online unless you want to be another unsecured creditor waiting cap in hand.
If you can’t leave with the goods, don’t hand over the cash.
Excellent point. I’ve updated the article with this caveat.
there is still risk but as this is now under administration you are not signing up as an unsecured creditor to ‘dick smith’ the company that went under but ‘dick smith under administration with underwriting by ferriers’. I still wouldn’t do it but oddly enough you can do it and be ahead of joe blogs who purchased something online before the announcement who is now more or less up the creek unless he has credit card protection.
“Won’t Dick Smith employees just nick all the good stuff again?”
Of course they will since there is NO ONE to answer to and it will sold on Gumtree and Ebay for profit.
That exactly why I’m not bothering. These only so many times you could be asked going to a DS sale only to discover all the good deals are gone to staff. It’s one of the reasons why they are up the creek and few people ever shopped there. The staff did it to themselves.
Of course they will and who could blame them? I’d imagine quite a few won’t be purchasing but rather loading stuff up in the back of their cars to sell off for some cash to hold them over while job hunting. If they’re caught what will their boss do, fire them? Don’t blame them at all for anything that goes down in the next two months.
Im a big eBay guy and I’ll be there early tomorrow morning to grab as much as I can. I’ve taken the day off work just for this. I sure hope its not as big as an iPhone launch ?
How would warranty work? Can’t take stuff to DS….
If it has real warranty, take it up with the manufacturer. If you bought Dick Smith’s shitty warranty, well then you are out of luck. You should never buy that anyway, it’s mostly a scam.
I think I might stand outside my local DSE store and hype up the crowd with a megaphone.
and when the doors open, “Let the games begin!”
Oh you better believe there will be blood.
Given that the two stores I’ve been to since they had their last huge sale never bothered to seriously restock, I’m not convinced it is really worth racing out to try and grab a bargain.
Yeah – Hornsby Westfields DSE pretty much lost all their console, games and action camera stock in that last sale (employee hoarding I’d wager – some massive discounts on the cams as evidenced by the lonely pricing signs at the time) and haven’t restocked since. So pretty much nothing I’d want is to be had there. Might have to trek to Macquarie centre on Satdy with the kids just to see if it’s any better …
Just looked at the Melton store. A few key items on sale (mainly TVs) but nothing to get exciting about at this stage.
Agree’d
Just popped into the superstore in Sydney on george street.
There’s a few things on sale, but the particular items I was looking at were still the same price as when I bought them 2 weeks ago.
Was in the Sydney George St store, nothing worth mentioning. Small discounts on most things but nothing out of the ordinary.
Geelong Westfield store, 10-30% off some items only, not a big sale at all.
Box Hill (VIC) only has the same discount signs up that they have for the past while already.
I went to the Griffith store this morning and the prices look the same as yesterday. I asked a staff member if the clearance sale was starting today and she pointed to a laptop which had been marked down to $650 from $799. No huge discounts that I could see. Might have a look later today.
The wife just popped into the Bourke St store, Melbourne. Said it was very quiet and no indication of any sale.
Went to the Northland store. No big sale 🙁
Went to three outlets in Cairns Qld. Nothing is on special. Same tags as three days ago. When I asked her about it she said most is reduced but I can tell you JB next door has them cheaper at everyday prices. She also told me that no staff showed up to work today. Manager was all by herself. They all quit or left
So just spoke to store manager. Everything is on sale but they have no tags and won’t be printing any. So essentially it is just a matter of taking to register and checking price. Prices vary from store to store depending on stock on hand. The manager here didnt know this happened until he checked his store emails this morning. Some stores will close by end of week and stocks taken to adjoining stores to reduce labour wages and where staff have already quit
Just spoke to the guy at my local store – he’d been told the prices were all going to start coming through their system this afternoon or overnight – so expect most stuff to be marked down from tomorrow (Sat)
Interesting. I’ll drop into my local tomorrow and see if there are any changes.
So popped in again and had a chat. There are discounts but only 20-30% atm. They also have a list of new prices. Monitors atm are 20% off (I am hoping on a nice 27″ or something)
They reckon that the discounts will increase over the weeks. And yeah both staff members feeling pretty dud about the whole situation.
Ha, just like everyone else – my local DSE had no sale. Just the usual 20-30% off here and there, same as any other day.
30% does not a liquidation make.
Has anyone tried getting EB to match clearance prices on games?
Been to the DSE store in Castle Towers (2154) , it was quiet as usual. Store did display a few discounted multi-item bundles . But nothing about any fire-sale so to say.
Just like all fires, it will take a bit to build up and then fade away…..
Yeah…the sale at the moment is not worth the drive.
I was just in Cranbourne store yesterday, the staff there was as dodgy as hell, some guy who worked there called Ahmed had his 2 mates with him (supposed to be working?) was talking about holding stock out the back for them until prices had dropped. The 2 Arabic guys were taking model numbers of stuff and being advised by this employee who told me his name was Ahmed. It was really dodgy.
typing this comment from a ds store. There seems to be no real discount on their high end laptops, moreover the little discount they do have compensates on the fact that the goods available to buy are display models only. The store service is surprisingly friendly despite the layoffs!
Being a staff member of a company in receivership or liquidation doesn’t place them above the law. The fact that you automatically assume that all the staff will be pocketing the goods just goes to show that kind of person you are.
I have no doubt that the CCTV system has been heavily monitored since the receivership was announced. And I would safely say that if there has been incidents of staff stealing they would have been dealt with the same way as before.
hi just wondering if any stores have showcase cabinets for sale ,preferably tall floor ones .also chasing desktop or wall display cabinets .lockable ..