WHS - Warehouse Group

[Rawz]

Agree kiwijay

Warehouse group are in big big trouble in the big cities. Maybe doing okay in the regions

[Grimy]

Hi kiwijay. Similar to my experience at the airport Warehouse last Friday. It's actually a clean, tidy, bright shop. But no security at the door, the service desk at the entrance was unattended and as I walked in a 'shopper' was trundling out a trolley full of stuff. A quick look to the side where the two open checkouts are and they were off-straight out the door.
I said to my wife that it was almost embarrassing that we were going to bother a staff member by wanting to pay for something.
They need one heck of a big shakeup.

[kiwical]

Agree kiwijay

Warehouse group are in big big trouble in the big cities. Maybe doing okay in the regions

Yes, I've never understood people saying the stores are quiet/empty. But I'm in a town with no Kmart so that maybe explains why ours is always pretty busy. Personally I miss the warehouse's parallel imported lines that they had a few years ago. It created a real buzz when they started stocking branded parallel import items from DC shoes, Converse, Haviannas, Levis, and a host of others. They don't do it anymore. At the time it was a genuine market leading innovation. And a definite point of difference from Kmart. If you go back even further Warehouse was the place to go for DVD and CD. Of course that market has largely died everywhere now. But again they were the leaders. The problem seems to be they haven't found another exciting point of difference to get the wallets back instore.

[Snoopy]

Hi kiwijay. Similar to my experience at the airport Warehouse last Friday. It's actually a clean, tidy, bright shop. But no security at the door, the service desk at the entrance was unattended and as I walked in a 'shopper' was trundling out a trolley full of stuff. A quick look to the side where the two open checkouts are and they were off-straight out the door.
I said to my wife that it was almost embarrassing that we were going to bother a staff member by wanting to pay for something.
They need one heck of a big shakeup.

Oh really, you need to keep up with modern ways of shopping Grimy. Haven't you heard of 'Paywave'? What you observed is just an example of shopping today. If you don't want to pay, simply wave (the bill) away!

SNOOPY

[850man]

Oh really, you need to keep up with modern ways of shopping Grimy. Haven't you heard of 'Paywave'? What you observed is just an example of shopping today. If you don't want to pay, simply wave (the bill) away!

SNOOPY

The worst is that some people actually feel entitled to steal, justified by a "National government created cost of living crisis" as was used recently. Or by "mental health" as is the go-to for certain public figures. Regardless, little point in expecting justice. If there's none for violent crimes certainly none for thievery.

[kiwijay]

Well, I got more insight today. I decided to see how many of the Warehouse.co.nz items listed for sale were available for purchase on Temu, Alibaba, or Aliexpress, excluding their silly "Marketplace" items - so these are items that are imported and sold directly by the Warehouse only. I built a quick script using AI image comparison to run through the warehouse's content, and also check against the other sites. If I wanted to, I could make this publicly available meaning everyone could easily just buy any product they're seeing on The Warehouse for less than half price from Temu and I could make a easy buck on the referral commissions. If my math is correct, more than 30% of their items are available to be directly drop shipped from overseas. The only areas where they don't is in household groceries, cosmetics, food items, and some items of furniture (some furniture items are available in bulk, but not immediately. It's crazy to think that this company after all these years, is relying on the same drop-shipping model that my Neighbours kid is using to sell out of his parents garage on Trademe.

As an example, this is a 9-33 Universal Wrench from the Warehouse for $19: Tolsen Universal Wrench 9-32mm | The Warehouse

This is the same wrench (different colour) on AliExpress for $7 including shipping: AliExpress link

Screenshot 2024-06-26 172610.jpg
Screenshot 2024-06-26 172636.jpg

As a former shareholder (Who sold in the $3s), I am almost in disbelief that a very highly paid executive and management team milked their old business model without even considering the changing market landscape. You just need to look in any Postie's go-cart nowadays to see how many orange Temu or brown AliExpress packages there are - usually arriving within 2 weeks as well.

I thought their retail experience needed work, now I realise that their core value proposition, and their core as a business, is basically buying things from Alibaba, putting a random brand-name on it to look legit, and selling it at a 100% plus mark-up is all they've been doing, and we as shareholders have been paying their exec and management team millions of dollars each year for the same strategy that teenagers selling on Trademe have been doing for the last decade.

I correct my earlier observation - even a miracle can't save these guys.

[kiwijay]

Well, I got more insight today. I decided to see how many of the Warehouse.co.nz items listed for sale were available for purchase on Temu, Alibaba, or Aliexpress, excluding their silly "Marketplace" items - so these are items that are imported and sold directly by the Warehouse only. I built a quick script using AI image comparison to run through the warehouse's content, and also check against the other sites. If I wanted to, I could make this publicly available meaning everyone could easily just buy any product they're seeing on The Warehouse for less than half price from Temu and I could make a easy buck on the referral commissions. If my math is correct, more than 30% of their items are available to be directly drop shipped from overseas. The only areas where they don't is in household groceries, cosmetics, food items, and some items of furniture (some furniture items are available in bulk, but not immediately. It's crazy to think that this company after all these years, is relying on the same drop-shipping model that my Neighbours kid is using to sell out of his parents garage on Trademe.

As an example, this is a 9-33 Universal Wrench from the Warehouse for $19: Tolsen Universal Wrench 9-32mm | The Warehouse

This is the same wrench (different colour) on AliExpress for $7 including shipping: AliExpress link

Screenshot 2024-06-26 172610.jpg
Screenshot 2024-06-26 172636.jpg

As a former shareholder (Who sold in the $3s), I am almost in disbelief that a very highly paid executive and management team milked their old business model without even considering the changing market landscape. You just need to look in any Postie's go-cart nowadays to see how many orange Temu or brown AliExpress packages there are - usually arriving within 2 weeks as well.

I thought their retail experience needed work, now I realise that their core value proposition, and their core as a business, is basically buying things from Alibaba, putting a random brand-name on it to look legit, and selling it at a 100% plus mark-up is all they've been doing, and we as shareholders have been paying their exec and management team millions of dollars each year for the same strategy that teenagers selling on Trademe have been doing for the last decade.

I correct my earlier observation - even a miracle can't save these guys.

[Rawz]

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3503...-without-kmart

Kmart coming to Dunedin. Balloons, cookies, people expected to queue hours before opening.

WHS Dunedin will take a big hit

[Sideshow Bob]

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3503...-without-kmart

Kmart coming to Dunedin. Balloons, cookies, people expected to queue hours before opening.

WHS Dunedin will take a big hit

This will go mad.

There was a company running tours from Dunedin to go to Kmart in Invers.......

[Rawz]

WHS have a huge challenge ahead of them. They are being attacked from every direction by better opponents.

To invest you would have to have a lot of faith in them.

Personally too much downside risk for me to bother. Maybe on a p.e of 4ish with no debt