Dub dot dash

Not so groovy
Real Groovy was a hot topic round my workplace today, with some people saying they thought it was due to JBs Hifi, and also the internet affecting Groovy's retail sales (someone will blame illegal downloading too, before long). But as the NZ Herald noted, Groovy's owners have said that new releases only accounted for 28% of their business (source).

Certainly, retail is slowing up for CDs, and has been for some time. Take this week's number one album in the US, by T.I. According to Billboard, "despite a 69% drop-off in sales, T.I. starts a second week at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 with "Paper Trail." The Grand Hustle/Atlantic set sold 177,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, after debuting last week with 568,000. Metallica's Warner Bros. album "Death Magnetic" climbs back up 5-2 despite a 24% sales slide to 66,000"(link).

Back in January this year, Real Groovy co-owner Chris Hart said "2007 was not the best year. In an interview two years ago he expected Real Groovy to be turning over $20 million annually by March 2006. He says it probably accomplished that, but things have flattened off. "We're not experiencing the growth we had done, and that's the same for retail in general." (link, "Real Groovy - a company adapting to change")

But really, it's about what we lose if/when Real Groovy disappears from the Auckland musical landscape. It's somewhere to go and dig around in the bins and always be surprised by what you might find (don't get that one at JBs, do you? Just stickers that scream Buy Me, I'm Cheap); a place for bands to play live-instore; a ticket seller for concerts - 70% of ticket sales for dance events are thru Real Groovy in Ak; it's a treasure trove of musical delights. It's been around for 28 years, and I can barely remember a time that it wasn't there. Now I have to face the prospect that it might soon be gone for good.


And is JBs really that successful here? An article in the Australian last month, titled "Grunge look is key to JB Hi-Fi's success" (seriously - what the hell?) noted that "JB posted a net profit of $65.1 million after tax for the 2007-08 financial year, up 57 per cent, on sales growth of 42 per cent... The result is even more impressive when you consider the $4.9 million pre-tax loss JB made in New Zealand, where sales were down 10.9 per cent.

[Chief executive Richard] Uechtritz says he regrets the company's purchase of New Zealand whitegoods chain Hill & Stewart in 2007.

"I wish we hadn't bought it, in hindsight. A few months after we did, the New Zealand economy tanked. We bought it for the support office and the relationship with suppliers but it wasn't really our type of business. At the time we thought it would give us a running start in New Zealand for our JB stores," he says. Instead, JB should have gone it alone, opening its own stores. "We would have lost money but we probably would have lost less"

Hat tip to Trevor for the Billboard and Australian articles.