Saturday 16 July 2011

You've got to be joking - DJ's can't face reality

In one of the most bizarre and self-serving pieces of anti-carbon tax propaganda David Jones department store CEO Paul Zahra has tried to blame their current poor performance on the carbon tax. (see here)
Notwithstanding that we don't yet have a carbon tax (they seem to have modified their position some what to "carbon tax fears" have caused this to happen).
It is interesting go to their Facebook site and read comments on the wall (here) because most people don't appear to be convinced.
I, for example, made the observation that the reason I bought my Mac elsewhere was because they were cheaper.(by about $400) Indeed DJ's merchandise is always on the high end of up.
The irony of this commentary is that the Carbon Tax is meant to be a simple market mechanism designed to encourage initiative and to discourage waste.
It does this simply by hitting the hip-pocket nerve.
The first principle, which is not rocket science, is that putting the price up discourages sales.  DJ's real problem is that they are expensive. There once was a time when you went there to buy stuff you couldn't get elsewhere. But that didn't and doesn't mean you don't shop around.
A couple of years ago I went there looking to buy a good frying pan, I happened to have a $150 credit...but could not find one under $200.
My contention would be that it is going to be increasingly important to be honest about what this carbon tax is going to do...and not blame other stuff, like poor and expensive management practices ( I wonder if this is why DJs put out a disclaimer later in the day...after all misleading information is going to be an offence )

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