There will be much hand wringing over the collapse today of Comet. One clearly feels for the 6500+ staff whose jobs are now at risk and, indeed, the suppliers and some customers who might also lose out.
The ‘problem’ I have is that, for me, Comet has become a ‘yesteryear’ institution. Last week our 15 year old fridge freezer went wrong and we decided on a new one. Researched it on the internet and chose the model we needed. I might perhaps have liked to have ‘touched it’ before I bought but nobody had any in stock anyway. And, of course, it needed to be delivered as fridge freezers are bit big for my boot! So I bought from an internet-only supplier who offered all the other installation and ‘take-away-the-old-one’ services I needed. I’ve done this with every other electrical item – from kettles to TVs to iPads – that I have bought in my recent memory.
What I would like is a High Street (or out-of-town) showroom. Maybe this could be funded by the suppliers. I could go there and see all the cameras (or fridge freezers) available from a variety of suppliers. Touch them. Test them. Then either order in-store for home delivery or go away and order online as I did for my fridge freezer. In a way, Apple (and now Microsoft) stores are like this. Neither really cares whether you order in-store or online.
Of course, this requires quite a mind change for suppliers who have not in the past been used to paying for floor space. If that doesn’t work then should we really be surprised or disappointed if stores like Currys, Argos, PC World and the like disappear? It would certainly require a ‘brave or foolish’ investor to shore up a retail model which is now fatally flawed.