Our nearest Robin’s Kitchen store at Stockland in Earlville displayed signage in their shopfront stating that they were having a Closing Down For Renovation Sale.
It started around 3 months ago and an employee told me that they wanted to sell all their stock instead of having to pay to put it in storage during the renovation.
The store never seemed to be any less full of stock until a week or so ago and there were unopened brown cardboard cartons of more stock on the floor.
Late last week they had finally “closed” with some white sheets across the shopfront.
Low and behold, they had reopened when I was there today and nothing seemed to be any different so I asked an employee what had changed.
She pointed to a glass cabinet on a wall which had individual knives on display and also mentioned something about some new shelving.
I said that they had hardly needed to clear out the store to install a cabinet, to which she claimed they did have to for safety reasons.
The whole thing appears to have been nothing more than a scam and a cursory search indicates Robin’s Kitchen has pulled this stunt at other locations.
It would be very interesting to know whether the glass display cabinet is a mandatory requirement, and if so, if other Robin’s Kitcken stores have installed them without a “closing down for renovation sale”.
Their reviews on Product Review are absolutely woeful with some 92 reviews divided into 29 five star, 3 four star, 1 three star, 3 two star and 56 one star.
Robyns Kitchens are notorious for having endless sales for endless reasons.
Even their sale prices are not often cheap…and it is possibly a marketing tactic to get buyers to think they are beiing something on sale.
It reminds me of a carpet store they employed the same tactics…from liquidation sale, closing down sales etc etc…none of which applied to the business in question and they claimed the stock came from another (phantom?) retailer which was in liquidation or another closing down. I have a feeling the ACCC cottoned on after a while…and maybe Robyn Kitchens should be in the ACCC eyesights as well.
Either option, they might need a mobility scooter to help them get around as there are other retailers of kitchen wares who appear to be in a perpetual sale mode.
The luggage and handbag retailers seem to also rely on endless sales?
But is an endless sale cycle really a shonky?
Or just a point of differentiation?
In a free market the price is what the market will bare still reigns. The better question might be whether the kitchen products retail market is all that free in the first place.
My fading memory thought there was something about ‘endless sales’ in the ACL collective of documents but I am unable to find it. All I can find this morning is the ACCC Advertising and Selling Guide.
Is it possible there is no problem so long as the shops claimed RP holds for some determinate period, RPs cannot be raised and the sale price at the normal RP then shown as a discount, and the advertised ‘sale’ has a stated period of validity?
I am also sure there is something in the ACL about it.
As far as the RRP goes,I don’t think they ever sell anything at it.
My main point is they advertised a “closing down for renovation sale” which lasted for around 3 months, with new stock constantly arriving when they claimed they needed to sell all stock instead of paying to store it, and then they only installed a glass cabinet and some shelving, and immediately reopened with the shop fully stocked.
The sheets across the shopfront were obviously there to both prevent passersby from seeing that there was virtually no renovations and to prevent them from seeing that the shop was still full of stock.
I am not sure who sets the RRP but it appears that a large number of Australian kitchenware retailers use the same RRP and then sell the same item heavily discounted. I wonder if the distributors are in cahoots with retailers to assist the distributors and retailers duping the customer into thinking that they are bagging a bargain. Well maybe the bargains at Robyn’s Kitchens are not as good as some other retailers like:
RK has a bargain basement price of $499.99…but…wait…another retailer has exactly the same pan set ‘discounted’ even more at $299.95. Both stores have the same RRP which indicates that it is set unrealistically high by the Australian distributor.
Looking at all products across the product categories (Robyn Kitchen is not alone as every website selling the same products are heavily discounted), it seems that the RRP is set very high to give the impression that the discount price, while still considerable, is a bargain as one can save hundreds off the product.
Another point is the brands seem to be mainly exclusive to and retailed through ‘discounting’ type retailers either bricks or mortar and/or online. From first thoughts,it appears that the RRP nominated at RK and other retailers mean nothing as the same products are ‘heavily discounted’ across all retailers. This gives credence to the belief that the RRP means nothing and it not really the RRP but an inf;ated price set by the Australian distributor to indicate that products are ‘cheap’, causing impulse buying to one doesn’t miss out on these perpetual ‘bargains’.
Also looking at the RK website, those product brands which aren’t exclusive to RK/other discounting kitchenware retailers aren’t discounted by the same amount as the ‘exclusive’ brands. This also gives credence to the duping of the customer and the inflating of RRP to specific brands.
It might be time Choice or the ACCC investigates further on these kitchenware practices (and the RRPs).
okay so what do I do here.
Ordered a baccarat cutlery set from House and have not received it as part of my order.
No emails are being answered, phone calls are being ignored.
They are still sending emails for all of their sales.
Plenty of bad review with the same problem as myself.
