By Martin Vedris

SYDNEY: Two stores from The Good Guys have made it into the top five finalists competing for honours of the South Australian Best Retail Store at the Electrical Retailing Awards (ERAs) this Friday, with Harvey Norman also landing two spots and Radio Rentals also in the running.

The top five stores, in alphabetical order, are: Harvey Norman, Enfield; Harvey Norman, Marion; Radio Rentals, Prospect; The Good Guys, Mile End; and The Good Guys, Pooraka.

The stores in the top five are those which received the highest number of votes from a judging panel of suppliers. The criteria included that suppliers considered when nominating stores for this award included each store’s customer appeal in the layout and design, education and knowledge of staff, local marketing initiatives, buying and operational efficiencies and sales increases.

The Good Guys Pooraka franchisee, Jim Drivas, said the result was “excellent.”

“I’m actually a bit surprised, to be perfectly honest with you. It’s definitely great for us to be recognised by the suppliers and we really are honoured, to be quite honest.”

He said the major work on his store in recent months has been to focus on their core and K1 products.

“We’ve rationalised the product that we’ve got in our store and we’re trying to get a lot more depth now than we’ve ever had, and that’s all governed through forums … when we have a vision and we implement that change in our stores.

“We’re now really getting to what the customer wants but making sure that we’ve got enough of it, so we’re never out of stock, to be perfectly honest with you.”

He said regular planning with suppliers meant The Good Guys stores shored up supplies of hot products.

Harvey Norman Marion Electrical franchisee Nick Karasoulos said the award was a welcome reward having moved back to his very first store.

"This is my home state, and I’ve been in Victoria for four years before returning back to Marion, which is the store that I started in some 11 years ago, so for me, it’s quite exciting to be nominated in the store I started at, and very, very excited by the recognition from the suppliers and the hard work my team’s put in has been recognised."  

"I think stores can spend a lot of time wanting to look for external forces to bring customers in, when they’re there in the first place and making sure we’re displaying the core basics of what they [customers] really want to see when they come into the store, so we’ve really spent a whole lot of time questioning ‘Is this what somebody wants in their home?’," he said.

“It’s a very simple question, and that, with a hell of a lot of communication, has always made a decent increase in business, and I think suppliers probably love us because they’re succeeding along with us.”

The ERAs will be held at the Sofitel Wentworth in Sydney this Friday, 4 April 2008. There are limited tickets available for the event. To purchase tickets email Ana Melo e Azevedo at ana@intermedia.com.au or phone (02) 9660 2113.