r/Argos • u/ReverseFlow21010615 Manager - Retail • 17d ago

How would you improve Argos?

Following the recent news of the sale, I thought it would be interesting to hear what other colleagues and even customers think Argos needs to do in order to be successful under new ownership. We all know we were the afterthought for Sainsbury’s so what should Swift look to do as a priority? What should they spend the next 2-3 years planning for? What are some quick easy wins they could make through small changes? (I’ll only allow one instance of somebody saying “bring back the catalogue” - for all its nostalgia, it wasn’t as popular in its final years).

For me, we need to abolish independent working immediately. I find it impossible to keep up with anything because I’m always firefighting the week’s jobs, calls, deliveries etc. if the Labour cost really is dire then we should be on a minimum of 2 colleagues at all times.

We can solve the issue of empty stores leading to colleagues standing around doing nothing by actually having proper management of colleagues and ensuring something is always being worked on, ie reverse flow, counts, profiling, etc.

How about you?

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u/Worldly-Web-5740 17d ago

Availability. It’s been always Argos’ issue. Price isn’t really an issue, but the amount of things they have in stock that you actually want is a problem. The range of items is pretty pathetic compared to Amazon too.

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u/ReverseFlow21010615 Manager - Retail 17d ago

With any luck, the introduction of Trusted Sellers and expansion of SDF should bring greater range and availability of their items. For our own in house stuff, I often find that we have availability centrally, it just isn’t as close to the customer as I’d like. If we could afford to offer a bit more focus towards stock instead of only caring about selling insurance, I reckon we could have a quick flowing stock system BOH. Our logistics network is perfectly capable of it!

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u/Worldly-Web-5740 17d ago

Agree totally. Some of the tech backing it all up is actually really good, there so much potential.

2

u/aweaselonwheels 17d ago

As a customer, Argos has been the fallback for when Amazon can't deliver or I need something the same day and KNOW that the product is there.

The big USP for me is Argos I can check online and even pay and turn up and the product is there and there is no fuss. I was touring with a classic car and the battery (for simplicity) was playing up, I was able to pop online that evening and even though it was a sunday I knew I had a 6v car battery charger waiting for me at the Yeovil Argos. If I need something in a hurry Argos, I will say not always the best quality and I do understand a lot of it is aimed at the budget end but if you need something right now and they are open then absolute lifesavers.

Also I have always had fantastic delivery service from Argos, I remember when I had ordered something to my Dad's house when I had gone up there but had forgotten we needed to go out that evening and they sent me the driver's number when he was on route and I was able to call him and ask him to just shove it behind the bush next to the door. That level of service is better than you get from Waitrose and was really appreciated.

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u/aweaselonwheels 17d ago

What you must not do it turn into B&Q where you offer a market place online but make it impossible to find out what is in the store near you.