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Dick Smith (Entrepreneur)

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Re: Dick Smith (Entrepreneur)

#2
Fun fact: Dick Smith Electronics offered tech support for their products in an attempt to emulate Apple's Genius Bar. The official name for Dick Smith's support technicians? Clever Dicks.

Re: Dick Smith (Entrepreneur)

#3
Wow, I always kind of assumed Dick Smith was just a fictional mascot like Betty Crocker, but he was a real dude.

I lived in New Zealand for a short while growing up and we used to refer to Dick Smith Electronics as "Dip-shit Electronics" because the prices could be pretty outrageous. It was otherwise a pretty cool store, though; think somewhere between Radio Shack and Best Buy.

Re: Dick Smith (Entrepreneur)

#4
post #2

Fun fact: Dick Smith Electronics offered tech support for their products in an attempt to emulate Apple's Genius Bar. The official name for Dick Smith's support technicians? Clever Dicks.

He also marketted an alternative to "Redhead" matches which he called "Dickheads".

Re: Dick Smith (Entrepreneur)

#5
Dick Smith is a legend. Great sense of humour, prioritising philanthropy and buying local.

My favourite product of his was the parody of Redhead Matches, a box of matches with a woman’s face on it. Dick sold matches called “Dickheads”, with his face on them.

A friend of mine growing up had Dick perform an emergency landing on their property (in his plane). He must still be an avid flyer as we both attended the same aviation event a couple of years ago in a rural Australian town.

Re: Dick Smith (Entrepreneur)

#6

Wow, I always kind of assumed Dick Smith was just a fictional mascot like Betty Crocker, but he was a real dude. I lived in New Zealand for a short while growing up and we used to refer to Dick Smith Electronics as "Dip-shit Electronics" because the prices could be pretty outrageous. It was otherwise a pretty cool store, though; think somewhere between Radio Shack and Best Buy.

I used to work at one of those, after Woolworths had bought it. I had expected the job to be more about explaining how electronics work and finding the right thing to solve the customer's technical problems but it was all very sales focussed.

Re: Dick Smith (Entrepreneur)

#7

Wow, I always kind of assumed Dick Smith was just a fictional mascot like Betty Crocker, but he was a real dude. I lived in New Zealand for a short while growing up and we used to refer to Dick Smith Electronics as "Dip-shit Electronics" because the prices could be pretty outrageous. It was otherwise a pretty cool store, though; think somewhere between Radio Shack and Best Buy.

Yeah Disk Smith came in to NZ and replaced a perfectly good electronics parts wholesaler with over priced retail crud

Re: Dick Smith (Entrepreneur)

#8
Total random fact: Dick Smith's name is on the sponsorship signs on top of the hill on the Bathurst track, just before Skyline corner. In iRacing it's such a common place to crash that I know more than one person calling it "Dick Smith" corner to explain where things went wrong.

Re: Dick Smith (Entrepreneur)

#9
Working through Dick Smith's Fun Way into Electronics is a fond memory from my childhood. I don't remember if I got all the way through the second volume, but I sure do remember screwing component pins down onto those blue breadboards, and trying to figure out where I'd gone wrong.
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