JB Hi-Fi

While I find their location convenient for those in the city and surrounding areas, someone didn’t think out the parking aspect. There is literally nowhere to park in the city on a Friday night when one may be trying to capitalize on their longer store hours. This might not be an issue for customers buying objects that can be easily stored in a bag or comfortably carried… but, buying a TV from here was nightmare-​ish! It was the sale that pushed us through along with Ryan, an amazing sells rep., that completed the deal.
We were told verbally on the phone that we could park behind their store to pay for the TV and then they would carry it out to us. After trying to park a Ute behind two tight buildings, we were there for no more than a minute when a man from another building told us to move or he would be calling the cops (along with a slew of other not-​so-​nice words). This isn’t conducive to business. We then spent about another hour searching for a parking space, halfway across the city, in a parking garage. Then we had to walk to the store, pay, and then run back to get the car. (And, somewhere in this time we lost the parking ticket. Brilliant. Instant $ 30 charge.) With all this time passed, we missed picking up our TV in the alley because the store had closed.
Come to find out the following day, we were in the wrong spot the whole time. Looks like employees of the store need to 1) provide a map and 2) inform their employees better so they can direct clients to their «correct» loading dock.
While JB HiFi has the best deals in town, I can’t say it was worth saving a few $ 100 with the stress and the few-​near scrapes of the car. I also tried to recently buy a camera from here and found their zero-​return policy incredibly intimidating. An extended-​warranty isn’t a warranty if you can’t return the product. Looks like Amazon has spoiled me rotten and that is where I’ll go for smaller electronics.

Music, movies, games and computer gadgets. What else does a man need? JB Hifi is one of those places I will go just to look around and see what they have. I normally land up buying something at every visit. The prices are competitive and I haven’t seen such a big range of games or DVDs anywhere else. The staff are beyond are passionate and full of knowledge. They are happy to answer any of your questions, or find out if they don’t know.

The last thing independent record stores needed was a massive competitor like JB Hi-​Fi. Unlike other majors, such as Big W and Kmart who stocked CDs at the lowest price (thanks to their mass buying power) but only stocked a limited amount of Top 40 titles, JB Hi-​Fi has the largest range of artist and genres Perth has ever seen.
The store is fantastic, stocking the a-​z of music, whether it’s jazz, world music or top 40 JB Hi-​Fi will have it and if they don’t they will order it in. They are generally the cheapest in town, in terms of CDs and a lot of electronic goods. The staff are super knowledgeable and willing to help you find what you’re after. My brother has a rule that if a shopping centre doesn’t have a JB Hi-​Fi he won’t go there. Whether I’m after CDs, ipods or cameras JB is always my first and last port of call.

This particular JB Hi-​Fi store is one of the best in my opinion. They have a large selection in all segments — hardware, CDs, DVDs, games, camera, accessories, cables — it’s all great.
Strangely, one of the things that stand out for me in here are the security staff. I’ve noticed that security staff in the central shopping streets of Perth tend to be quite intimidating and aggressive (Supre springs to the forefront of my mind), and considering there are a lot of highly priced, but small and easily stealable products in JB Hi-​Fi, the security staff would have a reason to be menacing, but they’re not. They may look big and burly but they give you a big smile as you enter and a ‘thank you’ as you leave, all while keeping a distant and watchful eye over the shop’s proceedings. They can show the others a thing or two about getting the job done without being a total dickhead about it.
Speaking of security, obviously I would never shoplift, but technically what I do steal from JB Hi-​Fi is advice. The shop staff are always to your left or right whenever you need them, and they are highly knowledgeable about what cable works best for this, or what headphones work best for that. The trouble is the prices in JB Hi-​Fi can be pretty high, so I take the free advice and use it to buy the recommended cables or headphones (or whatever) either online or in K-​Mart. Hardened criminal, me!

I love JB Hi-​Fi, all bright yellows and bold fonts, but even I have to admit that it can be a little bit like a noxious weed. Its stores pop up everywhere: there are three in Perth’s CBD alone and, while I know I’m not an expert in these matters, I can’t for the life of me understand what purpose it serves to have them all within walking distance of one another. It would be like having an IKEA across the road from another IKEA. Which, now that I come to think about it, is precisely the sort of thing IKEA would do.
This JB Hi-​Fi is no better or worse than any other. The differences between it and its other two triplets are mostly superficial. Where the one in Perth’s Piccadilly Arcade seems to have more of a focus on hardware, this one plugs its DVDs, CDs and video games. But it still has all the accoutrements of the brand – the iPads on display, for example, which one little kid was giving a real beating when I was there – and a hair-​trigger staff that is always ready to help. I put one on the spot to help me choose the best external hard drive for travel and he seemed to really know what he was talking about. And the place is located right next to the enex100 food court, which is in its favour, too.