<![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image - Gizmodo Comments]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image - Gizmodo Comments]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> Was always too expensive.

GothicAngel

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> As a longtime employee of Sharper Image, I am completely saddened by the downward spiral the company has taken the past three years. My sympathies are with the hundreds and hundreds of dedicated employees that will lose their jobs within the next six to eight weeks. Realistically however, many of us had seen the writing on the wall for several years, even during the company's peak profit periods between 2000 - 2003. We imported thousands of cheaply made, low quality products from China, marked them up anywhere from two, up to five or six hundred percent and made a shameless profit from honest consumers who trusted our name brand and didn't know any better. The Ionic Breeze line has had questionable effectiveness and safety issues, and blatant misrepresentation from the company for years. For three years we prominently featured a "testimonial" book at the "front-main" display of the store that contained letters from so-called happy "customers" touting the praises of the Ionic Breeze product line. I always questioned the validity of these "letters" only because the terminology and writing styles used fit too perfectly into the company's business agenda and sounded more like advertisements written by the marketing department. I am surprised no government or consumer entity has looked into this to investigate the authenticity of these so-called letters. Additionaly, I further began to question the integrity of the company when a 2005 catalog issue had several pictures of people on the cover, mostly stock photos, of happy, shiney people with a headline that implied how all of America loved the Ionic Breeze air cleaners. What was really disturbing is that one of the pictures feautured was that of a physician. But this was no physician; it was the head of the company's Visual Presentation department posing as a doctor on the front cover. I was completely disgusted. Whether this tactic was illegal or not was not my primary concern at the time. However, what I began to realize was that this company posessed unscrupulous business practices in order to make as much profit as possible at the expense of the consumer's trust. During the company's heyday, there was a tremendous amount of arrogancy and mismanagement at the upper and middle management levels. Concerns and input from the lower ranks, the people on the front lines and out in the field, were not taken seriously or they were either completely ignored. Many considered Mr. Thalheimer as a sometimes kind, yet boozy and out of touch control freak. He was notorious for insulating himself with a bunch of "yes men" within the company and was unreceptive or simply ill-equipped to alter the business structure in accordance with the changing retail climate.
So now, four CEOs later, the dedicated employees that remain, or that are foolish enough to hang around, are left holding the bag and trying, in
vain, to pick up the pieces. The plight of the
Sharper Image is a valuable lesson in how horrendous mismanagement and the insatiable quest for profit can destroy a corporation.
One could also call it karma.





surfasclub

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> Where am I going to get my next Ionic Breeze Air Purifier ... I live with pig people; hence my unrelenting need to have access to those purifiers, they work very well in our dumpster.

Janette Smith

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> They have good umbrellas. The two largest ones, anyway. Slate thought so, and so did I till I lost mine.

Otherwise, all crap.

OliverTwist

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> The SI story is really about intermediation.

G readers make (sometimes scarily) personal choices about toys they buy, reading and obsessing and getting to be prosumers before they choose a $3 HDMI cable.

Rest of the world - the millions in cream Camrys - focus elsewhere, whether it's their job, their life or their wife. They still want cool stuff, but they rely on third parties to narrow the field, willing to pay the price for a store or site to save them getting to be an expert at everything. SI lost sight of its role.

When a customer trusts a reseller and pays a premium to be sure they're getting the right stuff, that bargain better be kept. SI did the job, back when, with a narrow line of innovative, quality products.

Growth killed the goose. There weren't enough relevant SKUs to support public company-style expansion. The more they broadened their line, the less SI served their customer. By the time private-label LED junk was on the shelf, the company was already dead.

Irony is, there's still a niche. Whoever figures out a modern version of the formula that made SI succeed will kill... 'cause we ain't all Giz geeks.

HKLV

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> A suede briefcase case?

A bathroom scale from a Soviet sub?

strider_mt2k

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> bwaaah, i want all my gadgets covered in fake burlwood.

Pixlmonkey

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> I worked at the Sharper Image for about a year. A commenter earlier mentioned the apathy the sales associates had. It wasn't always that way. Pre-2006 sales associates were paid a commission on their sales and a good one too. That motivated them to help the customers and give Sharper Image the "edge" over other retailers. After the beginning of 2006, the commission program was scrapped and all motivation to help customers was lost. That and it's hard to sell crap.

The only good thing about the Sharper Image was their Replacement Guarantee Program. It allowed you to buy something and then 2-3 years later, bring it in (broken or not) and get it replaced for a brand new one. I plan on bringing in my Casio Exlim camera and trading it for a brand new, higher mega pixel with more features version in the next month. Hopefully they will still honor it. I feel bad for all the people that had gift cards that are now worthless.

Dcartguy

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> @halfro: Skymall! Lol, yea I flip through that mag as well. I bought maybe one thing from Sharper Image (online) in the clearance section a while ago.

Gadgetgirl

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> Wow, a milestone. The Internet killed SI as surely as the auto industry killed blacksmiths. Prior to the Internet, SI was where you went to see cutting edge products, there were few alternatives. You never bought anything, as they were too expensive, but you learned about new technology. With the Internet came the flood of information, and competition, and UPS delivering that latest gadget at a price you could compare with ten other vendors. There was no need to even enter a SI store anymore.

A sea change confirmation, overdue, but noted.

Ralph48

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> I dare somebody to poop in one of those vibrating chairs!

jetexas

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> @szrimaging: Excuse me if I was already beat to this but I do beleive that Kmart did not buy Sears nor did Sears buy Kmart. They simply just merged together to form the Sears Holdings Company. I was just hired on with Sears and this is what we were told during our orientation.

And to stay on topic, I agree with the rest of the comments. Sharper Image is a fun place to look...and thats about it.

KingChris

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> Just an FYI for fellow ppl with sharper image gift cards. I just got back from Brookstone and they will accept any giftcard, even if it only has a buck left on it (I had an OLD one in my wallet from a few years ago). For all I know, they may accept blank ones. 25% off for a buck is nice, although it will probably only bring that item down to it's actual cost lol.

gizak

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> @ecobore: Wait, you've had sex?!!!

Tell us what it was like ...

jetexas

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> aregeuro-
go NEWEGG dude. I feel your pain.

Sharper Image was a great place to browse, once and awhile. They also struck me as the high-end version of DAK catalogs... At least their stuff was priced okay.

radio1

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> Sharper Image is a store who's time has been and gone. It was a wonderful source for gadgets before we all went online. Now we can salve that itch with giz and others. Possibly the future is for a store that charges an entry fee to play with lots of gadgets inside (refundable if you make a purchase...) That is probably the only thing that will get us gizheads away from our computers - well that and sex!!!

ecobore

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> @thegadgeteer: She did get a full refund for it.

@infmom: The one I used to browse around in on the South Street Seaport had similarly stand-offish personnel. It was like heaven.

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> Without Sharper Image or Brookstone, garage sales would be much less interesting. Thank God for Consumer Reports for exposing the ozone-generating Ionic Breeze dust collector. After that report came out, they quickly offered a snap-on retrofit to convert the ozone, and had the nerve to sell it as an "improvement". We talked them into giving them to us for free, but quickly got rid of the units. I understand the Ionic Breeze was their cash cow, and when that tanked, they became history. It was amusing to see all the weird junk they tried to replace it with.

mashie

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> @Kaiser-Machead:

Wow, I thought they were bad simply because they were overpriced dust collectors. (they also gave the impression that the device could improve health, Pshaw!)
I had no clue the output was making people sick too!

Did they give your friend a refund? Those were pretty easy to get while I was there.


thegadgeteer

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> @enine: Probably because the salespeople stood around talking by the counter and never bothered to ask anyone if they needed help.

That's why we quit shopping at SI years ago.

infmom

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> I can't even figure out how they've stayed in business for so long. Except maybe from the stink of desperate shoppers during the holidays. I mean, that's a sign of complete surrender--just f*cking buy some POS at the Sharper Image. No effort seems too great for their buyers to find the crappiest, most useless junk to fill the stores. Even at Brookstone, I can at least try to semi-envision some remotely possible circumstance where I just might be able to derive some very minimal use from one of their items.

xtol7

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> @MBPro:

Our store was always full, plenty of people were coming in to play with the stuff there. The check out line was what was always empty.

enine

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> I used to love Sharper Image. In 1987.

Camperton

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> @DeeJayQueue: "About the only cool thing Sharper Image has going for it are the scale model cars."

Most of their stock has been cheaper Maistos and some assorted Mattels. Maistos are good, but they're not worth the $30+ that they charge for them when I can get them for $17-20 on ebay, including the better examples. They stopped carrying UT models years ago when the line discontinued, and not once did they ever have a Kyosho, Autoart or Minichamps model. It's all been the same stuff one can find in a Sam's Club, but for a lot more money.

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> I think brand awareness is a big factor that contributed to the death of Sharper Image. People with the money to buy expensive trinkets want to buy expensive trinkets with high-end names emblazoned on them. They want F.A. Porsche toasters, Coach Bags, Polk Speakers, Apple Computers, BMW Cars, Louis Vuitton Luggage, All Clad cookware, etc. In malls across the country over the last decade or so those high-end stores have been popping up like weeds in the spots where the Gap and Wilson's Leather used to be. Since it's just as easy to go to the Cross store to buy a "real" pen, why would you spend the same money on a "sharper image" pen that's made from plastic and crammed with LEDs? Who needs a battery-powered spinning tie rack when you can go to Restoration Hardware and get a handsome Brass one that will match your house?

People want high-brand or one-of-a-kind stuff (or at least the illusions thereto) and Sharper Image just wasn't selling it. The charm and wow-factor of portable DVD players wore off when Best Buy started carrying them, and it's gone now that Wal-Mart has them, yet Sharper Image carries the same models they've always had, for the same prices while everyone else is eating their lunch.

About the only cool thing Sharper Image has going for it are the scale model cars. I love those and they have makes that are tough/impossible to find anywhere else. Otherwise they can all catch fire.

DeeJayQueue

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> Sharper Image = cool stuff that cost too much.

Ssscorpion

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> @wizardofpants: Probably because they were really f'in expensive.

Xavoc

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> Thalheimer was the problem. He was basking in his money and letting no-clue marketeers choose the garbage to peddle. Over-priced, crappy stuff and Thalheimer made out pretty good in the end though they took back a little of his golden parachute.

dr_when

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> I never liked that you had to be a certain age to go in there. That and I couldn't eff with the predator and terminator displays they had in the window. Jerkfaces.

wizardofpants

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> Too many $200.00 Cross Pens and stupid electric shavers and too little real gadgets.

The real question is when is a Fry's like store ever coming to Massachusetts? I miss CompUSA. Microcenter could at least open a store in southern MA. It's like an hour commute for me to get to my nearest Microcenter which is located in the People's Republic of Cambridge.

apeguero

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> I predict there will be more As Seen On TV stores than Starbucks!

tobedetermined

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> i'm surprised they are going out of business. i'm sure their markup on a shower shaving mirror that plays MP3 and tells you the weather has like a 120% markup or something. but then again, who owns one of those?

chopstickhero

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> Yet I still keep on getting Sharper Image Promotional emails to apply for their credit card and purchase "on sale" items, maybe they should change it from "on sale" to "liquidation".......

fusedinertia

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> I'm glad they are gone, and thanks to the Ionic breeze. Maybe it will serve as a lesson to people who want to make ridiculously deceptive claims about products that don't do anything.

catbutt

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> @Kaiser-Machead: Let me guess, she put it in a room that was poorly ventilated to begin with...

If I locked that sucker in a room for a day on med or high I could definitely feel it causing issues with my breathing when I'd enter the room.

Typically I would put it on high until I came home, then ventilate the room, and set it for low.

Xavoc

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> Image is nothing, thirst is everything

sprite killed sharper image

Sue!!!

Hypenotist

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> @thegadgeteer: A friend of mine had serious problems with breathing after buying one of those stupid ionic things. Turns out she had a nasty reaction to the ozone it puts out.

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> The quality of most of the affordable things they sold was horrible and the things they sold that were worth a damn were the kind of things others like Hammacher-Schlemmer and such sold.

I dont think rich people hang out at malls.

archercc

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> @enine: You do realize that Kmart bought Sears, right? And taht if they haven't already, they are most likely buying Macys. The company Sears Holdings was formed from Sears and Kmart Holdings. The Kmart brand name, they felt, didn't hold as much weight as the Sears name, so when Kmart bought them, they went with the Sears name. Sears Holding is, I believe, the second largest retailer in the US. But that does need a fact check.

szrimaging

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> I was in Sharper Image store in the high end mall here in Las Vegas on Monday,while waiting for my appointment at the Apple Genius Bar:) Their electronics stuff, like ipod docks and CD players were on sale 10% off, which made them only 20% higher than, say, Circuit City or the others and 40% higher than online retailers. All of the GPS units were overpriced and the one functioning massage chair had a rip in the seat cover. No wonder they're filing!

MeMikeYouNot

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> Working at Sharper Image for a summer taught me some valuable lesson's about business. As an employee I used to ask myself, why would anyone buy this stuff? The store tries to impress upon its customers that they have an image to uphold and being able to afford luxuries at 1.5 to 2 times their actual value makes one appear to be well heeled and part of the jet set. Employees were also iinstructed to make the customers feel as such. Think about the SI uniform (black polo or dress shirt with black slacks. Now that I think about it it was very 'Jobsish'.

The killer was in the actual devices. Damages or open box items often met the end of a screwdriver when business was slow. There was not much engineering or design that went into any of this stuff. It was the same quality as what you get from Big Lots or in the clearance aisle at WalMart.

The most important lesson I learned is that people will buy anything if you spin it right. Anything. Including an ionic dust collector.

thegadgeteer

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> Another cataloger that fell to global competition due to the internet. For many years before the advent of the internet, they were able to scour the world for unique gadget and charge a premium for it since the average consumer didn't have access to those gadgets. Now, with the internet, retail has become global and highly price competitive. Their margins dwindled below that of other sellers worldwide that don't have large overhead.

Noobs-R-Us

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> So according to the Washington Post, The Giz killed The Sharper Image :0

frigg

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> I think the biggest detriment to their business model is that the majority of the products they sell are utter crap. My secretary bought her daughter some never-heard-of brand MP3 there -- it didn't work. My brother bought a remote control helicopter there -- it didn't work. Most of the stuff you see on display at the mall is broken. Their air purifiers didn't actually purify air. Sure, they had a few high-end name-brand products stocked along with all the crap, but those products were far too overpriced for anyone to buy them from Sharper Image.

All that being said, I still have to wonder how much business they did through SkyMall catalogs. Are there enough suckers with disposable income on airplanes to make that partnership worthwhile or were they losing money there too?

jetexas

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> You did identify part of this as a quote from the Post, and yes, you link to the original article, but nearly 90% of what is written here, quoted or not, is lifted directly from the Washington Post.

There's a fine line between citiation and plagarism.

permissionmag

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> My family bought a massage chair from BS and I'll tell you it's a lot better than the crap at Sharper Image.

I knew they were going to go out of business. A long time ago. Crap products, no new product line, store was always empty... And they always had 3-5 employees who did nothing in the store. They didn't ask people if they needed help or anything. They just stood together in a group laughing and talking.

I'm not surprised at all.

MBPro

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> @Kaiser-Machead: I'm not sure? Basically it's a pair of tongs that tell you the internal temp of your meat. So if you're using an unfamiliar grill, or cooking something new you can tell if you're under/overcooking it for your tastes...

I didn't use them all of the time, but if I was grilling a roast (yes, I said grill a roast) it was useful.

Xavoc

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> maybe the $5k spiderman and $10k superman statues that my son drools over will get discounted....

iPhoneGroupie

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> Man, I do so love those massage chairs. Plus, you could play with the Force FX Lightsabers too.

Szin

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> ooops, i meant douche in the most respectful way...

killthebabysitter

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> @Xavoc: Is that sort of like those buffet probes that Wholefoods uses?

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> @killthebabysitter: Hey, I loved my meat thermometer tongs!

Xavoc

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> when i think of sharper image i think the meat tongs w/ built in thermometer and how my friends and i laughed at what kinda douche would spend $60 on it. and how many ways can you re-invite the vibrator? good riddance.

killthebabysitter

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> Sharper image fell behind when the internet exploded, why should I overpay for hi-tech at a brick and mortar when I can order it online?

toyotaboy

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> If video killed the radio star, internet commerce killed the catalog/brick and mortar star.

Samifumi

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> It failed to make people's images sharper. Next.

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> People are thinking too deeply into this. Enine hit it right on the head. +1

sgodun

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> SI seems to have followed the rule of software development. All programs will continue to evolve until they are able to read e-mail. If a program is not able to read e-mail it will eventually be replaced by a similar program that can.

Only, replace program with object, and read e-mail with attach an iPod...

Xavoc

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> Always enjoyed going into a Sharper Image store, but never purchased anything. Ever.
It's like those magazines on flights with the random crap. Fun to look at, but you never buy anything.

kyledwards

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> @Princess Sparkle Pony:

For all practicle purposes K mart is out of business, when is the last time anyone shopped there?

Sharper Image is hurting because they sall one or two speciality products at a crazy price that are not really useful to anyone and the rest of that they sell is the same stuff everyone sells for a cheaper price.

enine

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> @Princess Sparkle Pony: Hence the only closing 1/2 their stores.

You must admit, however, that it is not a good thing?

92BuickLeSabre

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> @Princess Sparkle Pony: True, Kmart did and they are still around.

RE-L

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> You realize that Chapter 11 means that they're not necessarily going out of business, right? Heck, K-Mart went through Chapter 11 a few years ago.

Princess Sparkle Pony

]]> <![CDATA[What Went Wrong With Sharper Image]]> ahhhh the old Walnut St. Sharper image.....

thechansen

]]>