However the Company is retaining shop front rental locations where consumers can sign up to rent appliance and home entertainment gear. These locations will also be used as part of the process for the delivery of large online purchased goods such as appliances.
Currently Radio Rentals is Australia's largest household appliance rental company, with 65 stores nationally and over 400 employees.
Key to the new venture which will be rolled out in October 2008 under a brand new name is marketing says Hughes who has recently called for submissions from advertising agencies. He also says that Gerry Harvey is wrong when he says that online retailing will not work in Australia. "If I was Gerry Harvey and I had an operation that was built on bricks and mortar and I was getting money from franchisees I would be preaching the same message. His model is an old one and is based on a 1970's way of doing business. The market is changing and we are changing with it" said Hughes.
He added "We have done a lot of research and we are convinced that our future is online. We are doing away with our stores though we are retaining rental locations. For example if a consumer wants a new refrigerator we will full fill the order online and ship it to the nearest Radio Rentals location they in turn will contact the customer to arrange delivery. In some cases we will ship product directly to them".
