“Dell plans to begin selling desktop PCs in Wal-Mart stores this weekend, the first move in a major departure from its decades-long sales strategy,” Steven Musil blogs for CNET.
“Wal-Mart plans to sell the Dimension E521 in more than 3,000 retail locations in the United States, Samir Bhavnani, research director at Current Analysis West, told CNET News.com,” Musil blogs. “‘Finally, Dell has addressed one of its main problems by giving customers a chance to touch and feel its products,’ Bhavnani said.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Scott R.” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Uh, Dell, are you sure that’s really a good idea? How is giving customers a chance to touch and feel Dell’s commodity-grade products supposed to increase sales of Dell PCs? Seems like it would do the opposite. That said, Wal-Mart and Dell seems like the perfect “left side of the bell curve” marriage. PCs sold to people who don’t know what they’re buying by people who don’t know what they’re selling. Mouthbreathers rejoice!
Crap at the Crap Shack
Old Mikey wants to stuff the channel, claim they’ve sold a ton of computers and stop the stock slide.
Little does he know, this Microsoft tactic doesn’t work.
Their store-within-a-store will be called Dell-Mart and I’m sure it will always be kept neat and tidy.
“Dell plans to begin selling desktop PCs in Wal-Mart stores…” LOL !!!
Now that’s a match made in heaven. These two are perfect for each other. Maybe you’ll even get a free Big Mac™ with your fast-food computer, too!
Enjoy the slide, Mike, Next stop, The Dollar Store.
-c
Oh wait, I almost forgot…
Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell Beleaguered Dell
I could just imagine these bins in the middle of the isles at Walmart with dells thrown in them haphazardly and people picking through them to find the “good” one.
“Now lets go to the monitor bin.”
“How is giving customers a chance to touch and feel Dell’s commodity-grade products supposed to increase sales of Dell “
Consider the audience. These are PC’s for the ‘”Anything is better than nothing as long as it’s cheap” crowd.
Unfortunately, this might actually work for Dell. People that shop at Wal-Mart want to drive home with their new PC that day, not order it online. They probably don’t know the difference between memory and disk space, so they don’t care about the kwality (with a k) that Dell provides. They care about price. So, I think that Dell will have success doing this.
I remember when Wal-Mart sold Macs. I went in there to mess around with one and found that they had taken off the mouse ball and locked it on screen saver because too many people had messed with them. I asked them why they even bothered to turn them on if people can’t play with the computer to see how it works. They didn’t have much of a response.
Dell going for the redneck crowd.
Dell is falling apart. I just replaced 10 Dells in my office (hold the comments, it’s being paid for by an insurance settlement and they won’t pay for Macs), and it took nearly 3 weeks for Dell to fill the entire order. These aren’t even unusual configurations.
If they can’t execute the build to order business model that they built the company on, they have serious problems.
A Dell for every farm.
the dell dimension e521 starts at $359 on the dell website. the average rating is 4.8 out of 5 stars. wonder if walmart will sell it for a lower price and how many options they will offer, if any.
A move done by Dell out of severe desperation. People are only now coming to realize the quality of Dell…which is crap. Dell realizes this…and to slow down its major downhill of a sales drop…they now sell their cheap computers at wal-mart….which btw, cannot get more better…nor worse.
The sad yet funny thing here is that they skipped Future Shop, BestBuy, Circuit City, The Source, and many other top COMPUTER resellers…and then went straight down to the bottom of the barrel…to Wal-Mart.
In my opinion they should open up “Dell stores”, kind of like Apple stores…that way they could garner a better reputation for quality (it would take a long time for the damage to be reversed if it ever does happen…but neverthless it will atleast improve from the current situation).
Going straight down to Wal-Mart level is just sad really….just sad.
@ChrissyOne
I think we’ve got your message now about “beleaguered Dell”. You must have posted that script a thousdand times by now.
No offence, but time to give it a rest?
I can only imagine (with great glee) the “advice” offered by Wal-Mart’s friendly staff.
“I got ’bout a million pitures of Bessy, my cow. Can I get them in this thing?”
Clerk: “Go to the kitchen stuff….they got knives there.”
As has been observed, a “Match Made in Heaven.”
@ ABQ Peter
I can’t imagine they’ll have any options. Probably one or two flavors (‘cheap’ and ‘ridiculously cheap’) and people will love them… for a couple of months.
Hey wow!!! 3 pallets of DVD players, and they’re only 30 dollars!!!
Trouble is, that DVD player will go tits up inside of 6 months, and then go into a landfill. I know a troublingly large number of people who buy cheap stuff at Wal*Mart and I hear this same story over and over. But they just keep going back for more, and the garbage keeps piling up.
We’ve dumbed consumer electronics down to disposable, bottom feeding MacDonalds level. I can only imagine cars will be next.
-c
Hey MDN, I totally agree that Dell’s doing down in flames. But how can we say that Dell’s stupid for going into Wal-Mart without also wondering about Apple’s sanity when they sold shuffles in Wal-Mart back in 2005?
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/4858/
@ Macaday
Consider it rested.
@chrissyOne
Cars are in fact next. Chrysler just signed a deal to import Chinese made compact cars that will sell for less than $10,000. Coming soon to a Wal Mart parking lot near you.
The only good thing is that cars are 95% recycled when they are junked.
Wal-Mart is an evil evil evil evil corporation — check out the movie “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price”:
http://www.walmartmovie.com
The dental school where I work is seriously considering going to Macbook/MBPs for the student laptops within a year or two. (All students are required to have laptops and currently those are Dell D820s.) Sure there will be a few transition pains, but they have some good guys at IT, and since a number of the departments already use Macs as well as IT, it will be less painless than someone with no familiarity whatsoever. They’re just getting sick of all the shit from Dell. Of course they would probably have Boot Camp installed and XP if they can get it but once they start going to Macs, then they will be a force for getting more dental software development for Macintoshes. Truthfully though, most of my last few dentists and both orthodontists I’m familiar with in my area are Macheads. With that note, maybe Apple taking Dell’s buggered #2 spot isn’t so impossible, without the whole buggered part. Wonder how their respective market values compare now.
Actually, I was in a GROCERY STORE here in Des Moines, Iowa, and they are selling Dell Laptops now. I’m sure its a short term thing, but good lord, they’re trying everything.
@MacBill
That is among the many reasons why I never shop at Wal-Mart. They are very pathetic corporation the worst perhaps next to Monsanto.
Quoted from Jason:
But how can we say that Dell’s stupid for going into Wal-Mart without also wondering about Apple’s sanity when they sold shuffles in Wal-Mart back in 2005?
There is a HUGE difference here. Apple was selling their most CHEAPAST iPod, and it is the ONLY product that is sold at Wal-Mart, by Apple. Selling a full blown computer on the other hand is a completely different story…and more or less is considered as corporate suicide to sell it at wal-mart….whose experience with computers is extremely poor if not next to nothing. Apple never and still would NEVER sell Macs at a cheap store which sells clothes, foods, and laundry aplicances. That would be like trying to sell the latest and brand new un-used Mercedes in a used Ford re-seller. Get where I’m going at? lol.
Yay! More Wal•Mart customer bashing!
Are you telling me that not EVERYONE can afford to host a website with 50-60 ads perpage to generate revenue on inflammatory “mac news” stories?
“”Target’s clearly outperforming its discount peers and most notably Wal-Mart,” said Jeff Klinefelter, an analyst at Piper Jaffray Cos. in Minneapolis. Target’s customers are more affluent than Wal-Mart’s, helping sales and profit, he said.”
More affluent and don’t own rusty old pickups. Maybe Dull should have opted for Target!
Good point PM – but you do have to admit, it didn’t just stop at the Shuffle. Wal-Mart’s got quite the collection of iPods these days.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=533353
Is M$ lawsuite threat against Linux users a response to the news of Dull installing Ubantu on new PC’s.
Okay, so Dell, whose profit margins are already near nothing (in it’s attempt to stay competitive), sells tens-of-thousands of dull boxes to Walmart, who is notoriously known to buy huge amounts of product(s) from it’s suppliers, then force them to lower their prices before they take delivery… Sad? Sad for Dell shareholders for sure! But since I’m not one, I say go for it Mikey! Keep making decisions like this so we can continue to watch your ship sink. http://walmartwatch.com/issues/
@PM
Dell already tried opening up “Dell Stores.” They flopped. That’s why everyone thought the same thing would happen when Apple opened up their first few stores.
@ron
You make it sound like it’s a bad thing to be a farmer. You must be a city person, ignorant and arrogant. Deride farmers all you want, but remember, the next time you eat fruits or vegetables, where it comes from. Or do you think the food just magically appears and doens’t take hundreds of hours of tedious work to grow?
Letter To Dell:
Dear Dell,
Please Die, and hurry up.
Love,
Mr. Peabody
Quated from MrMcLargeHuge
“
Dell already tried opening up “Dell Stores.” They flopped. That’s why everyone thought the same thing would happen when Apple opened up their first few stores.”
Really? I never knew that. I heard they were going to start stores right now…but then it turned out to be this selling at Wal-Mart issue. The thing is, Dell opened up the stores long, long time ago, but now, since they now own Alienware, as well as have high end gaming systems (not worth the price btw)…more consumers might actually want to come to the stores. Know what I’m saying? I think they would have a larger opoortunity this time around because of larger product families, where before….they had nothing, it was lame typical PC boxes…nothing more. Just my thought though.
@ MrMcLargeHuge,
You need to expand your vision, it was a pun.
Ever heard of the Farmer in the Dell?
“Dell already tried opening up “Dell Stores.” They flopped.”
Gateway tried it as well… flop.
@PM
You’re right, it might work better nowadays then it did at the time. But who knows? I personally think the only reason the Apple Stores thrive is because of the Apple culture of dedicated customers, not to mention that their store designs just ooze “cool.” No PC companies can emulate the culture aspect, although I’d be interested to see what store designs they could come up with. And yes, I’ve heard the Farmer in the Dell, it just flew over my head. It’s actually a very good pun indeed.
nobody squeezes your margins like walmart. dell’s margins are already tight as hell because they make commodities. wal mart is notorious for squeezing its suppliers dry, so i cant imagine dell is going to be making a ton of money on the wal mart sales.
Or do you think the food just magically appears and doens’t take hundreds of hours of tedious work to grow?
By slave labor from Mexico, legal and otherwise, just like Wall-Mart’s.
Apple stores work because…
1. The design invites you into the store
2. There is no better place to check out Macs
3. Macheads like me, often have no other place to check out Mac stuff.
4. Their location in high rent shopping malls exposes Macs to an entirely new crowd that will not ever see a Mac in Best Buy or Walmart
5. Anyone can actually work on a real project in an Apple store. (Try that at Walmart!)
6. Everyone wants an iPod or has a family member who wants an iPod
Why go into a Gateway or Dell store to look at the same crappy computer you have at work or school? You can watch how a PC (Dell or otherwise) “works” just about anywhere thanks to their 90% marketshare. Macs didn’t have that luxury.
@MrMcLargeHuge
A good friend called Tuesday and told me he was switching to Mac! I figured he would order online and have someone bring down to him (we live in mexico) in the next few weeks.
He told me , he was waiting until late July, when him and is family goes to Florida for a visit, the reason being, he wants to experience buying at an Apple store!
I bet K-Mart turned down Dell for having too low of quality for their stores! Seriously, how can Dell selling systems help their image when trying to get into selling more profitable systems? This will only cheapen their name.
Any bets on how quickly we see a price rollback on the dell systems in Wal-Mart?
I find it funny that when Apple starts selling products at Best Buy the members of this forum get upset like its some sort of personal attack on their image. When Dell starts selling products at Walmart the members of this forum are smug.
Well, WalMart already sells Compaq’s, HP’s, and Acer’s for $400. Add Dell at $400 into the mix and what (statistically) happens is:
1. The WalMart buyers market does not increase jsut because Dell enters.
2. Dell sales at WalMart rise from 0 to 25% of the current WalMart sales total.
3. The other 3 decline from 33% to 25% of their current sales.
If margins are so small on comodity boxes and WalMart does their usual ‘screw the vendor,’ I can’t see Dell making any significant income from this arrangement.
The most interesting figure is the number of cpus that WalMart sells – anyone know it? Not to mention the demographics of WalMart computer buyers…
I buy a lot of Dells for our business and I can tell you first hand the Dell experience is sinking like a rock. Gee, I am sure selling Dell at Wal-mart will improve that experience with all the knowledgeable help you will receive. Give me a break Michael Dell.
Odd, last time I was at Super Wal Mart they were selling shuffles, nanos, and 30GB video iPods. Sittin’ there right next to the Zune display.
I think y’all are missing the point, so let me state the obvious.
AN IPOD IS NOT A WHOLE COMPUTER.
You can’t compare Dell selling entire systems in Wal-Mart to Apple selling iPods in Wal-Mart. It’s the old “apples and oranges” problem. Why is it that hard to understand that these things are not even remotely similar? Maybe the mouthbreathers are the ones who can’t tell apart radically different things?
Quote: “AN IPOD IS NOT A WHOLE COMPUTER. “
Ah, but a souped up iPod costs just about as much as a POS Dell at Wal-mart will.
Ahh… just one more reason I won’t need to go to Walmart.
As if I really needed one more.
I find it funny that when Apple starts selling products at Best Buy the members of this forum get upset like its some sort of personal attack on their image. When Dell starts selling products at Walmart the members of this forum are smug.
*Psst* …I’ll give you a hint… you’re at a Mac news site…
Perfect! Walmart is exactly where Dell pc’s belong. On the Sale rack!
The only time I go to Wal-Mart is when I need to buy toilet paper.
So this means that Wal-Mart is going to start selling poo, too?
Hey, what’s up with the mouth breather comments? I sleep thorough my mouth when I sleep. So what’s the big deal?
Ah, yet another reason to never, ever, set foot in a Wal-Mart- happily avoided.
“Hey, what’s up with the mouth breather comments? I sleep thorough my mouth when I sleep. So what’s the big deal?”
I think it might be affecting your sentence structure.
-c
Comment from: PM
Quoted from Jason:
But how can we say that Dell’s stupid for going into Wal-Mart without also wondering about Apple’s sanity when they sold shuffles in Wal-Mart back in 2005?
There is a HUGE difference here. Apple was selling their most CHEAPAST iPod, and it is the ONLY product that is sold at Wal-Mart, by Apple. Selling a full blown computer on the other hand is a completely different story…and more or less is considered as corporate suicide to sell it at wal-mart….whose experience with computers is extremely poor if not next to nothing. Apple never and still would NEVER sell Macs at a cheap store which sells clothes, foods, and laundry aplicances. That would be like trying to sell the latest and brand new un-used Mercedes in a used Ford re-seller. Get where I’m going at? lol.
May 24, 07 – 10:53 am
PM – I don’t know what your Wal-Mart has, but of all the ones I’ve been to in the Nebraska/Iowa area, they carry ALL of the iPods and a large number of accessories for them too
MDN Magic Word: college – “Yes, I have a college degree, but hell if I know what it did for me!” LOL
So let me get this straight. I can buy Lender’s whole wheat bagels for .99 at Wal-mart or I could go to a regular grocery store and buy them for 1.50. hmmm…let me see. The exact same product but cheaper. So it’s somehow wrong or I guess not fashionable to shop at a store with lower prices. If you want to throw away extra money go right ahead. And you can even make fun of me for trying not to spend so much. That’s fine.
It is, however, disconcerting to see so much smugness and arrogance spewn out by the majority of posters on this site. My hope is that these are just the vocal few and that the reasonable Mac users are just choosing not to respond.
I’m not arguing the morality of Wal-mart, just the theme of these comments that suggest shopping at Wal-mart regularly makes you trash and somehow sub-human. That idea is disgusting and certainly below anyone with the superior intelligence that Mac users are purported to have.
Obviously I’m in the minority here so suffice it to say I’m not popular. However, I have been a Mac user since 2001 and will never go back. So if you flame me, try to remember I’m in the family.
Wal-Mart’s in Tucson and Las Vegas sell all variety’s of iPod, Except the red’s.
Smart people should always know before they blow…. and that includes anything you put in your mouth.
I skimmed two pages of posts thinking someone would have noticed what I did–apparently not. At Sam’s Club tonight, displayed prominently as you enter the store is a huge display of Apple TV. So, take that, Dell!
As for the morality of WallMart, I believe liberty is fertile ground for morality, which includes the freedom to do wrong. However, bringing together willing sellers and willing buyers is good for both. I don’t like shopping at WallMart, because I don’t like their selection of products or their lowlife employees. But a lot of people like both, and I respect their choice. Isn’t it elitist to try make people shot where you think they should shop? And buy what you think they need?
Wal-Mart will make things worse for Dell
Apple was once “beleaguered”….
“Crap at the Crap Shack”
“Maybe you’ll even get a free Big Mac™ with your fast-food computer, too!”
“Dell going for the redneck crowd.”
“A move done by Dell out of severe desperation.”
“I say go for it Mikey! Keep making decisions like this”
“This will only cheapen their name.”
“Walmart is exactly where Dell pc’s belong.”
“So this means that Wal-Mart is going to start selling poo, too?”
What a bunch of Dumbasses. Dell is following Apple again, iPods have been available in Wal-Mart for a long time.
So it’s a good idea of Steve’s for Apple to sell in Wal-Mart, but it will cheapen the Dell brand for them to?
What are you trying to say?
Perhaps you are trying to say that you are stupid so will criticise anything that Dell does, even if Apple does exactly the same thing.
Alternatively perhaps you are trying to say that Dell is better regarded than Apple so it’s a negative for Dell to be associated with Wal-Mart, but not a negative for Apple to be.
How is giving customers a chance to touch and feel Dell’s commodity-grade products supposed to increase sales of Dell PCs?
About as much as putting Dell under the same roof as diapers and dog food.
Wal-Mart is the ultimate commoditzer, they’re gonna eat Dell alive.
Meanwhile, the Apple Stores rock on…
“About as much as putting Dell under the same roof as diapers and dog food.”
That’d be Diapers, Dogfood and iPods…
Wow 2 pages of comments and no one said to Mr Dell… “I think its time to close up the company and return the money to the shareholders…”
Yah I’m the first!
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