“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!
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…