TESCO and Macs in UK Education

[mpw]

Been a while since I was last in school but our local education authority never used Apple back then and as far as I can tell isn’t using them now.

It’s nice to see Apple’s eMac getting lots of prime-time TV exposure in the latest TESCO computers for schools adverts. (TESCO is the largest supermarket chain in the UK and they’re promoting a loyalty program which pays for school IT gear through coupons etc).

While the exposure is I guess good for Apple if people recognise the eMac at all does anybody go to school in the UK where Apple’s are used?

Does it seem like a good deal 1 free eMac with every £265,100.00 of shopping?

Are TESCO trying out Steve’s ‘halo’ effect?

[brap]

Originally Posted by mpw

Does it seem like a good deal 1 free eMac with every £265,100.00 of shopping?

Hey man, back in the day it was the Acorn A3010... with the green keys, and the decals on top. Sweeeeet.

Anyway, I seem to remember the Sainsburys I worked at took well over £1m/week at prime time (Read: before xmas). So, realistically that could mean 2 eMacs per store per week, since not everyone uses these coupon thingies. Kinda cool, huh.

[asif786]

Originally Posted by mpw

While the exposure is I guess good for Apple if people recognise the eMac at all does anybody go to school in the UK where Apple’s are used?

I used to go a school with all macs - in fact, it's why I got a mac in the first place

But then again, that was a private school - I dont think I've ever seen a state school that uses macs (though i've seen plenty of private schools + colleges that use them).

It's a shame really. They're ideal for school situations.

[ShaunPriest]

My school (not private - it's state) my school has three computing class rooms. Each has 20 G3 iMacs (i.e. 60 G3 iMacs plus the teachers have iBooks for home and iMacs for their desk).

The head of the departments class today received 20, brand new Apple eMacs for her class.

Most people in my class HATE iMacs because the computers always crash (it's OS 9). I keep trying to persuede them that Macs are better than PCs but they don't believe me - just wait until the new eMacs are set up with Panther!

The Administration department has also got three class rooms. Two out of these three have 20 G3 iMacs each also (i.e. 40 total), and one of the classes has 20 Dell's.

So what's that - over 100 Macs at my school? Also, many classes have old Macs, like Performa's etc.

Oh and one of my old computing classes a few years back used to have an all in one Mac thing (a beige colour, but the teacher had a single black one), think it's some type of performa - anyway - as I said above these are now G3 iMacs. Hopefully in the future the other 2 computing class rooms and other 2 admin class rooms will be further upgraded to eMacs.

[edesignuk]

Originally Posted by mpw

Does it seem like a good deal 1 free eMac with every £265,100.00 of shopping?

Considering they don't HAVE to do anything, yes, it is good. Also the amount of money spent by consumers at Tescos is obscene. £265k might sound a lot, but really it's not, I think you'd be amazed how many eMacs this results in.

[thomasp]

Originally Posted by brap

Hey man, back in the day it was the Acorn A3010... with the green keys, and the decals on top. Sweeeeet.

I had one of those as my first computer - great little thing 1Mb of RAM cost as much as a couple of Gb does now


My school is collecting Tesco's Computers for Schools vouchers - the only problem is that we have a completely RM-based network (Research Machines - they seem to have monopolised the school computer network industry), which has got quite a few computers from Tesco running on it. It'd be interesting to see our technicians try to get an eMac up and running, seeing as most of the people (staff and students) at the school think a mac is something you wear when it's raining.

It's a shame I'd have left (off to uni!) before Tesco finish the promotion - it'd be interesting to see what the school would do with 3 eMacs. That is, if Tesco's actually give eMacs out, and not RM computers

[mpw]

Originally Posted by edesignuk

Considering they don't HAVE to do anything, yes, it is good. Also the amount of money spent by consumers at Tescos is obscene. £265k might sound a lot, but really it's not, I think you'd be amazed how many eMacs this results in.

Just did the sums. Assuming everyone collects the coupons and gives them to schools and nobody buys anything that is excluded from the offer and no transaction is for less than £10 or not an exact multiple of £10 then it could conceivable cost TESCO 24,707 eMacs. 1 eMac for every £16,471.77 in profit.

[stevep]

We have a large network at our school - spread over 2 seperate sites, with 7 computer rooms plus an admin machine in every teaching room, total about 400 machines. All of these are pc's running Win 98 or XP.
The art and media depts have macs, mostly G3s and G4s running OS X, total about 25, but they aren't linked to the network.
Some of us teaching staff have macs (iBooks are popular) but I think I'm the only one who's linked up to the network - it took me about 3 minutes, including plugging in the ethernet cable.
Our tech guys are actually very knowledgeable and helpful - interested in all things IT, including macs. Apart from their unfamiliarity with OS X (understandable) they have helped many of us mac owners over the years, and have often commented on how easy it is for them to find their way round a mac. Its probably more easy for a Windows techie to sort out a mac than vice-versa.
If we had to buy all our IT stuff with Tesco vouchers I think we'd be stuffed (in every sense of the word). I don't think Tesco are really hurting them selves with this promotion (thinks.....what is £500 divided by £265k as a percentage???)

[virividox]

finally tesco carrying quality products

[wowser]

Yeah, I saw the ad, but my vouchers have got the 'RM' logo on them. Do schools choose between Apple and RM?

[Nickygoat]

Tescos sales are what? £13billion/ year? Thats a few eMacs - it's all good

[edesignuk]

Originally Posted by Nickygoat

Tescos sales are what? £13billion/ year? Thats a few eMacs - it's all good

Exactly. £13 BILLION. When that much money is passing through your tills a £265k eMac doesn't seem too bad.

edit: HOLY CRAP, last year Tesco (UK) tills processed £26.9 billion That's over 101,000 eMacs...I think

[Applespider]

Tesco take £12 of every £100 spent in the UK - stat from my company's Finance Director trying to explain why our financial objectives aren't way out.

While seeing eMacs on TV is cool, I'm not a big Tesco fan. Their treatment of suppliers isn't great and I'd rather they promoted the concept of paying fair money for good quality food rather than cheapness for who knows what.

[mpw]

Originally Posted by edesignuk

Exactly. £13 BILLION. When that much money is passing through your tills a £265k eMac doesn't seem too bad.

edit: HOLY CRAP, last year Tesco (UK) tills processed £26.9 billion That's over 101,000 eMacs...I think

£26.9 Billion a year but the offers only on for 10weeks, about £5.8 Billion or 19,500 eMacs.

[edesignuk]

Originally Posted by mpw

£26.9 Billion a year but the offers only on for 10weeks, about £5.8 Billion or 19,500 eMacs.

Yeah, fine, but ~20,000 eMacs ain't half bad is it!

[fedora]

Originally Posted by wowser

Yeah, I saw the ad, but my vouchers have got the 'RM' logo on them. Do schools choose between Apple and RM?

No, RM supply the macs with their "community connect" thingy on them.

[Nickygoat]

At least the computers for schools promotion is better than Cadburys ill fated buy chocolate for sports equipment fiasco

[raggedjimmi]

every school i've been to use macs. my secondary school's (Saddleworth High School) entire network was a huge collection of mac rooms. i really didn't like them back then but i think they were iMac G3's. must be!

college; iMac G3+G4's... and a single eMac
university; iMac G5's, powermac G5's, powerbooks... ibooks...

quite PC free

nice to see Tesco still running the scheme though. at least they're trying unlike Aldi, Sainsburys etc...

[gangst]

i go to private school in the uk and it is the most maac unfriendly environment in the world.of the top of my head i can count 7 computer rooms each with 25 pcs, plus they have these really rubbish laptop staations with 16 laptops in each, all pentium 3 Acers. All the teachers get laptops to, so there must be at least 600 pcs and no macs, the network wont even connect macs, as the web proxy seems only to be direct to pcs and admin dont care about macs, as far as they are concerned macs dont matter!!

[albanwr]

Worringly I work for a county LEA.

We are just starting to see some Macs in schools, ( Mainly due to myself ) most school staff are so IT illiterate that they think Macs are based on Acorn OS!
( Rather than ~Unix .....)


This is a problem I am slowly overcoming, the has enabled 9 schools to purchase eMacs and iMacs; mostly for media in the beginning but slowly taking over the classroom.
Thanks to companies like promethean and smart who dutifully release software for their interactive whiteboards for Mac, means that they can be used more and more in the classroom. A eMac is a really cheap alternative to a Laptop or PC to 'drive' an interactive whiteboard.

The tragic thing is that most schools will see a RM window box ( A rubbish educational pc ), and think that is the way forward. The schools need an education.

A major problem in most school setups is that the people at the top of the LEA, the ICT Trainers and the Managers of the LEA, see Macs in a very negative light dispelling all good points with untrue cold statements like:

Macs are incompatible, don't run any of the existing software, they don't like networks etc etc....
This is my next project....

[Abstract]

Originally Posted by Applespider

Tesco take £12 of every £100 spent in the UK - stat from my company's Finance Director trying to explain why our financial objectives aren't way out.

Tesco makes THAT much money? 12 quid of every 100 spent in the UK? Can that be right? I had always thought Sainsbury was larger than Tesco, or at least that's the way it seemed in London. Only time I've ever shopped at a Tesco's regularly was in Durham County.

[mpw]

Originally Posted by Abstract

Tesco makes THAT much money? 12 quid of every 100 spent in the UK? Can that be right? I had always thought Sainsbury was larger than Tesco, or at least that's the way it seemed in London. Only time I've ever shopped at a Tesco's regularly was in Durham County.

My gut says that 12% of the total national turnover is probably too high but they do have about 25% market share of the supermarket sector so who knows. They're a mighty big company.

[bartelby]

Tesco has a much larger market share than Sainsbury's nowadays.


Also there are more people working for Tesco than there are in the Army.

[mpw]

Originally Posted by bartelby

...Also there are more people working for Tesco than there are in the Army....

True, but the army doesn't have people standing at the start of the war welcoming people to the battlefield. I don't shop at TESCO very often but every time I do I'm practically attacked at the door by a 'welcomer'.

[AppleMatt]

Remember Tescos profits also come from insurance, mobile phones, loans (no really) etc. They've really branched out.

Originally Posted by brap

Anyway, I seem to remember the Sainsburys I worked at took well over £1m/week at prime time (Read: before xmas).

Are you sure that wasn't just for your department. I worked at Safeways years ago and we took more than that just in our section.
edit: Unless you mean straight profit. I was just talking takings, before expenditure.

AppleMatt