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Dell Following Apple's Retail Example?

jrober said:
This sounds nuts, I think that the idea of viewing and asking then leaving with nothing but a bit of paper is a most satisfying retail experience - not.

Also think of the visual appeal "Mom look there's a shop selling gravestones" "Son, those aren't gravestones they are Dell towers"

John
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Not a good idea. Customers drive their car to Dell stores and come back out nothing. It's a waste of people's car gas.
 
Gateway Stores

And Gateway Stores made such a killing...

Dell is going to become the Gateways of the 21st Century and end up being even more of a joke than Steve the Dell Dull was..

Good move Dell...
 
cgmpowers said:
And Gateway Stores made such a killing...

Dell is going to become the Gateways of the 21st Century and end up being even more of a joke than Steve the Dell Dull was..

Good move Dell...
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Only if they try to expand like Gateway did. If they keep the number of stores down, it could be a good and/or negligble thing.
 
Macrumors said:


Customers will not be able to purchase Dell computers at the store, however. Instead, the stores will simply offer demos and sales staff to answer questions.
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ha, what a bunch of losers
 
I really couldn't picture it...

The whole going to a store & laying down money but not receiving thing aside, what I really just can't see happening is the huge lines.

Whenever an Apple Store opens, there are gobs of people waiting to get in for a first look. I can't see a Dell store drawing those same types of crowds. Then, I've never seen a Dell logo bumper-sticker on a car before (I see Apple ones all the time)
 
I may have the wrong end of the stick here - but why do we, as Mac users, care about what Dell is doing?😕
 
As already said, they are copying Gateway, not Apple. Most people don't use Macs and don't know anything about them, so having a store where they can be sure they can do everything they did in Windows on the a Mac is an essential part of getting "switchers"

but people know Windows. So why go try out a Dell when you probably alreaday own one, or an HP/Gateway/Toshiba/etc. that's teh same thing ?

and then to just go to the store and buy online !? how does dell make money ? how do they pay the rent ? they pay employees to send people to buy online - or they do it for them. It's just stupid
 
sounds like Dull is attempting a "kind of pregnant" retail strategy. Stores where you can't actually buy anything. 🙄
 
Good idea. Hope they don't do a Gateway. With Dell your paying for higher quality than just the outside look.
 
greenmonsterman said:
Problem with the dell retail store is, that after 150 visitors through the door, the lights go off, the doors slam and the clerks start speaking really sloooooowly. The regional manager has to swing by and flip the reboot switch, and defrag.
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Gah! That sounds like some sort of horror movie situation. I mean, think about it. That's kinda creepy! 😱
 
You have got to be kidding.
They are going to have two retail store where you can go and look at Demo units, but be unable to buy anything. What's the point. Seems like you would be bound to loose money this way.

I hope they put them right across from the Apple stores. So customers will walk into a Dell store and look at all their "cool" items and find out that they can't actually buy anything to take home so the customer then goes across the street tot he Apple store and looks at way cooler products that they can actually purchase and take home with them the same day.

That would be like McDonalds allowing you to smell the Big Macs and fries, but not actually order anything.

In my opinion this is a DUMB move on Dell's part.
 
thedude110 said:
I think the Apple stores work because Apple has so much cache -- even in the logo itself. People travel for Apple stores -- will anyone travel for a Dell store?
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I don't know about their logo, but Dell computers have plenty of cache. What they lack (in contrast to Apple) is cachet.
 
Posted on engadget, I laughed out loud so I had to re-post it here:

They should have 3 doors on the front that say 'Home' 'Small Business' and 'Enterprise' that all go to the same place and sell basically the stuff for different prices...
 
One word: marketing.

This is more about building the hype up around Dell than actually selling computers.

But hey, how can Dell build its hype up? 😛 😛
 
the key to apple's success was not only a demo of the products, but also offering one to take home things in "popular" and standard configurations "on the spot"

chances are they will sell the DJ ****** and some displays in store... but nooone in their right mind would actually buy, becuase there are so many online coupons from places like slickdeals.net
 
p0intblank said:
Not selling computers in-store is the first mistake right there...
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Exactly why Gateway bombed.
People want instant-gratification....they want to be able to walk out of the store with something more than a receipt. With the few sales they get, there will be probably be a high cancellation ratio because people will go home without a computer and start to rethink their purchase.

Also, Apple has been successful because they have placed their store in extremely well-thought out locations (typically high traffic, higher end mall locations). Gateway bombed because they plopped a store down any old place...and I'm sure Dell will do the same.
 
'It's a physical extension of the direct model,' Jim Skelding, director of the pilot programme told the Statesman...
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This makes absolutely no sense to me. Not everyone is on the Internet and not everyone is comfortable with ordering online. Some prefer to buy from a physical store. I only see missed profits with doing this.

With Dell's capital, couldn't they afford to house a repair shop in the back for BTO on the spot, repairs, upgrades, etc? Seems like this would make it incredibly popular for those who use/like Dells.

Wth are they thinking?
 
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