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Dell Following Apple's Retail Example?

A retail store where you can't walk out with the product... absolutely ridiculous. 🙄

I was so glad to see our Gateway store close shop, and proud to say I never stepped foot in it. 😉 Now it's a Men's Wearhouse.

Still waiting patiently for an Apple Store here, a ten minute drive would be SO much better than a six hour drive. Come on Apple! Help me out here, gas prices are killin' me! 😀
 
Summer 2005 was the only time we can buy Dell computers at store...

Over last summer, Costco, one time, had stock Dell Dimension PCs in their shelves that anyone can purchase for $899.99. Now, I don't think Dell is doing this anymore.
 
technicolor said:
Oh great a store that doesnt sell anything.

What genius concept!
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Dell and the guys from Seinfeld are in a joint venture. A store that sells nothing will be sponsoring the next DVD release of the show about nothing.
 
BRLawyer said:
It's the Volkswagen museum in Wolfsburg, Germany, if I am not mistaken...
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No, it's the Volkswagen Transparent Factory in Dresden. This tower is the car storage area after assembly.
 
How can you guys not get excited about the opportunity to actually touch and feel these incredible products from Dell?

I can smell the beige from here!
 
Apple Stores work because Apple products are aspirational and people are prepared to pay a premium for them. People are travelling huge distances to see Apple products in person because the design is so cool. Dell has traditionally focused on keeping costs and prices low, and it was their strategy of staying clear of store overheads that gave them their price advantage in the 90's. I can't see how this could be of any benefit to them. I mean, who's going to alter a trip to New York to take in a visit to the Dell Store? If someone walked up to you in a store and introduced themselves as a 'Dell Genius' you'd bail...
 
Gasu E. said:
I don't know about their logo, but Dell computers have plenty of cache. What they lack (in contrast to Apple) is cachet.
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Great catch!

So if a store doesn't sell anything how can it make money?😕
 
does dell have stores made of complete glass? with a glass starcase leading down in to the store? noooo theres look like toasters
 
simonthewolf said:
If someone walked up to you in a store and introduced themselves as a 'Dell Genius' you'd bail...
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😛 There have been plenty of comparatives in the thread so far, but that one made me smile.
 
deejemon said:
I can't wait for the big 32ft opaque beige cube in New Jersey...
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it wouldn't be opaque beige because that was originally Apple's color. it would be be more like an opaque black color with a touch of grey in it.
 
actually, this 'no buying' policy has been met with good success with this shop in London oniki (sorry cant remember the exact name actually) they have a store on conduit street of regent street where all the 'cool shops' and 'trendy restaurants' are. you can go in and look but buy on line (though personal experience- if you beg they will sell the stuff the 'demo')...

however, i think it only works because it sells customized and redesigned/ limited editions by names such as adidas, evisu amongst others... sort of like a gallery space!

imagin a gallery with just dells... who knows? the black is the new white and may be tonsof people will purchase if the whole thing is black (like that blind experience restaurant) and the experience things in a whole new dimension.

oh can we have a kfc or mcdonnalds where you can go in and smell but only do deliveries?
 
Hi,

I am a proud Mac owner but have been employed at a DELL Kiosk for the past few months as a Kiosk Lead and I think that the direct model orks well for Dell.

It is RARE that we see a customer who says I NEED IT TODAY -- most people are willing to wait 3-5 days (w/ free shipping) to get exactly the computer they want -- custome configured to their needs.

I have a Macbook Pro and I paid well over $2000 for it, but you can get a E1505 decently speced for under a grand. Is it exactly the same? -- NO. But for people who want a Windows PC for under $1000 that has the latest tech (Core Duo, 1GB RAM, ATI Mobility Radeon X1400) at a consumer price point -- Dell really delivers.
 
In other news..

Bounty announces opening of 3000 sq ft store to display their line of paper towels and napkins.
 
astaples said:
I don't care if Dell's store would staff knowledgable people, offer refreshments upon eneterring, serve a 4-course meal, and give you a backrub while you're in the store - Dell's garbage technical support is why I don't own any Dell's now. We used to own only Dell, but then switched to Apple because of a good tech support experience with Apple.

I don't see Dell opening a store that looks like Apple's, but I do think they'll try to copy Apple by having stark white and jet black laptops. Oh Dell - I pitty you.
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I dont know, refreshments, 4 course meal, AND a backrub...i mean they rnt selling anything right? I'd go just for those.
 
generationxwing said:
So it's going to be like the eBay store in 40 Year Old Virgin...
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The eBay stores actually exist, theres one in Cherry Hill, NJ right near where I live.

Of course, the fact that they exist dont make them any less of a bad idea. Ok Im done back to dell..
 
Dell Genius

I think it is genuis: a PC store where you can't buy one is perfect.

"I can smell the beige from here." has me laughing at work.
 
Dell has had a retail "kiosk" in the Crossagtes Mall in Albany for over a year now. I think it was one of those ideas to help grease the holiday shopping wheels and has probaly proved to be a good way to covert browsers to buyers. They use it to showcase some flashy items like plasma displays with XP MCE and laptops. They can take orders right there at the kiosk and probably have hardware delivered in a few days.

OTOH, the market where Dell really shines is inexpensive commodity hardware and that market doesn't like to pay a premuim. If this new development drives their price up at all it will end up being a loosing situation for Dell.
 
Clever Person Counter?

To go with the concept of NOT buying computers at this store, will it have a "Clever Person Counter" where you go with your broken Windows craptop and they DON'T fix it for you?
 
vniow said:
The reason why Apple's model works so well (as mentioned elswehere) is you can go in, test it out and take it home if you like it. They do offer BTO orders but the majority of the configurations are stock. Dell on the other hand specialises in BTO orders, just take a look at their configuration page on the site, they have waaay more options than Apple ever will. There's a reason why you can't just buy these in stores and that's because it doesn't fit in with their business model. What purpose does a store have if you can't buy anything in it, is everything going to be special order? I wonder how much of Apple's retail business comes from people going in there and coming out with something, I'm guessing its a pretty good percentage.
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Exactly. Dell's retail stores won't be successful at all, as they are nothing like Apple's stores. I guess we'll see though.

e
 
yg17 said:
300 stores certainly didn't help, but I don't think it really hurt them. The biggest thing that will hurt is being unable to walk out of their with a computer. If I want a PC, I'll go to my local Worst Buy or Jerkit City for instant gratification, not order it at a Dell store and wait who knows how long for it to be delivered.
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No. 300 stores in low-traffic locations is exactly what hurt them, way too much overhead way too quickly,even when they did start selling items in their store, it wasn't able to recoup the losses. Why do you think Apple has been slow to expand and staying in high traffic areas? Dell opening 2 stores will not hurt them in the least even if the stores fail.

Edit: The Kiosks have brought Dell a nice amount of business, these stores are a further extension of that.
 
BornAgainMac said:
Instead of a Genius Bar, Dell will have a Dummy Bar. It would be named after the customers.
"
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Yeah, and the Dummy Bar will be filled with nuts and have a chewie nuget center! yeah, that's the ticket!
 
I don't really think you can compare apple to dell in any way. They appeal to different crowds. They are more business oriented and low budget college students. Remember the "dude your getting a dell" crap they had before, that was targetted toward the hs grad going to college who didn't care much about computers and just wanted to look at porn, chat on aim, play sites like addictinggames.com, and maybe do some work. Most cases the parents buy the computer for the kid and they look at it as "hey it's not my computer, i don't care what it looks like". So why would they pay 1100 for a macbook when they can get a inspiron piece of crap that does everything a college kid needs to do for 599. Just incase you didn't know there are far more people out there like that then there is macrumors apple fan boys who crush dells.
 
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