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Dell's Answer to Apple Stores: Wal-Mart
by , 2:10 PM EDT, May 25th, 2007
A Dell spokesman said that, in response to customer requests for additional ways to buy their computers, Dell will start selling selected PCs on June 10th through 3,000 Wal-Mart stores.
Duane Cox said, in a report by CRN, that the move is part of his company's evolving strategy toward reinventing itself. "Our customers are asking us for additional ways to buy our stuff, to buy our products," Mr. Cox said. "We plan to do that, to deliver against their request on a global level."
Dell, which has been bad beaten badly by Hewlett Packard in PC sales lately, has had to scramble to discover the new customer buying habits.
Customers, increasingly interested in notebook computers have shown a preference for touching and feeling the computer before buying it. Interestingly, Dell has responded by distributing two desktop versions at Wal-Mart, a Dimension E521 both with and without a 19-inch display.
Dell has noted that their rivals, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Apple, have all reported PC unit growth via retail outlets for the last 18 months. Apple's growth is no doubt related to their retail stores' buying experience, but also the the Genius Bar where customers can obtain personalized support after the sale. How Dell's agreement with Wal-Mart will sit with customers who would also like that kind of personal buying experience of a complex item like a PC with Windows Vista remains to be seen.
Observer Comments
Fri May 25, 2007 3:23 pm Subject: just don't see how...
Sat May 26, 2007 7:41 am Subject: Why I'll never shop at Walmart again
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473107/
This movie will show you how towns lost their mom and pop stores, how millions of uninsured people work for Walmart, how Walmart cracked down on Unions, and how Walmart exploited child labor in the third world like no other company. There is a high cost to their low price. It is the cost in people.
Sat May 26, 2007 5:48 pm Subject: Re: Why I'll never shop at Walmart again
Quotegopher wrote:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473107/
This movie will show you how towns lost their mom and pop stores, how millions of uninsured people work for Walmart, how Walmart cracked down on Unions, and how Walmart exploited child labor in the third world like no other company. There is a high cost to their low price. It is the cost in people.
And for the other side to that coin...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KrjQqIXHdU
http://www.sho.com/site/ptbs/prevepisodes.do?episodeid=s5/walmart
Oh for the love of Pete! Unions...good. Big corporations...BAD! I could go on ad nauseum about how wrong headed this is, but I won't. Of all people, Penn and Teller do the BEST pont-by-point refutation of the "evils" of Wal-Mart I have ever seen. The links above just give snippets of the whole episode, but I'm sure it's out there in the interwebs.
Now, I see this as nothing but a headache for Wal-Mart. Why? Most of the appliances they sell at Wal-Mart are nowhere near as complex or fraught with potential support needs as a computer. When a customer buys a Dell from Wal-Mart, they are going to expect (though wrongly so) that they can get service and support from the store. While this has the potential to get millions of computers in front of millions of people who might not have gone to a computer store to buy one, I think the repercussions of the coming customer service NIGHTMARE far outweigh the benefit in sales. You think the Dell brand has been damaged before...just wait.
QuoteAnonymous wrote:
Yes, I usually go to Penn and Teller for my information source. When they are not busy doing their comedic magic act I am sure they are spending hours studying the issue, and even working at Walmart to gain an insider's persepctive.
I never said I go to Penn and Teller for my information. I said that OF ALL PEOPLE, Penn and Teller give a good point-by-point refutation. If you weren't so quick to judge, you might have caught that.
QuoteAnonymous wrote:
Fact of the matter is this: the United States up until about fifteen years ago used to tax imports to 1) raise money, and 2) protect Americans jobs.
This is absolutely true.
QuoteAnonymous wrote:
In the height of the biggest economic boom ever, greedy corporations lobbied Congress to create free trade zones so that they could utilize slave labor in countries like China, and import the products tax free back to the United States. Moroever, they receive tax breaks for moving the companies over seas, and money earned there.
This is somewhat true. Yes, SOME corporations lobbied for these free trade zones. Others were vehemently opposed, fearing an inability to compete with the cheap labor abroad. It is however not a tax BREAK that these companies are receiving. It is that the corporations are taxed at significantly lower rates in other countries. This is an unintended consequence of American tax system and symptomatic of the punitive nature of the system. When you punish those entities for their success, those successful entities will go be successful someplace else. Money is like water. It will flow to places where there is the least amount of resistance.
QuoteAnonymous wrote:
Companies wanting to build here cannot compete with slave labor and unfavorable tax breaks, and as such, all the jobs are going over seas where companies do not have to worry about human rights violations.
And whose fault is this? The American tax code by comparison to those of other countries is oppressive. Labor laws in many states requiring benefits for certain workers are ridiculous to the point of being nothing more than state-mandated welfare at the corporation's expense. As for wages...thank the unions for that one. While we have a pretty low (but I think fair) minimum wage here in the US, the vast majority of "jobs lost" to outsourcing have NOT been minimum wage jobs. My burgers aren't getting flipped by some slave-laborer in China. Manufacturing in the US has been hardest hit and that is 100% the fault of the unions pricing their labor out of the market and negotiating unsustainable and uncompetitive benefits and retirement packages. Look to the hard lesson that General Motors is now learning.
QuoteAnonymous wrote:
China has three classes of workers 1) military, 2) prisoners, and 3) regular folks who cannot vote (but who are employed by the Chinese Communists who own the companies). Category 1) and 2) are in fact a free source of labor. Often political prisoners (you know those who speak bad about their government) are in category two. Category three are very low paid workers who live in a country where they cannot voice any opposition to try and improve what any Amerian would find to be appauling working conditions.
No argument here. That sucks for them. When enough people in China have had enough, they will change it. In the meantime, unless we are talking about armed intervention, or brinksmanship politics, the best we can do in the West is hope to infiltrate China with our ideas, culture, and commerce. these things, over time can have a dramatic impact. Japan post-WWII, the USSR in the late 1980's, and India in the 1990's are all great examples of this.
QuoteAnonymous wrote:
When you buy a product made in China you are 1) supporting a repressive communist regime that owns all the companies, and 2) are doing so at the expense of your fellow country men and women.
Partially true. Yes, I am supporting the Communist regime in China, but they hardly "own all the companies." I also support workers in Mexico, Taiwan, and yes, the good 'ole USA. And as for my puchases being "at the expense of my fellow countrymen and women" I say hogwash. Economics doesn't happen in a vaccuum. While some jobs are lost, others are created through entrepreneurship, hard work, and ingenuity. If American manufacturing wants to compete, it needs to do things "better, cheaper, faster." To argue that we must institute laws to protect our industries is an affront to the individual workers and entrepreneurs in this country. It says, "you aen't good enough to compete." It may mean that our ways of doing things must change, and that governmental policies must change, but that is the way of the world- improvise, adapt, and overcome.
QuoteAnonymous wrote:
That is beyond debate: you've sold out americans to save a few bucks.
No...greed, a sense of entitlement, fear of change, and protectionism did this.
For the record, I MAYBE buy from Wal-Mart 1 or 2 times a year. Not for political reasons, but simply because I hate the crowds and I usually don't purchase the brands that they carry. I still think this is a BAD move for Dell and THAT is what this thread is supposed to be about.
QuoteGuest wrote:
How amazingly arrogant of you to think that every country desires to be just like the US. China has never been a democracy in the thousands of years of its existence. They seem to have survived just fine.
That's not what was said. What was asked was, are workers' rights in China on par with those in democratic nations? Chinese citizens may or may not want democracy, but I think it's even more arrogant and insulting to imply that they're perfectly fine and dandy toiling away for little pay to supply Westerners with cheap goods.
China has a long and rich history, but being the sweatshop for the Westerner world is not part of that history.
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