RSSDell, Wal-Mart Sign Retail Pact
By Ed Oswald | Published May 24, 2007, 1:16 PM
Dell has entered into an agreement with Wal-Mart that will put its desktops in 3,400 of the chain's stores beginning June 10, retailing for under $700.
Although exact details of the PCs have not been released, the companies said the desktops will be built exclusively for sale at the world's largest retailers.
The deal marks the first time in 15 years that Dell has not been involved directly in the sale of its machines. While the company recently began selling its PCs in retail, they were through company-owned outlets. It did also sell clearanced machines through Costco for a period of time.
With Wal-Mart, it appears that the company is changing its ways. A Dell spokesperson described the deal as "our first step" into global retail, possibly indicating that the company may be working on other deals as well, although it declined to talk about any possible deals.
Two Dimension desktop models will initially be offered in Wal-Marts in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. No details were given as to whether the company planned to eventually sell its laptops through Wal-Mart as well.
"Dell is a proven electronics brand and adds a new compliment to our other high quality desktop selections, and we're very excited to now bring our customers new access to a product they want, with the ability to purchase a Dell right away," Wal-Mart senior vice president of Home Entertainment Gary Severson said.
Partnering with Dell is part of Wal-Mart's plans to remodel and expand its electronics section of its stores. The company is increasingly looking to top-name brands as a way to entice more affluent customers into its stores to help sustain its growth.
i really hope micheal dell is not going bonkers sure many may say this is a stupid idea but really i say as long as dell continues to keep its xps and dimension 9000 series lineup AWAY from Walmart then this will tell me dell will keep its high end computers to a custom built config, and show that dell is trying to do two things at one sell low end to wal mart and high end over the internet which is great, also i know the middle eastern tech support that dell has switched to doesn't help dells support standards but if you can afford the high end stuff i am sure you can probably fix it on your own.
all in all i really hope that micheal know what hes doing cause if he resists the xps and 9000 series away from wal mart and just send the lower end stuff to mass retail than dell should be ok... hopefully...
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|I would never buy a computer, Dell or otherwise from a place where the person selling it might have been working in the lawn and garden dept just the day before.
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|I was recomending people to buy a Dell, but warning them they would not get any tech support. I know back in the Packard Bell days we would call them Packard Bell from hell, now I guess we will have to say Dell from hell....
I stopped building PC's because I could not compete with the prices lowering, but I think I will start building them again, at least my customer's computer's are still working, and they can choose what they want in each PC, not an assembly line, maybe pay a little more but most say they will not mind.....
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|As a long time business customer of Dell, I find the move interesting, at best. Back in the 80's, I put the Dell in the same class as the Packard-Bell, however, when HP started providing extremely poor tech support and inconsistency in their server's, we began to replace our systems with the Dell line of OptiPlex and PowerEdge systems. Since 80% of their business is on the "business" side and since their support has been "top-of-the-line" for the Opti-Plex, Latitude and PowerEdge systems, I have nothing but praise for them.
While I see the move to the Wal-Mart distribution channel as an attempt the bolster/increase sales revenue for home users, I don't anticipate it will have an impact on the support we receive. I do not recommend the Dimension or Inspiron lines simply because these are Home User lines and support is middle-eastern based which is more frustrating than helpful.
Unless I start seeing a slide of business support and/or product quality, I see no reason to look for a new vendor. Besides.....who do you move to? Lenova, Toshiba, HP????? I think not.
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|I decided to return. Alot has happened, Ed is still just as...opinionated...but frankly, nobody reports "news" anymore, but I fell like I have to post somewhere, so...
...Menerva is dead on. This is a horrible move. HP is making money doing this BECAUSE Dell lost their reputation as a technical support powerhouse, and in time the temporary HP followers would go back to Dell. Now Dell wants to screw their customers even more with a Wal-Mart PC that has half-a$$ed support.
Shame on you, Michael Dell. I had nothing but praise for you and your company and took great pride in it when I worked for you in 2003-2004. I thought that Kevin Rollins had single-handedly destroyed your company's reputation by having "competitive" prices with HP and the like, and screwing up service, support, and reliability. You just proved me wrong.
"Partnering with Dell is part of Wal-Mart's plans to remodel and expand its electronics section of its stores. The company is increasingly looking to top-name brands as a way to entice more affluent customers into its stores to help sustain its growth."
Really? When did you become so stupid, Mike? WTF happened while you were gone? DELL STILL IS THE BEST KNOWN COMPUTER BRAND IN THE INDUSTRY, taking Wal-Mart customers is expanding your business to non-affluent customers, not affluent customers:
1. HP already took that crowd, and they are losing them due to poor support for their "W" models;
2. They only have 1 year warrenties, and the warrenties are extended by companies who use deceptive language in their contracts to fool the customers into thinking the warrenty is through HP, but is really through a third party. I hear rumors the same will happen with Dells, and that will certainly destroy your reputation further;
3. Wal-Mart customers don't know what they want when they buy PCs, because 95% of them are buying a PC as a gift for someone else!
Seriously, I am truley shocked that Dell has decided to follow rather than lead. I am ashamed that it has come to this. I wish Dell would lead on rather than "sustain its growth".
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|As a past employee of Dell's, all I can say is this - for a company that prides itself in providing computer systems to the customer, built to their specifications (albeith within a range of choices per model) and with the promise that their technical support is award winning and beyond compare, I just can't see this as being a positive step for the company. As it stands, the only brand name electronic equipment you can buy in any quantity in your average Wal-Mart is essentially knock offs, this isn't going to reflect well on the Dell brand. However, one can argue that much of what's been done in the past few years hasn't reflected well on it either.
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|Dell (With Semprom chips) = Wal-Mart
Is there a word in the English language that can describe someone being more stupid beyond it's own stupid condition? If that word exists it will describe Dell to a tea.
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|Now we can truly start calling Dell Dull-Mart.
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|humm... seems that they are taking a page from gateways book. too bad gateways book is worthless, along with their PC's
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|OMG the internet is going to get even dummer.
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|I think this signals a continuing downward spiral for Dell (the company). Michael Dell and the other execs have made fortunes and are no longer that concerned. Poor customer service and cheap proprietary components have severly wounded this company. Unless they vastly improve customer service they will continue to lose money and marketshare. Wal-mart today is absolutely nothing like when it started. They will squeeze every drop of profit from a vendor. Does anyone disagree with this?
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|Hm...striking a deal with the Worlds biggest retail chain so people have easier access to purchasing your machines...that just CAN NOT be good!!!!
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|I think that DELL has slashed prices to the point that they are finding it hard to be both competitive and profitable. They still make great systems for the price. They aren't the Mercedes of the computer world - but they are a mile from being the Kia.
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|"The company is increasingly looking to top-name brands as a way to entice more affluent customers into its stores to help sustain its growth."
I don't think selling Dell computers is going to accomplish that. They might want to try cleaning up the stench and filth in the stores and hiring a few employees with full sets of teeth and IQs above 75.
As for Dell, I don't know if this is a desperate step down or just the final admission that what they make is cheap junk.
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|"As for Dell, I don't know if this is a desperate step down or just the final admission that what they make is cheap junk."
Well...Walmart sells junk computers so....
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|My wife and I get into fights exclusively at Wal*Mart. There's just something about Wal*Mart that gets us very pissy.
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|You can just smell the failure...
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|As a Federal Government Customer we buy all of our Dells through third parties. Servers from 1 company and desktop/laptop/workstations through another.
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|We're not a Fed customer, but we buy ours the same way.
Your point?
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|I can't speak for the original poster but I think the point was that most people don't buy directly from a manufacturer. Generally third party resellers provide a better selection than any one manufaturer can and it is usually possible to buy the products at a discount from msrp.
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|Uh...what company pays MSRP? We buy direct from dell, and direct from HP...neither gives us anything close to MSRP prices...
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|Nice choice. Now people will no longer think Dell has been cheaping out lately with their quality.
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|BWAHAHAHA... good one. Thats funny.
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|A smart marketing move by Dell.
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|Just like Gateway right???
I hope you were being sarcastic.
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|So because gateway has been doing poorly, means Dell will to? I just don't think I get your logic there...
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|Vista+Low-end Machines+Ghetto-rat-ignorant customers+offshore tech support=one hell of a tech support HEADACHE!
But they have their eyes on increasing sales so there you go.
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