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Dell Goes Retail? Is The Devil Buying Mittens?

Computers

from the hell-freezing-over dept

Mon, Nov 28th 2005 4:19pm — Mike Masnick
For years, one of the core components of Dell's success was that they only sold directly to customers. It cut out the middleman and helped them keep prices lower than competitors. Meanwhile, other providers had trouble selling direct once they had channel partners in place, as any attempt to go direct and compete on price made those retailers mighty angry. However, it looks like Dell is dipping its toes into retail selling by offering a few older lines through Costco. This actually makes quite a bit of sense, as it avoids most of the channel conflict of selling new machines, and fits right in with the types of products Costco normally sells. Update: As some have noted, Dell has done this in the past, and, as the comments imply, for apparently not knowing this, I am somehow less of a human being. Sorry about that.
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11 Comments

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  • identicon
    LiQUiD PlASMA, 28 Nov 2005 @ 5:32pm

    yea..

    They've been doing this for nearly a year now, old news if you ask me.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      heather, 28 Nov 2005 @ 8:32pm

      Re: yea..

      actually since at least 2003 maybe 2002, i used to work at dell and had customers call and say "i can get a better deal at costco"

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 29 Nov 2005 @ 2:00am

        Read TFA

        "Costco has resold Dell systems on its Web site in the past, and has promoted Dell products with in-store displays in Costco stores, Maher said. But now customers can take Dell PCs right off Costco's store shelves and bring them home, an expansion of the existing relationship between the two companies, he said."

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Dwight Raley, 28 Nov 2005 @ 6:29pm

    Re: Dell Goes Retail? Is The Devil Buying Mittens?

    Not sure what you have in mind by using the term "channel conflict." Dell currently has none--they have no channel. Even this limited Costco line doesn't constitute a channel.

    Dell won't be running into the traditional channel management problems. Few (if any) companies have started by selling directly, and _then_ tried to grow a channel organization.

    Odds of Dell doing it successfully? 40-1 against.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Mike (profile), 28 Nov 2005 @ 6:50pm

      Re: Dell Goes Retail? Is The Devil Buying Mittens?

      Right. That's the point. They don't have any channel conflict by doing it this way.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Jimmx2, 28 Nov 2005 @ 6:38pm

    dell retail....

    ok....i dont get it...theres been a DELL STORE....as in like a cell phone strore type place in our arera for a few years.....and costco been selling them here for years too....!

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    kingmanor, 29 Nov 2005 @ 3:20am

    Less of a human being??

    OK I know this site embellishes a bit and that's part of why I read it as opposed to the many many many other tech news sites. So I read your post update and saw that NONE of the comments were as bad as you made them out to be. They just meant you should do some research before you claim a company is doing something new, and you know what? They're right, you should! It can't be that difficult considering you link to your own old posts all the time. ::sarcasm alert:: Real professional way of dealing with criticism. Do you react that way on your paid Coporate Intelligence? What are you 10 years old now? I really expected better of you.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Mike (profile), 29 Nov 2005 @ 3:41am

      Re: Less of a human being??

      Heh. Apparently I can't win either way. :) The update note was a joke, but I sometimes forget how hard it is to get that across.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        devboy00, 29 Nov 2005 @ 3:51am

        Re: Less of a human being??

        Pfft. Well *I* still like you.
        80)

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        kingmanor, 29 Nov 2005 @ 4:09am

        Re: Less of a human being??

        Yeah I didn't mean to pounce but you couldn't tell if you were being playful or just brooding and pissed off. Thats one of the drawbacks of communicating in just text, mainly that its sometimes difficult to determine the tone of voice the author meant. I try to put that ::sarcasm alert:: if I want to make sure I'm not misunderstood, but it would be easier if I didn't have to.

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous of Course, 29 Nov 2005 @ 10:34am

          Re: Less of a human being??

          Sarcasm is lost on the very young- and Americans.

          [ link to this | view in chronology ]


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