Report: Dells Sell Well At Wal-Mart

from the the-dell-way dept

Mon, Jun 25th 2007 3:50pm — Joseph Weisenthal

There's been a lot of discussion about whether or not Dell can return to its glory days. The return of Michael Dell as CEO and the company's insistence that it doesn't view direct sales as a religion have been viewed as positives, but what matters is whether the company executes. To that end, the company recently announced that it would have its computers available for sale at Wal-Mart, which is trying to become a bigger force in consumer electronics. According to one analyst who has queried several stores, Dell's Wal-Mart sales are looking brisk, with the boxes selling out at several locations. Clearly, this is just a start of a longer-term push, and the lack of a retail strategy has by no means been the company's only problem. It's done a lot of damage to its image, which it needs to recover from. Still, for such a beleaguered company, it's at least showing some signs of life.

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21 Comments

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globalorama, 25 Jun 2007 @ 4:13pm

finally
Dell is a great company, but they really needed this cooperation with Wal-Mart to regain their top spot in market share. what is HP's answer???
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spencermatthewp, 25 Jun 2007 @ 4:15pm

The "Wal-Mart Price"
Obligatory "Wal-Mart Sucks" line (even though I really don't don't think they do.

I'm curious though, how do the Dells at Wal-Mart complare to those sold at Dell? Wal-Mart is known for lowing the price of an item by having it made specially for them often using secondary manufacturers or inferior components (i.e. "B" Stock)They've done ti for a long time with levi's and everyone remembers the snapper story from not that long ago.

So I am curious. Just how do these differ? Are they old Stock, are they remnant pieces from premium systems that did not sell well?

Has anyone looked at the specs at the machines available at Wal-Mart and compared them to an Actual Dell?
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BCKrogoth, 25 Jun 2007 @ 4:22pm

Re: The "Wal-Mart Price"
As an electronic associate in a Maine WalMart, I have to say that the Dells we're selling aren't all that bad. They are $698 w/ a 19" monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. and $498 for just the tower. We have yet to have anyone return one (and we've sold quite a few for the time period) and no one has even touched an HP or Compaq. I'd say the only negative is Visa, and I suggest my customers to "downgrade" to XP for a year or so.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jun 2007 @ 5:22pm

Here is what I found on Walmartfacts.com
http://www.walmartfacts.com/articles/5089.aspx

This is just part of the article
The article also list what will be sold at Sam's Club

All Wal-Mart Stores*
Dell Dimension E521 Multimedia Desktop bundle for $698 includes:
• 19 inch Flat Panel Display
• AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 3600+ (1.9GHz, 512 kx2)
• 1-GB SDRAM
• 320 GB Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
• 16X DVD+/RW Drive
• Speakers, keyboard, mouse, 13-in-1 Media Card reader
• Windows Vista Home Premium
• 1-Year Warranty and At-Home Service with 24-7 Technical Support**

3,000 Wal-Mart Stores
Dell Dimension E521 Multimedia Desktop for $498 includes
• AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 3600+ (1.9 GHz, 512 Kx2)
• 1-GB SDRAM
• 250 GB Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
• 16X DVD+/RW Drive
• Keyboard, mouse
• Windows Vista Home Premium
• 1-Year Warranty and At-Home Service with 24-7 Technical Support**

All Sam’s Club locations (coming mid-June)
Dell Inspiron E1501 Notebook for $899.26, includes:
• AMD Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-50
• 2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ, 2 DIMM
• 120GB Hard Drive (5400RPM)
• 8X DVD+/-RW Drive
• 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display
• 53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
• Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium
• 1-Year Limited Warranty and At-Home Service with 24-7 Technical Support.**

* Six per store available at minimum
** Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club Extended Warranty Program also available
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jun 2007 @ 5:55pm

Like always, Walmartfacts.com is flat out wrong.

The dells systems specs are not correct, they have 2 gigs of ram regardless if in sams club or not. They have 1gig and 2 gig in desktop.
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Dru, 25 Jun 2007 @ 7:08pm

NEWS FLASH
This just in:
Cheap crap sells well at Wal-Mart
More at 11
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Notbhavn, 25 Jun 2007 @ 7:18pm

Re: finally
This is Dell answering HP's selling like hotcakes at Best Buy Stores nationwide. HP has been dominating the "retail" market and Dell is now trying to catch up.
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Peter Westinghouse, 25 Jun 2007 @ 7:55pm

Re: Re: The "Wal-Mart Price"
"I'd say the only negative is Visa, and I suggest my customers to "downgrade" to XP for a year or so."

LOL, I take it you mean Vista. What a stupid remark. When, oh lord, when will Walmart stop hiring morons.
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DJSwing, 25 Jun 2007 @ 7:58pm

But what about customer service...
MANY Dell customers have been turned off with having to talk to a non-English speaking tech-support person. When is Dell going to learn, Americans love to buy Dell, they just hate to talk to somebody that didn't learn English as a first language. Yes, yes, I am a horrible person, but dang it, I want to be understood!
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BCKrogoth, 25 Jun 2007 @ 9:12pm

Re: Re: Re: The "Wal-Mart Price"
Apparently typing a quick reply with information from an inside perspective on my lunchbreak and not pressing hard enough on the "t" key makes me a moron. I apologize profusely, Mr. Westinghouse; lets see you come up with something that will actually bring intelligent discussion, not just a troll post...
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Ferinoch, 26 Jun 2007 @ 5:02am

Given the practices both those companies have with their suppliers, I'm just wating to see which is gonna eat the other alive.
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James, 26 Jun 2007 @ 6:56am

This was a good idea
These two businesses can trade off the best assets of each other. Dell made a smart decision. Dell gets another outlet for its lower end computers which ultimately push the brand. Wal-Mart gets to offer another brand w/a certain amount of name recognition.

Say what you want about either company, but, (postulating) the consumer who buys a computer at Wal-Mart most likely wants a semi-impulse purchase; they aren't going to go online or call Dell and wait for a delivery, and they aren't going to analyze the ins and outs of why they should or should not get a Dell.
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Fred, 26 Jun 2007 @ 7:40am

Why rely on Walmartnotthefacts? Here are the actual specs. Dell doesn't actually sell the E521 anymore, and the holdover from the Dimension line, the C521, isn't really the same thing. If you build one of the new Inspiron desktops with more or less the same specs (using the Athlon 3800 instead of the 3600), you end up at about $749. So the Walmart PC is comparable, and you don't have to wait for it to be built and shipped. Unless you're one of those No Walmart Ever types, presuming you want a low-end desktop, it seems like an OK idea.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Jun 2007 @ 8:07am

Re: Re: Re: Re: The "Wal-Mart Price"
Good for you, BCKrogoth. I am no Walmart fan but thanks for you input on the matter. It certainly makes for a less skewed discussion. Turns out Peter Westinghouse just made himself look considerably more moronic than any of the posters here.
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Fred Head, 26 Jun 2007 @ 9:20am

Re: by Fred
Dell DOES sell the E521. Ive got one in my "cart" at Dell.com right now. About to buy it w AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 4000 AND a 22" LCD for under $700 on Dell small business.
The E521 is readily available, Fred
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Fred Head, 26 Jun 2007 @ 9:23am

Re: Re: by Fred
and thats with XP not Vista, thank GAWD!
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Phil, 26 Jun 2007 @ 12:15pm

Walmart
Regardless of how you slice and dice it, basically what you're looking at is a basic system. If you're a serious gamer or a business user you'll probably think the Dells sold at WalMart are crap, but if you're just the average joe that does nothing but check email, surf the web, and occassional word processing the Dells at WalMart will do just fine.

You'll probably pay more buying from Dell Direct but you'll also get the opportunity to customize your machine, get more of a variety of models to choose from, and purchase higher end models if that's what you want, none of which you can do with the Dell Machines sold at WalMart. You can also save yourself the hassle of going through another party if you need support, cause the employees at WalMart probably won't know a hard drive from a processor, if you get my drift.
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BCKrogoth, 26 Jun 2007 @ 4:53pm

Re: Walmart
unfortunately, its the customers who buy these that don't know a harddrive from a processor ;)

The average Joe email-checker will get perfect use out of it; a standard gamer (or someone who knows a little about computers) knows not to buy from ANY retail store at all, and to either A)build your own or B) get someone to build one for you :-)
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SailorRipley, 27 Jun 2007 @ 6:13am

Re: But what about customer service...
It's not because they didn't learn English as their first language, it's that they learned crappy English as their second language.
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B-Factor, 5 Jul 2007 @ 5:24pm

The "Wal-Mart Price"
Who's the more retarded, the one who works there, or the retarded moron who doesn't know anything so makes an adolescent remark.
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anonymous, 4 Nov 2007 @ 2:55pm

Re: But what about customer service...
Bought an extended warrenty that Dell won't honor, talked to tech support in Panama and India. No one at Dell knows who to talk to when you want to solve a complaint that is not related to the tech support - Do know persons who have returned their Dell computers back to Dell- not sure how this will effect Walmart Dell computer buyers (mine was purchased through Dell)- Agree that it is difficult to get your point across to non-English speaking support- Also, the time varies depending on which country you have to talk to for assistance. The Dell support workers were nice but not helpful.
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