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What do you call a store that has nothing for sale?

Evidently, you call it the Dell store. Dell is opening up stores, but you won't be able to actually buy a computer in them:

The new stores will allow Dell to display more products, with employees who can answer questions and demonstrate products, Skelding said. But they won't have products in stock, so customers won't be able to buy products and carry them out the same day.

You just know Best Buy is happy about that:

Customer: "Wow, that's a neat computer. I'll take one."
Dell Dude: "Great, let's just order you one, and it will be at your house in a day or so"
Customer: "But I want one now. If I had wanted to order it online, I could have done that from anywhere"
Dell Dude: "Yes, but now you know what you're buying."
Customer: "I already knew what I was buying...a computer. But you won't sell me one"
Best Buy Boyz: "WE WILL! WE HAVE COMPUTERS HERE! LOOK, IT'S A BOX...WITH A COMPUTER INSIDE! IF YOU GIVE US MONEY, YOU CAN TAKE IT HOME! RIGHT NOW!"
Customer: "Maybe you should rethink this strategy, Dell Dude...hey Best Buy Boyz, look, money!"
Dell Dude: "I hate those guys"
Best Buy Boyz: "Every time you open a Dell store, our sales go up!
Apple Associates: "Ours too!"
Both: "Thank You Dell Dude"

Come on, didn't Gateway's failed retail outlets already show how stupid creating a negative retail experience is? Is this just a PC thing, this inability to not repeat the same bad idea over and over again, hoping for a better result? Isn't that the definition of insanity?

It's not a hard concept. When physical people give you physical money or a physical credit card in a physical store, they want to leave with physical stuff...right then and there. It's a centuries, nay, millennia-old model. The data's rock solid on this, really.

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Posted by John C. Welch at 13:17 | Permalink


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