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Gateway To Close All Retail Stores
John Lazzaro writes "Looks like Gateway is throwing in the towel and closing all of its remaining retail stores, according to a Reuters/Yahoo! report." The story notes: "Gateway's stores, which will be closed on April 9, have long been criticized by analysts and investors as an expensive drag on cash flow because of lease costs and the difficulty of managing inventories", and goes on to suggest: "...with [the acquisition of] eMachines, Gateway doesn't necessarily need the added distribution channel the stores gave the company. In addition to selling Gateway's wares over the phone and via the Internet, eMachines PCs are sold at major retailers such as Best Buy."
Although Apple seems to be doing quite well in retail, Gateway was losing money hand-over fist. (Gee, think that could have anything to do with quality?)
My prediction: Either they merge with another company or they'll be out of business within two years.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
When I asked them about Linux, or a machine without an O/S, I was told "Microsoft won't let us do that." Double Duh.
In short, it was about the most useless showroom experience I've had in a long time. Gateway will lose nothing by shutting these turkeys (cows?) down.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
i just called gateway store in Corona, CA.
Talked to some guy, and he said yea, theyre closing. Should have a big sale, but doesnt know when.
I'm gonna call back saturday and see..
hope i can score some cheap shit!
-Grump
Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
I hear ya on the bad experiences w/ Gateway. Back around early 1995, I ran the computer systems for a college book store. We bought a Gateway 386 to run Office and a VBA based app that I wrote for the managers to input the register tapes into, which would do all the department breakdowns, and associated work, and fax a report to headquarters.
;)
Problem was, this machine couldn't run Windows 3.1 in 386 Enhanced mode. I had had a similar problem with a computer that I owned, and knew that this had to do with a faulty keyboard controller or circuits associated with it. Address Line 20 on the keyboard controller was actually used to switch between Protected and Enhanced mode on the 386. I related this information to Gateway tech support, and recieved incredulous reactions, assurances that such a thing was impossible, and no help whatsoever.
Shortly after the warrenty ran out, Gateway admitted that there was a fault in the keyboard controller that was causing our problem. They refused to make good, even though I had given them the answer months before, and insisted on charging for the motherboard swap. My boss at the time was not particularly clueful about these things, and declined to press the matter.
I, being a student at the time had to console myself with informing the manager of Gateway Customer service that "as long as I live, Gateway will never see another fucking cent from any person or company who comes to me for advice on computers. Enjoy that $200 fee, because it's going to cost you tens of thousands of dollars in lost sales" (and has).
Some grudges are worth holding
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
- "Oh, forget the cable, I was really looking for a laptop like that one, can I see? Oooh. Nice. Ah. Color? Neat. Hmmm. Say I could use something like that -- say how's the screen in bright light, I notice that it's rather dark in here."
What we had there was a failure to communicate.It's great -- how do you spell your mother's maiden name?
"Could we remove it from the shackle for a minute and take it near the window to get an idea?"
Sorry, we're not allowed to do that -- its against our security policy. Do you rent or own?
"No, no, I don't want to take it OUTSIDE, just over near the, er, tinted *sigh* window to get an idea how...
"Will you want a printer with your purchase?"
So, good bye Gateway Stores -- you sucked and we're better off without you.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
I worked for a software company in California, and I was asked to purchase a PC for an emergency programming job. Our usual supplier took over a week to get a PC, and I remembered seeing the Gateway store on my way to work.
Thinking the Gateway might be a cut above the HP Pavilion or something I would get at Best Buy I drove over there. There were about 3 people looking at computers -- one was getting a demo of something by a sales person -- a pretty empty store.
It took me 3 minutes to walk around and peruse the various models, and then 10 more to get a sales rep to talk to me.
I pointed at a PC and told him I wanted to get one and asked for a price. When he told me it would take a week to get the PC, I was floored.
"You don't have any computers to sell here???"
"No."
"What's in all these cow-boxes you have along the windows?"
"They're empty."
"So what do you sell here?"
"Well, you can order one here. The store is so that customers can come in and try the machines out and match their needs to the PC."
"But I can order one from home with a couple of mouse-clicks!"
He didn't have much of an answer for that. I drove on to Best Buy and got the Pavilion.
I remember thinking that GW was crazy to open all these stores just so people could look and touch (but not take!) the machines. Expensive real-estate too -- all the stores I saw were in very high-rent areas.
Maybe Inouye can keep Waitt's expensive schemes in check and keep the company afloat....