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Why Wal-Mart won't have Linux desktops on its store shelves
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Comments (10)
In regards to KMyMoney and GNUCash, I think he's right. They're nice programs and need to be touted as much as OOo and FF, perhaps more.
Yes, but the real point, I think, is this:
Wal-Mart is volume sensitive. They sell at very low margins and need to move high volume at low cost in order to make a profit.
Selling a machine that:
a) Relatively (in Wal-Mart terms) few people want, and/or b) gets returned in high volume,
doesn't fit Wal-Mart's model.
Things are better in the online store because the machines are not taking up valuable ( and expensive) real estate.
Wal-Mart is volume sensitive. They sell at very low margins and need to move high volume at low cost in order to make a profit.
Selling a machine that:
a) Relatively (in Wal-Mart terms) few people want, and/or b) gets returned in high volume,
doesn't fit Wal-Mart's model.
Things are better in the online store because the machines are not taking up valuable ( and expensive) real estate.
In other words, the PCs have a high return rate because their sales staff is as stupid as the people buying it.
nalf38 -
No. Wal-Mart doesn't use sales people in any real sense of the word, and most people would have trouble understanding that the PCs are not Windows machines.
What's stupid is failing to understand the world around you.
No. Wal-Mart doesn't use sales people in any real sense of the word, and most people would have trouble understanding that the PCs are not Windows machines.
What's stupid is failing to understand the world around you.
The whole FOSS concept is so different that it may be impossible
to plug Linux boxes into any current merchandising channel.
CP --
I think you are correct on that. FOSS is in an eternal catch-22, especially when it comes to big box stores.
Big boxes work well with products that customers come in prepared to buy. Very few people come in prepared to buy Linux.
Marketing, not technology, is the Achilles heel of FOSS.
I think you are correct on that. FOSS is in an eternal catch-22, especially when it comes to big box stores.
Big boxes work well with products that customers come in prepared to buy. Very few people come in prepared to buy Linux.
Marketing, not technology, is the Achilles heel of FOSS.
How does that reconcile with selling their entire stock? After all, they did sell it.
gus3; I think its because it did not sell in the numbers they had hoped. My guess is that they set the bar for how many would sell and in what amount of time a little to high.
To be honest I was really surprised that wal-mart even took the chance on selling them period.
To be honest I was really surprised that wal-mart even took the chance on selling them period.
What Scott says and
what dino says is the most likely explanation.
Quoting:Marketing, not technology, is the Achilles heel of FOSS.
what dino says is the most likely explanation.
Check the employee turn-over rate for Wally-World.
Check the pay scale.
Check your expectations that you can talk to the person
that sold you the machine. Or that that person even
knows what they are selling.
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