To All, I made my annual after-Xmas visit to the computer retailers to see how business was. Best Buy was loaded with folks, though it seemed to be a combination of a pretty good sale on tvs and a return line that stretched into Louisiana. Though I saw lots of pcs in the return line, I don't think they dominated. BBY sells lots of stuff and it seemed to be getting returned fairly heavily. The same was true last year.
There were people in the computer section, at least 15 or so. However, the unsold boxes were stacked high enough to interfere with the operation of the fire sprinklers. Obviously, there was no way they could handle the flood of product the boxmakers sent to them.
CompUSA was a bit more subdued. Just the opposite was true last year, making me think the real action is in the stuff BBY sells that CPU does not. The return line was huge and, again there was traffic in the pc section. Or, there tried to be traffic, but it wasn't moving very well due to the stacks of unsold boxes in the aisles.
There did not seem to be a brand prejudice in the unsold boxes. Though there were more unwanted Compaqs than any other brand, I think that is to be expected in Houston. There were plenty of Packard-Bells, IBMs, Hewletts and house brands sitting around. Best Buy was loaded with Apples due to a huge incentive Apple gave them so Apple could pretend they were selling computers. CPU had very few Apple boxes.
True, business sales are the key, not consumer sales. But, if consumer sales are any indication, the "sold out" Christmas didn't happen. Again.
MB |
