Yaacov. I asked Mrs. McWilliams. She thinks that Dell could get a foothold in Europe, even in Italy, if their service will be as good as in the US. Direct marketing should be working and she thinks Dell will put those discounts in place. Electronics are pretty high in Europe and the Dell way could become a way of life. Maybe in Italy consumers are still more pragmatic, but Europeans will evtl. go the American way. Those things are getting more prevalent in Europe. My wife's nephew is in the cpt. business. He does everything still mostly outside the net. You are right there. But even he knows that sales over the net are becoming more of a reality. Right now the old fashioned way is still a cheaper way to go. It does not need all the storage. But that is the beauty of Dell and those other box makers on the net. You don't have to store, you can order and it gets shipped. One of these days things will be done that way in Europe also. Like you said, it's a little slow, but it will come if they know what's good for them. And my wife also says: As far as look, touch and discount is concerned that is in place in Germany for quite some time. A lot of people love the catalog business. A lot of stuff is sold that way so why not over the net evtl.? And Dell does not have to sell over the net in Italy. There is always the telephone. gg.
I remember sending my nephews portable telephones and answering machines. They did not touch them first. It took a bit longer to convince my wife's sister, when she was still alive, to install one of those phones and answering machines in her home. She kept saying: I guess we will be talking mostly by answering machine. But in the end she kept saying: What did I ever do without it? Well, I think computers will go the same route one day and someone will have to show those Europeans how to do it. gg. I know that you know what you are talking about running a business but talk to me again in a cpl of years. I'll bet you, you will be surprised. Things started off slowly here also but once it got going, it got going BIG.
Msft. I guess it still is a good buy. That stock is like those batteries. I keeps going and going. I would like to have the nerve to go into it. Every time it goes down and it comes into my view, it takes off without me. There will be a sell-off one of these days again and I will get in.
I don't know if those big drug cos. need consolidation. I think Merck, PFE, SGP etc. have pretty good pipelines and R&D.
I was not looking for an up move in the markets until maybe this afternoon or tomorrow. But I guess the speech from A.Greenspan is muted this morning. He is still selling the IMF theory, so he could be painting the effect of Asia on us a little bleaker than it may be. He is still mainly a banker and does not go along with the theory that a big trade deficit will hurt the economy. I don't know, I don't get his bucks, but I would think it would evtl. hurt. How are our cos. going to make money when they have to compete with an influx of cheap goods?
So why would influx of our money into their economy help us?
Anyway, today the markets look good again. We should have a little while longer, hopefully.
Don't forget. Dell's way is coming to Europe even if it is at a snails pace. gg. That should cover both of your posts. I guess you know that I never make a draft of my speeches so excuse some of my repetitious ramblings.
Sonny |
