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Dell Direct Stores to shut down kiosks around the U.S.

Dell announced in a press release on Tuesday that it will close all its Dell Direct Stores throughout the United States.  Currently, there are 140 kiosks stationed throughout the country; mostly in malls and shopping centers.  First opened in 2002, the Dell Direct Store offered a way to allow customers to play with machines before purchasing them.

The company feels that it can reach more of the market by sticking to retail stores such as Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Staples. When Dell first opened its stores, it marketed laptops, desktops, and even its line of flat panel televisions.  Through big box retailers, the company can appeal to more than just customers looking for Dell products. 

“Moving into retail is a prime example of Dell listening to its customers,” said Tony Weiss, vice president for Dell’s Global Consumer business. “Ever since we began our journey into retail, we wanted to give customers the opportunity to call, click, or visit Dell and have access to our award-winning products. This move fits in with how our broad global retail strategy is evolving.”

Bob Kaufman, in an interview with CNET, stated that the number of employees that will be laid off is unknown currently, and Kaufman declined to answer how much this move will cost the company.  Kaufman did state that the affected workers will receive outplacement assistance and severance.

Dell has other plans for the retail business. Even as the ink dries on its announcement to close kiosks, the company pledged to open retail stores across the country.  The kiosks are apparently not part of this business model. 

Dell did not give an exact date on the when it will shutdown all of its kiosks, but it mentioned that it will be over the next couple days. The closings will only take place within the United States.

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Dell Kiosks
By CKDragon on 1/31/2008 12:19:41 PM , Rating: 2
Dell Kiosks have been around far longer than May 2007, as the text of the link suggests. I'd wager the kiosk in the King of Prussia mall has been there since at least 2000.

Is there any word on whether or not this means customers will or won't be charged state sales tax on Dell.com at the time of purchase? I know that in states without Dell kiosks (NJ for a while) there was no sales tax charged, while PA has been charged tax ever since that damned kiosk went up. :P




RE: Dell Kiosks
By noirsoft on 1/31/2008 12:25:46 PM , Rating: 2
The linked article states that May 2007 was when they first started putting Dell computers in other retail outlets, and mentions that the kiosks were around before that (I've seen them locally since about 2003 or 2004) -- This article is definitely incorrect.


RE: Dell Kiosks
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 1/31/2008 12:32:26 PM , Rating: 2
Sorry -- the author was trying to express 2 different thoughts and it got botched in rewrite. It should be corrected now.


RE: Dell Kiosks
By eye smite on 1/31/2008 3:29:33 PM , Rating: 3
Dell should have done this a long time ago, selling through Best Buy and the like. Instead, they focused on the commercial sector and there's no tellng how they've lost in sales all these years. I'm sure they're seeing that now.


RE: Dell Kiosks
By Cylee22 on 1/31/2008 1:08:48 PM , Rating: 2
I would think you would still get charged tax since Dell is still gonna have a presence in retail stores like BB, Walmart, etc.


RE: Dell Kiosks
By TomZ on 1/31/2008 1:19:53 PM , Rating: 2
Incorrect, in most states, you are required to collect sales tax in that state if you have an office or store in that state. In the case of Dell selling through BestBuy, Wal-Mart, etc., the retailer will of course collect sales tax on Dell purchases at their store, but it shouldn't have any effect on direct-from-Dell purchases from a sales tax standpoint, since Dell wouldn't actually have an office or store itself.

In fact, I would think that one benefit to be gained by Dell from the elimination of kiosks is that more states will be "tax-free." This makes is easier to compete with other PC companies that are tax-free, since many customers will consider the sales tax in the overall comparison.

Of course most states require taxpayers to submit sales tax for out-of-state purchases, but I think in reality, this is hardly ever done.


RE: Dell Kiosks
By Pneumothorax on 2/1/2008 1:36:57 AM , Rating: 2
Agreed. I remember the days before dell opened up these worthless kiosks. Dell Inspiron 11 lb 7000 with P3-400 cpu $3000 shipped no sales tax FTW!


RE: Dell Kiosks
By themadmilkman on 1/31/2008 1:20:58 PM , Rating: 2
Nope. Having nationwide distribution is not the same as having a physical presence in the state. The latter is required for sales tax.


RE: Dell Kiosks
By Oregonian2 on 2/1/2008 2:30:18 AM , Rating: 2
Unless of course, if you live in states like mine where there is no sales tax at all anyway.


This happened THIS morning
By 80Morphine on 1/31/2008 2:18:36 PM , Rating: 5
I was anxious to get a look at the 3008WFP in person.

I went to Dell's site, looked up where the local Dell store was, and headed down to the Westfield Shopping mall in San Jose, CA. I then found the information board which navigated me to a vacant area in the middle of the mall...

Thanks for wasting my time DELL and not updating your site. I @#$@ing hate malls... and the smells, good lord the smells...




RE: This happened THIS morning
By roadrun777 on 2/2/2008 7:31:33 PM , Rating: 2
I know what you mean... Have you ever noticed that when you go to the mall, as if by some higher mystical decree, a guy shows up that hasn't taken a shower in weeks? Then as your shopping you keep smelling the odor and then to top it off he lets a silent one to linger in an air current free dead zone where you are unknowingly drawn to look at some new technological gadget on sale?
Why is that?

To stay on topic -
Blah blah.. kiosk, blah blah. Dell has never paid me anything so I don't really care all that much. Their prices aren't really "that" competitive. The only good thing (a two edged sword here), is their support. They offer drivers and fixes for issues that other manufacturers purposefully ignore, which Dell sometimes does also; In the end, you pay for the warranty and support more than the cheap hardware produced by sweaty 13 year old Chinese children on an assembly line.


Profit margin?
By jstchilln on 1/31/2008 4:19:31 PM , Rating: 2
How thin is the profit margin for Dell? I know that in our mall even a Kiosk is a couple of grand rent a month but there has to be some type of return from these 140 Kiosk. Dell has suffered growing pains for some time now and in my opinion they have lost touch with their customers. When I bought my XPS700 many on the blogs and Dell forum were going to the Kiosk to get a feel for the machine before they bought one.




A little late...
By bearxor on 2/8/2008 9:49:08 AM , Rating: 2
but a small note about layoffs. Dell will probably only lay off between 140-180 people by closing the kiosk division.

Only the "Managers" of the kiosks were employed by Dell. The regular sales associates were all hired through a temp agency. In fact, Dell only had 9 month contracts for these employees. If they wanted to keep working they had to take a month off after the 9 months and then come back to work another 9 month contract.




what about MAC stores?
By XPguy on 1/31/08, Rating: -1
RE: what about MAC stores?
By encryptkeeper on 1/31/2008 12:23:22 PM , Rating: 5
Either English is not your first language, or that was the worst haiku I've ever read.


RE: what about MAC stores?
By noirsoft on 1/31/2008 12:26:37 PM , Rating: 5
I honestly think this guy is an apple fanboy trying to make Windows users look bad. :)


RE: what about MAC stores?
By xti on 1/31/2008 12:42:16 PM , Rating: 1
genious


RE: what about MAC stores?
By P4blo on 1/31/2008 12:46:41 PM , Rating: 5
And calling yourself 'XPguy'... So last week!

-Vistadude


RE: what about MAC stores?
By helios220 on 1/31/2008 1:16:34 PM , Rating: 1
It wouldn't surprise me in the least bit. All of his posts follow almost the exact same structure, just swap in one or two words vaguely related to the current subject and voila.

I'd almost think he has to be the alter-ego of another poster here who is just screwing with people for entertainment; there is just too much consistency and pattern to be your run of the mill retard.


RE: what about MAC stores?
By TomZ on 1/31/2008 1:22:40 PM , Rating: 2
Maybe he/she thinks there is some kind of reward for earning a "perfect" -1 overall score. After all, it does take a little "talent" to get all your posts perfectly downrated to the max. :o)


RE: what about MAC stores?
By cochy on 1/31/2008 1:36:33 PM , Rating: 2
omg. This guy is hilarious. Going through his previous posts in this context couldn't stop making me laugh.


RE: what about MAC stores?
By Xerio on 1/31/2008 1:56:30 PM , Rating: 4
I just went through a bunch of his old posts. Freakin' hilarious. As one guy said, he really must have been beat with a Mac as a child.

He should get a medal for 100% -1 ratings on his posts. :D