Wal-Mart set to sell Dell desktops in June

We've already heard talk of Dell moving into retail, but it looks like the company is now set to take its first big step in that direction, partnering with none other than Wal-Mart to sell a couple of its desktop computers in all 3,500 Wal-Mart and Sam's Club locations across the U.S., Canada ,and Puerto Rico. Details are still somewhat light, but there will apparently be two different Dimension desktops offered at Wal-Mart stores to start with, both running under $700 for a bundle, and each "exclusive" to Wal-Mart. Sam's Club and Wal-Mart Canada will apparently carry slightly different, but equally exclusive models. Both companies are promising to reveal more details about the specific models soon, but you won't have to wait too long to check 'em out for yourself, as they're set to begin hitting store shelves on June 10th.

[byaah @ May 24th 2007 11:49AM]

Wal Mart wasn't really the first place I thought would carry Dells, but whatever. I'm never buying a Dell again so it doesn't really matter to me.

[Meltz; @ May 24th 2007 5:06PM]

my first response to the article: "Who cares?"

[jeremy.fuksa @ May 24th 2007 11:52AM]

Actually, this doesn't surprise me, nor is it really that new.

The first computer I ever bought for myself was a 486SX-based Dell desktop, straight from Sam's Club. That was 14 years ago.

[JohnTitor @ May 24th 2007 11:55AM]

Seems to be a move to try to take the crown back from HP

[Thataboy @ May 24th 2007 12:08PM]

Wow. Two companies that REALLY belong together.

[techwarrior @ May 30th 2007 5:39PM]

walmart s cheap dells are cheap there the perfect match. i wouldnt buy a dell anyway thought to many people have had hard ware problems

[Rick Lyon @ May 24th 2007 12:12PM]

Personally, goes against the crowd, but I see this as death blow to other PC boxes. Costco/Sams upper class buying 1st computers, or for their kids, Walmarts buying for the lower class/financially conscience crowd. I don't see how HP, Compact, Acer, whoever else can survive long term now.

[Dood Yoogotta @ May 24th 2007 12:30PM]

How appropriate!
Dell, the 'Wal Mart' of Computers, running Windows, the 'Wal Mart' of OSes, now sold at...
Wal Mart

Tasteless bargain hunting slobs everywhere, rejoice!
Now if only they would come out with an American Idol or NASCAR edition of the computer.

[JohnP@Dell @ May 24th 2007 12:33PM]

A little more product detail can be found at the Dell blog, www.direct2dell.com. Just to be clear, our customers are asking us for additional ways to purchase products and we plan on delivering on a global level. Offering Dell Dimensions in Wal-Mart is a great example of this approach. While we can't get into specifics, in the coming quarters there will be additional activity in support of this move into global retail. The deal with Wal-Mart represents our first step.

[CheepKrapUSA @ May 24th 2007 1:56PM]

Ahh yes, a last ditch resort. With MS charging more for their OS (which you NEED to survive - ubuntu won't save you) and now Wal Mart will dictate to you what they will pay for your PCs, which will be less & less each passing year. Your profits will slim right down. It is sort of like being the biggest guy in prison's bitch, so other's wont mess with you. I see Dell stocks to continue to be worth less & less. What are they now? $25-? Maybe Michael Dell should sell the company & give the money back to the shareholders.
Sound like good advice?
Now the term "Dude, you got a Dell" will carry a mocking connotation. Sort of like "Sucker!"

[NHAnimator @ May 24th 2007 12:47PM]

Long time Dell proponent. Have purchased a couple of dozen computers over the years and have been (generally) happy with them. Maybe I'm lucky.

Problem I see with the WalMart approach is everyone who is going to be returning these to Customer Service for the most absurd/uneducated user complaints. (Our WalMart C/S desk is filled with shopping carts of returned phones, VCR's, etc.) And their A/V personnel will be woefully inadequate to provide any support whatsoever. They would need a separate department just for bogus returns.

Will WalMart need to start telling consumers, "You can't return this to us"? A liberal return policy has always been a strong selling point on their part.

[Sam @ May 24th 2007 1:16PM]

When I worked in a best buy store before moving to a corporate job, we used to always joke that we would love for wal-mart to sell cheapo dells, just so we wouldn't have to deal with as many of the rednecks that come in on sunday and want the cheapest PC in the store.. they always come in and say "do you have dell? oh you don't? what's the cheapest thing you have?"

[Adam @ May 24th 2007 3:03PM]

Was this before or after you tried to screw the customers with your 'craptastic' product replacement plan? At least dell doesn't try to deceive the customers with their "fluctuating prices" as does best buy. Your comments were very arrogant and coming from a former best buy employee, I don't believe you have the capacity to be more arrogant than anyone.

[JR @ May 24th 2007 1:20PM]

Where's the heart on the graphic? Is that only for M&A?

[dpartin @ May 24th 2007 1:33PM]

This is not Dell's first attempt at moving into the brick & mortar retail channel. They tried this with Best Buy in the early 90's only to return to their tried and true direct sales model. I think you will probably see similar results here.

[Mike @ May 24th 2007 1:45PM]

Any time a model is "Exclusive" for WalMart that's never a good thing. It's either going to have bad specs, crappy components, sub par quality, or something else that Dell can do to make these cheap since that's all that WalMart cares about. If they sold the same exact models you can get online but you'd just save on the shipping and such then it might be fine.

[JC @ May 24th 2007 1:49PM]

Well, whoever works in the marketing department at Dell needs to stop smoking crack. Quantity over quality is probably not the best way to do business.

I might consider buying a Dell if it was being sold at a Best Buy, or similar store, but not from a place where hicks and their rat-tailed kids go for a day trip and a "nice meal" at the built in McDonald's.

[rahat @ May 24th 2007 2:15PM]

there sure are a lot of morons today. dell makes money, walmart makes money - how is this going to harm either company? its just 2 moels of desktops people.

did that one moron actually claim that dells stock will go down for selling more computers? did the other moron actually claim that selling less product is 'better business'?

please, please, stay in school.

[Cazz @ May 24th 2007 2:52PM]

Uh, go back to B school. There are plenty of companies that place quality over quantity and reap higher margins at lower sell through. If you look at the mass retailers sales are down, those retailers focusing on exclusivity and quality sales are up and have been climbing for a decade.

There are classes beyond econ 101.

[CheepKrapUSA @ May 24th 2007 4:01PM]

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/102/open_snapper.html

[rip @ May 24th 2007 4:49PM]

Quantity does not mean profit. You could start a company tomorrow selling quad-core computers for $1. You'd sell millions. And you'd be out of business immediately.

IBM sold it's pc business specifically because it couldn't make any money at it. And they were a top 5 seller.

Another example is GM. They sell a lot of cars. Mostly to the Wal-Mart crowd, btw. And they lose billions.

Partnering with Wal-Mart in a position of weakness, which would be Dell, means that Wal-Mart is going to squeeze your margins to death. If not now, then later.

Sounds like your the one that needs to go back to school.

[Sam @ May 25th 2007 2:15PM]

in regards to the product replacement plan, you do sign saying you agree to the terms. The terms are pretty clearly laid out. If you disagree with a decision made in store, ask for the number of the corporate customer service line. And it is clear that you have no idea how the retail business works if you think "fluctuating prices" don't happen. And arrogant? yes, most likely, but its the truth. If you have never worked in retail, you have no idea. I put up with it for 3 years before graduating and moving to the corporate marketing dept. for BBY. When you lay out the needs for the customer, and they disregard you because you wear a blue shirt, its frustrating, and dare i say, arrogant?

[Ken @ May 24th 2007 6:41PM]

Dell is over! By selling computer in walmart! When u think of walmart, u think of cheap stuffs! that' is where people go for cheap stuffs!
Can you imaging Mercedes selling their new car for under 20,000$?

[chris @ May 24th 2007 11:15PM]

Oh man... not wal*mart... :(

If I were to buy a new laptop any time soon, I'd be hooking up with a new dell ubuntu laptop, but certainly wouldn't be buying from wal*mart. Yuk.

[Rob @ May 24th 2007 11:55PM]

Am I the only one that is wondering if there are going to be Ubuntu Dells in wal mart within the next year or two?

[Darrell Johnson @ May 25th 2007 12:04PM]

What i dont think a lot of people realize here is that this is about business.. Not about how good or bad walmart is or how bad dell is or how great they are... Its about a Multi billion dollar deal with 2 extremely large companies whose Ceo's play golf together on the weekends.. Wake up... Make money.. A computer is a computer anyway... Its not the hardware that sucks.. SUPRISE... Its the Operating System..

[Mexicanmike @ May 26th 2007 1:46PM]

the reality of it is that walmart and dell probly dont care that they will loose money on the desktop themselves. Dell more than likely will not take a hit on these units, walart will buy these units at a small loss and will make up for the difference with accessories, cables, surge protectors, software, bag of chips the little rednecks ask for while their parents lug the 35lb crt that comes with these bundles to the front lane. No retailer make money on their desktops, or even most of their laptops, rather they do get maufacturer kick-backs for the rebates. Profit margins are very low on all cpu's, all the margins come from accessories and services. Best buy makes more money on services than anything else, and their clientell is willing to pay for it, for the most part. The walmarters will buy the emachine crap and nothing else, but for the most part they will at least buy a usb cable, basically paying the operating cost of Best Buys undereducated, underpayed college students hourly wage. Walmart blows, but instead of complaining, dont shop there. I have never set foot in a walmart because their product is crap and their customer/employee relations blow. People always complain about walmart, but all retailers are customer driven companies, stop shopping at places like walmart.

[aasighazi @ May 26th 2007 10:18PM]

Personally, I have never had a problem with Dell and I own two laptops from them bought straight online...anytime there's even ever been a problem, they've totally come out of their way to help. Maybe I'm one of those lucky few. I owned other comptuers before like Sony, and Gateway but my Sony died on me in just 2 years and gave me numerous problems. Gateway however is another good brand I wouldn't mind having again because we never really had problems with them.
Now WalMart is going to sell Dell. I don't think that's bad but what concerns me is if something goes wrong with the desktops and what not, how will the warranty work? Plus, people buy Dell online because they can customize what they want in their computers. How is anyone going to be able to customize their computer at WalMart? Someone's going to want a better Wireless, someone's going to want an upgrade to the OS, etc. I don't think people will really like this idea.
My next computer is definitely going to be a Gateway. If I decide to purchase another Dell I will buy it online, period. Maybe they could've started selling Dell at Target if they're going into the retail business period. Dell does sell select computers in Costco by the way. If Dell was brought into Costco, that would've been a much better boom then going to WalMart.

[doctorotr @ May 27th 2007 10:03AM]

Well at least Dell is doing what Jobs and Woz only talked about...I remember when they were taking on Big Blue to bring computers to the masses....Now Steveo just wears turtlenecks, jeans and birkenstocks while pushing 2500 dollar laptops and 600 dollar cellphones...

I guess he still looks like a liberal though...

[jean b patterson @ May 27th 2007 4:35PM]

it is the customer service that I have the problem with, not the Dell desktop model I have, and the Windows XP program that I was under-educated about...am I in the minority in being unhappy with Windows programs, and operating systems?

[aasighazi @ May 28th 2007 4:29PM]

Oh and one last note, Dells are really not as cheap as they say it is. Honestly, it's about what you put into the computer when you buy it. Because you can customize Dell online, you can put in a better Intel, upgrade the OS and add in more features and software you want. That adds up to a LOT of money. If you go and buy the Dell at WalMart, you're going to get a $700 buck computer because they won't have what you want. Buy the same computer at the Dell online store and you will have to spend way more then $700 to get the type of computer you want. XPS sells starting at 1399 now and the more features you add, the more it will cost...it can cost up to 3 grand with all the stuff you can get added in when you order online.

[jason @ May 29th 2007 5:56PM]

People who buy a computer at walmart will be buying a computer simply to go online, check email and do word processing. You could sell them an x86 and they'd be happy.

[Chris @ Jun 5th 2007 3:55PM]

It's not the 30lb CRT that you think it'll come with. The bundled Dell computer will come with a 19" flat panel monitor. It's a Dimension E521 with an AMD 3600+ dual core processor. It has a few more features that I won't disclose on here since you'll see it in 5 days anyway, but for $698, it's not a bad deal. If you don't want the monitor and you don't mind having a smaller hard drive, the price will be $498. Who cares if either company loses money? The bottom line is it's a decent entry level computer for doing web stuff and basic gaming.

[Anonymous @ Jun 6th 2007 2:30AM]

June 10th Dell Desktop will be $698. Model number E521B-001W. With 19" LCD (E197FPB), Athlon 64x2 3600+, 2x512mb DDR2 667MHz, 320GB SATA, Integrated GeForce 6150LE, 16x DVD +/-RW, USB KB, USB Mouse, 13 in 1 Media Card Reader, 10/100 Ethernet, Integrated 7.1 Channel Sound, 56k PCI Data Fax Modem. Works 8.5, Internet Search & Portal, Acrobat 7.0(since when has Acrobat been an exciting feature), Roxio Creator Basic, McAfee Security (30 days), Earthlink, AOL for Broadband, Dell Manual on PC, Windows Vista PC Restore, Dell Resource DVD w/ Application Backup, 1 Year Warranty, And WINDOWS VISTA HOME PREMIUM O.M.G. oh wait, nm.

For $498 the E521SA-001W will offer no monitor and the HDD will be downgraded to 250GB. There is no indication of it coming with the USB KB and Mouse on the box.

[Dean @ Jun 7th 2007 1:22AM]

I hope they have a good hard drive in them.I had my Dell computer serviced by Dell,and they put in the worst brand imaginable.It was the cheapest hard drive.Maxtor.It did not even last a year.

[wolfpack4 @ Jun 10th 2007 12:42PM]

I think it's a good thing. Maybe now I can by my printer cartridges there (instead of via mail order). PS: I am a Professional Engineer (not a redneck) who shops regularly at Wal-Mart for the same brand name products that cost more elsewhere. It only makes good sense.

[wormwood @ May 13th 2008 9:08PM]

question:
what if wal-mart, being the corporate giant crusher of all---
added actual techs with actual COMPUTER KNOWLEDGE
instead of the instore clerks with the usual
'uh, let me ask what this does' or
'let me read off the sale tag'...
would that make a difference in the computer shopping experience
at walmart? yes and no.
....
and yes,
WM has been linked to the 'less than adequate' folks out thier.
however in some cities, WM stores have relocated and opened up
with a more 'upscale' if you will, atmosphere.
either way- i think its a good ""experiment.""
(anything is better than the geeksquad)

(and please people-no matter what store you shop, you are always going to find the unintelligent customer who asks
'where be them cheap pcs!')