Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!bu.edu!nntp-read!mofo From: mofo@bucsf.bu.edu (jason greene) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Student Reps for Commodore Message-ID: Date: 4 Jun 90 23:26:22 GMT References: <2970@crash.cts.com> <1539@swbatl.sbc.com> Sender: news@bu.edu.bu.edu Organization: Boston Univ., Computer Science Lines: 43 In-reply-to: ammrk@swbatl.sbc.com's message of 4 Jun 90 20:36:26 GMT thanks for the response, mike. But when you said that "I should contact my local amiga dealer" there are a few problems with that: 1) There are no "local" amiga dealers in Boston. Sounds preposterous, but it's true. The closest dealer is a store called The Memory Location (a large store that does mail order as well) but it is out in Wellesley MA which is about 30-45 minutes by commuter rail, and then a 10 minute walk. It is very difficult to even get there from Boston if you don't have a car. Thus, if a student has a problem with the amiga, he would need to take it there to get it fixed. Unless, 2) The campus bookstore carries Amigas. In which case, the "local Amiga dealer" could not deal with either the store or the school, because then it would be acting as a distributor. Many of the amiga stores (all about a 45 minute radius away, but once you get out that far, there are MANY) fully realize the market. There is another large store that handles mail order as well in Worcester. Thus, the Amiga is a fairly healthy seller at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. But in the city, heck, the power of the campus bookstore is to the degree that it is convincing families to chuck out 3000 bucks for a Mac IIcx for their son or daughter who (the average student) writes 2 papers a year. 3) Also, how many computer stores, no matter what computer they sell, have the financial stability to a)blanket the advertising market, b)send flyers out to a majority of the students both incoming and current, and c)give a large enough "student discount" without having the computer company supply the computers at a discount. I have recently been corresponding though with Howard Diamond, and educational rep for CBM, who has been *most* generous in his mailings to me and his accepting of my comments in return. Two letters were sent to me, and as soon I learn how to POST to this newsgroup (not reply or forward, but post) i will include many of his key points, which I found quite fascinating regarding the marketing of a computer to a school, etc. /\/\ofo "gnew to gnus" mofo@bucsf.bu.edu "the dream is always the same"