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From: EWINGRA@CTRVAX.VANDERBILT.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Sears
Message-ID: <1D699479C06026C8@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu>
Date: 30 Mar 91 19:41:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
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All this chatter about selling Apple II computers through Sears makes me
think that this community has some really short memories about a few
things.

First of all, Apple IIs *have* been sold through department store channels
before.  If y'all remember back about 6 years ago, selling Apple //cs
through Macy's (and I think some other retailers) was tried as an
experiment one Christmas season.  The result was decent sales but a
support disaster.  The personnel at a department store were not trained
or qualified to answer the myriad of questions regarding their systems,
from hardware, software, peripherals and general problems dealing with
disks, ProDOS, etc.  Also, service for defective computers was also
crummy as reported back to Apple from consumers.  So the idea was quietly
axed, much to the delight of the dealer channel.

Second, when Sears Business Centers opened some years ago, Macs were
supposed to be in them, but Apple and Sears couldn't agree on some
things and the deal never happened, or if it did happen, it was very
short lived.

Just tryingto put a little reality check in this group.

--Rick Ewing
  Vanderbilt University