Channeling Sales

You know, most of the time when 800 lb gorillas go thrashing about, especially in areas they don’t belong or aren’t familiar with, everybody hears them long before they see them and there is plenty of time to get out of the way, or if you are Jack Black in “King Kong”, figure out how to capture him. Just like chasing Kong everybody worries when Wal-Mart makes a move into electronics, but this week’s decision to move into BTO PCs is stillborn and unapproachable.

Wal-Mart has had lots of success selling bundled desktops and notebooks, in one box, at a cheap price, for a limited time. They have had no success in selling any PCs off the shelf. And while BTO is partly meant to account for that, the fact is the BTO model for consumers is in somewhat of a crisis (ask Dell how well consumer is treating them) and the in-store kiosk model for retailers to copy Dell has proven to be less than successful, (try finding a BTO kiosk at Best Buy). Wal-mart would love to sell more expensive PCs but BTO Kiosks aren’t going to help them do it.