Heise.de on Vista causing sales downturn:
Now, the Dixon Store Group (DSG), a British retail chain, has released specific figures. The firm says that it earned 20 million pounds less in the first two quarters of the year because sales of Vista products did not meet expectations.
To be honest, I can’t agree with this.
Sales of laptops were also down during a time where laptops are making huge inroads. Sales at PC World are down because the managers at PC World have tried turning it into a office supply shop.
The customer at PC World is not going to be one of the cognoscenti. He or she will have bought the advertising and just wants to update their computer. Two years ago if you’d gone to PC World it would have been filled with PCs, games, consoles, handhelds, peripherals and computer books.
In the stores in Lisburn and Newtownabbey, about a third of the store has been given over to office supplies which not only makes the place look cheap and untidy (because, surprise surprise, they’re cheap and untidy) but reduces the store space for “PC” products. Also – the office supplies are at the front of the store which should be reserved for high margin items – doh! – nothing higher margin than poor quality office supplies!
So, as much as I’d like to blame Vista for PC World’s sales downturn, a lot of it has sadly to rest at the feet of PC World management themselves.