No Joke. Gateway Closing All 188 Stores April 9th.

macsrgood4umacsrgood4u
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
No big surprise I'd say. They'll be net-only.



Quote:

teway to close retail stores, cut 2,500 jobs_(GTW)_By Rex Crum

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Gateway (GTW) said Thursday it will close its 188 retail stores effective April 9. The closings will result in a loss of 2,500 jobs at the personal-computer and consumer-electronics company. A Gateway spokesman said the company would outline how much it expects to save from the store closings when it delivers its quarterly results in late April.



Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    What about their buyout of E-machines? With it come all of the E-machines retail contracts, which are everywhere. I wouldn't be surprised if Gateway drops the E-machines name and starts selling Gateway computers all over the place - wherever you can get an E-machines today (Wal-Mart, CompUSA, etc).
  • Reply 2 of 18
    macsrgood4umacsrgood4u Posts: 3,007member
    Gateway was expected to do this after their acquisition of eMachines. That will be their "retail" line sold through Walmart et al. Gateway will save lots of $$$ by closing the stores and concentrating as Dell does on mail order/internet. They have a quarterly report coming up at the end of April and they will annouce their plans. Those analysts that said retail wouldn't work for Apple were wrong. It wouldn't and didn't work for Gateway!
  • Reply 3 of 18
    blablablabla Posts: 185member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by MacsRGood4U

    Those analysts that said retail wouldn't work for Apple were wrong. It wouldn't and didn't work for Gateway!



    Those Apple retail stores are only profitable because of creative accounting.
  • Reply 4 of 18
    wrong robotwrong robot Posts: 3,907member
    Is it just me, or has gateway been getting the short end of the stick for quite some time now. It seems every new endeavor they take, fails. They made some success with plasma screens, but at the expense of selling other stuff. and now this?



    bummer for gateway.
  • Reply 5 of 18
    mccrabmccrab Posts: 201member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by MacsRGood4U

    Those analysts that said retail wouldn't work for Apple were wrong. It wouldn't and didn't work for Gateway!



    Absolutely. The key point of difference is that when you play in a commodity market (such as Gateway), you must have the lowest cost structure in order to survive (and the lowest cost producer takes most of the market share - read Dell).



    The only way to compete is to become a manufacturer offering a branded, differentiated product. Apple can afford to play the retail game because its products are different and can command higher margins in order to absorb the cost of relatively higher distribution.
  • Reply 6 of 18
    nwhyseenwhysee Posts: 151member
    Walmart sells computers? ewww...
  • Reply 7 of 18
    dbamberdbamber Posts: 21member
    I would bet that there are around 188 retail store locations that were designed for high tech retailing available around April 10. Maybe Apple could get favorable lease terms? You could display a lot of ipods in the area that a 42" plasma screen takes up. Perhaps a lot of oversize Apple logos could cover the black spots on the walls? Might save on redecorating costs that way.
  • Reply 8 of 18
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by nwhysee

    Walmart sells computers? ewww...



    Actually, they're not so horrible for the price. I've actually thought about getting one to set up as a testing sandbox with linux. For around $250 you can get a bare-bones PC with a 1.6 GHz Duron, 128 MB RAM, 40 GB HDD, CD, modem, and ethernet.



    It would be a hell of a lot faster than running Virtual PC.
  • Reply 9 of 18
    macsrgood4umacsrgood4u Posts: 3,007member
    The problem with the Gateway Stores is/was that they're usually in open stand alone areas out of the way and accessible only by car. No foot traffic. Apple has put their stores in high end/high traffic malls or streets. I seriously doubt they would be interested in the real estate.
  • Reply 10 of 18
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    weird double post with wrong pic...WTH? Sorry...
  • Reply 11 of 18
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    I thought this was kinda neat, considering...







    It's from today's MacMinute, and the story about the Dell closings is sitting right on top of the one about Apple opening yet another one, in Pittsburg this time.







    One of those heartwarming moments life tosses you sometimes...
  • Reply 12 of 18
    wrong robotwrong robot Posts: 3,907member
    That's a killer mock-up! wow, someone was using their grey matter.
  • Reply 13 of 18
    performa636cdperforma636cd Posts: 187member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Wrong Robot

    Is it just me, or has gateway been getting the short end of the stick for quite some time now. It seems every new endeavor they take, fails. They made some success with plasma screens, but at the expense of selling other stuff. and now this?



    bummer for gateway.



    they deserve the short end of the stick with their POS machines.
  • Reply 14 of 18
    jbljbl Posts: 555member
    Where did that mock up come from? Not MacMinute. I want one.
  • Reply 15 of 18
    jadejade Posts: 379member
    i loved that mock up...can you make a pink one!
  • Reply 16 of 18
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    Sorry guys...that mockup was one I did - and posted - in a Future Hardware thread. I went to post the story from MacMinute and I pasted the link from the other, but I honestly don't recall making TWO posts here.



    The MacMinute story about the closing of Gateway stores and the opening of Apple's is the one intended.



    Just saw that double post this morning...
  • Reply 17 of 18
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    Forget Gateway...



    That picture clued me into the Apple store being built less than a mile from my house!
  • Reply 18 of 18
    messiahtoshmessiahtosh Posts: 1,754member
    Gateway is all washed up, Apple is just getting its feet wet.
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