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Want To Buy A Dell? Try Your Local Staples

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The Associated Press

Published: October 23, 2007

ROUND ROCK, Texas - Dell plans to sell computers and other electronics gear at 1,400 Staples stores, the latest departure from the direct-to-customer business model pioneered by the No. 2 computer maker.

Dell and the world's biggest office products supplier announced Monday that Staples would offer Dell desktop and notebook computers, monitors, printers, ink and toner starting Nov. 11. Dell products also will be available through Staples' Web site.

Initial Dell computer models to be sold at Staples include Inspiron 1721 and 1521 notebooks, and Inspiron 530 desktops.

This is the fifth retailer Dell has teamed up with to sell its computers and printers. At the beginning of summer, Dell partnered with Wal-Mart, ending a strategy of selling computers only via the Internet and phone in an attempt to regain market share from Hewlett-Packard. Dell also has struck partnerships recently with Bic Camera in Japan, Carphone Warehouse in Britain, and Gome stores in China.

With the Staples deal, Dell products will be available in more than 10,000 stores, Dell said.

'It's unfair for people who are used to shopping in stores and want to buy Dell products that they can't get them there,' said Michael Tatelman, vice president of sales and marketing for Dell's consumer division. 'We don't want to disappoint people.'

Round Rock-based Dell was founded in the 1980s on a lower-cost, direct-to-consumer business model that made the company the global leader in PC sales. But Hewlett-Packard Co. overtook the top spot last year, and Dell started considering new ways to sell its products beyond the Internet and telephone sales.

Framingham, Mass.-based Staples already offers several other major computer brands, including HP, Acer and Toshiba Corp.

Information from Bloomberg News was used in this report.

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