Victor Rehorst <victor@gear.torque.net> wrote:
"When I want really clueless salespeople, I'll walk into a Radio sHack."
I wouldn't know about Radio Shack salespeople/clerks and PDAs (though I was an RS clerk in a desperate time of my life...), but I do know that the average CompUSA red-shirt - and I think there's a reason related to 'Star Trek' that the salespeople at CompUSA wear red shirts - wouldn't know any PDA other than Palm if it jumped up and bit 'em in the butt.
Whenever I have to make the painful trip to CompUSA I take a stroll around the handheld area, and invariably find myself correcting wrong information that a salesperson is giving a customer and end up doing the sales work myself (I should get a commission!).
Last time I was there, I asked two saleskids playing the latest first-person shoot-em-up game on one of the demo computers about the Psion Revo, since CompUSA is the sole outlet for Psion in the United States. They pointed to an old Series 5 which had been snapped in two like a twig. Uh-huh. I asked where they might have a Psion that WORKS. I was then directed to the Business counter to see if they had one in a box I could look at, where I was met with a blank stare by the man behind the counter.
"What is it?" A PDA. "A what?" PDA; you know: handheld computer. "Never heard of that one. All the ones we have are on display back there." Yes, I know, I was just back there and the Mensa candidates there pointed me here because the Psion you have on display is two years old, not made anymore, and broken into several pieces. I want to see the Revo. "What's the company name?" Psion. British company. You guys are the exclusive retailer for them here in the States. With a continuing blank stare, he checks the inventory computer. "Nope. Don't have anything like that."
What do you think, should I have pointed out the three boxes on the shelf behind him with the smiling face and the word "Revo" on them? Much as I really wanted to check one out, it would have been more trouble than it was worth to point out his obvious ignorance.
Much as PDAs and handheld computers are more and more prevelent in daily life, the witlessness with which computer retailers approach the sales of these small wonders (and their pale imitators) makes me wonder if the giants of modern computing aren't that way because they know how to exploit the stupidity-by-choice of retailers, and therefore the average customer, today. Semper paratus, and caveat emptor.
That's just my two denarii worth, and YMMV...
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