I predicted this....
 

Gateway to close ALL it's Brick-n-mortars. I predicted this the day they announced the concept. However, it took longer for them to close than I thought...by a couple of years. :D

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20040401-1432-ca-gateway.html

I just bought a printer month ago at one of these stores in Omaha and was talking with the salesman and I asked him about if he worries about store closings (this isnt the only round of this) and his response was 'it won't happen to this store, our numbers are in the top 5 of all Gateway stores in the country'. Right.

Nothing wrong with that! Dell's better anyway. . . and as far as shopping goes, if I can't find it online I usually won't do it! Few things worse than wasting my day standing around some retail establishment in a crowd of morons (usually).

I was suprised they actually built them to begin with.
The two I've seen have been huge empty wastes of space, filled with employees and no customers, and in prime real-estate locations.

Gateway has incredible customer service and good computers(I'm using an 8 year old 300mhz right now), I'd hate to see the company change it's overall buisness model.

IMO, it appears that DEll has managed their business the best from the beginning. Starting with Just-in-time invetory that Compaq and every other PC (as well as other industries) has adopted.

Dell does what they do best, efficient online PC sales.

I do have an issue with the use of Indian tech/customer support. They are just not up to providing a quality service in this area.

Too bad for Gateway...taking risks often results in failure...I hope they can bounce back, the competition is good to keep Dell on their toes.

I've always owned a Dell. The reason is, from my point of view (general computer processing) they do it right. It's great calling their customer service and hearing a twangy accented Texan answer my questions.