kar7481@cuphub.cup.edu (Dan Karbowsky;AtariEliteOfPghPa bbs412-384-5609) (12/10/89)
Dealer support DOES seem to be dying.... The primary ST dealer here in the Pittsburgh area has sold off ALL EXISTING ATARI HARDWARE/SOFTWARE INVENTORY AND REFUSES TO STOCK ANYTHING UNTIL "Atari gets their marketing act together..." Gee...I thought AUTHORIZED ATARI DEALERS WERE *REQUIRED* TO KEEP DISPLAY MODELS >>ON DISPLAY<<!!!??? Anyway, he INSISTS he is NOT dropping his Atari-Certification. Hmmph. An AUTHORIZED ATARI DEALER WHO DOESN'T ADVERTISE ATARI'S BUT HAS ( Are you listening "Atari-network-ears"?) AN ENTIRE SHOWROOM OF MAC'S AND APPLE ][ and //gs products!!!!!!!!!! Again... NO ST STUFF VISIBLE!!!!! -- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Dan Karbowsky kar7481@pitt!cuphub / S U P P O R T T H E S T ! ! ! | | 102 Lee Drive ___________________/Call the ATARI ELITE of PITTSBURGH'S | | Belle Vernon, PA / BBS (Forem-ST,fnet node 19) at (412) 384-5609 at 300 | | 15012 U.S.A. / thru 19.2k baud 24 hrs./day 7-days/week Mention this | | / message at logon. | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Bob_BobR_Retelle@cup.portal.com (12/12/89)
Dan Karbowsky mentions: >The primary ST dealer here in the Pittsburgh area has sold off >ALL EXISTING ATARI HARDWARE/SOFTWARE INVENTORY AND REFUSES TO STOCK ANYTHING >UNTIL "Atari gets their marketing act together..." Perhaps *that's* why Atari Corp only has about 130 dealers in the entire United States..? Consider that there are quite a few dealers left in California, and I know we've got maybe half a dozen here in the Michigan area... that means that there are *entire States* which don't have an Atari dealer... Pretty pitiful, eh..? BobR
gl8f@bessel.acc.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl) (12/13/89)
In article <24929@cup.portal.com> Bob_BobR_Retelle@cup.portal.com writes: >Perhaps *that's* why Atari Corp only has about 130 dealers in the >entire United States..? They do? Could you be bothered to post a source for this? Reading Atari's annual report would lead you to believe that they sold at least $100,000,000 of ST's in the US last year... a million dollars per storefront? Methinks your numbers are a bit low. ------ Greg Lindahl
Bob_BobR_Retelle@cup.portal.com (12/15/89)
The figure of 130 Atari dealers came from an Atari dealer. With all the dealers either going out of business or dropping the Atari line, I don't think that's too far out of line. Remember that the sales figures were for LAST year, and there's been another years worth of deterioration of the Atari marketplace since then. You only have to read the postings here on UseNet, on the major information services and on local BBSs all over the US to see evidence of the situation. There are entire states without a single Atari dealer (and of course, Atari has stopped mail order sales of STs). People wanting to buy Atari equipment keep posting messages asking for help finding a dealer within hundreds of miles of them. It's not uncommon to read about someone driving 200 miles to get TOS 1.4 installed... At any rate, we should be able to see the actual figures for ourselves soon if Atari follows through on some of the things they're recently been saying they're going to do. It used to be that when a third-party developer called and asked for a list of Atari dealers, they'd be told "NO" in no uncertain terms... it was "proprietary information", but it looks as if they're actually going to be releasing this information as part of their new developers' support. Now if only they can get a more accurate listing of who actually sells Atari computers than they seem to have now... BobR