wayne@inmet.UUCP (06/09/88)
So yesterday I call my local music store where I've seen ST's and mega ST's displayed, and ask how much for a mega ST ? The guy says 'well we are currently reevaluating whether we will continue to carry Atari computers'. HHHHmmmmmm, I thought, being used more and more by musicians and recently announced that Atari was going after music stores to carry the line......something is fishy here. So I call another small music store that I know is an Atari dealer and the guy says 'well, I hate to tell you this, but Atari has just announced that dealers cannot purchase mega St' s unless they also purchase an Atari laser printer, so I can't sell any megas except bundled with their laser printer' (this is a one man music store.....not a department store). So, now I understand why the first store is reevaluating its' dealership. So I say ' well give me a price on the 2 and 4 meg mega systems that you are selling just for the hell of it'. He proceeds to give me a price of just under $4000.00 for the 4 meg which includes a 20 meg hard disk, the laser printer, and a bunch of software including VIP professional, and some other 'business' oriented stuff. The price for a similar package for a 2 meg, no hard disk, and only one floppy came in at $29xx.xx ( don't remember the exact change'. My response to him was ' gee....if I HAVE to spend $3000.00 I would probably get a Mac SE with a 20 meg hard disk and no laser printer that I don't want anyway.... his response was 'good point'. FFFFFFFFLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMEEEEEE OOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNN !!!! I hope you guys at Atari are listening: First you put out your cute little slogan 'power without the price'. second you build MIDI ports into the machine....obviously you are thinking of musicians using it. Third you go out of your way to court the music industry into really pushing your machine. Fair enough, it is a good music machine, plenty of music software is coming out, musicians like it, blah blah blah. So music stores start carrying it, great. Now memory requirements are becoming greater for musicians because of large sequencer data, multiple applications shells, etc. AND NOW YOU ASSHOLES ARE TRYING TO SHOVE YOUR LASER PRINTER THAT MOST MUSICIANS DON'T WANT DOWN OUR THROAT. Don't you understand that music stores are not dept stores ? They can't afford to buy a laser printer with each system to have it sit around a fucking storeroom for years. Don't you understand that it's a great help to musicians to be able to buy their computer (of CHOICE !!!!) from the music store that they always deal with ? Don't you understand that you are not going to compete with Apple and increase your prominence in the business world by alienating all of your musician customers and trying to force dealers to force consumers into buying your products ? And finally, if you as a company were going to make this kind of policy, why all of the energy to court the music stores into becoming dealers......are you guys just fucking crazy or what ? P.S. I don't work at a music store....this is from the perspective of a past 520st owner and (previously) prospective mega owner. At this point I would spend twice as much on any other computer than buy a mega, purely on principal. I think Atari and whoever dreamed up this little scheme are a bunch of assholes and I think and hope that this little folly puts your asses right out of business. If the guys at Atari or anyone else has a response to this please post it for all to see. Also my name is Keith Hedger and I'm using the account of a friend of mine. Keith Hedger