Sears: Not really a Compaq place

That has emerged from a document seen by the INQ which looks at how many of its stores position, or should we say planagram Compaq products.

Chicago Sears, for example, gets this comment from a staffer: "Needs a higher up from Compaq to visit this store." Perhaps Mike Capellas could find time from his busy schedule to pay it a visit?

Apparently there's a problem with hygiene here, perhaps caused by a poor ventilation system.

Portland Sears had no new Compaq product on display, while Saint Paul wondered why Sears even bothered carrying Compaq kit. A rep said prices were more than Best Buy and people could buy kit on the Web for hundreds of dollars cheaper. "This store hasn't sold a laptop yet this year, pricing is again the issue".

The Dallas Sears only has laptops working in the store, everything else are dummies. The Redmond branch is frustrated at insufficient inventory or displays.

Houston "is in a mess". How can this be? The Sears store isn't too far away from the Big Q campus?

The Hackensack store is very old and wants to sell white goods, not Compaq kit.

Marlborough, however, is a shining beacon. Compaq was the only firm with machines on display.

Bay Shore has a 705 notebook behind glass and one dummy tower machine. It wants a Compaq catalogue.

Leominster, like Marlborough, only has one PC on display, and it's a Compaq, while Whittier doesn't seem interested in PCs either.

Burlington has Compaq dummies on display. Lincoln Park only has dummies, and no working units at all. Tampa has got a 1200 series laptop in its store but not much else. Pittsburgh only has dummy units. Staten Island needs actuators.

Miami has a problem with vandals, apparently.

The problem at Fort Lauderdale was that a customer wanted to buy a Compaq 5420, which Sears doesn't stock. So the sales person sold the customer a 5410. Bit of a problem - no stock of a 5410 at the store.

Cleveland spelled it out to Compaq. Sears prices are too high, even with rebates. The store is selling virtually no computers, and the staff lack motivation because computers have such a low commission structure.

And at Wayne, the sales people sell razors and vacuums as well as computers so it's difficult to prioritise Compaq sales.

The Salt Lake City store "is a mess", with construction work going on…

Raleigh has no PCs in stock, but the difference between the Cincinnatti store and the Western Hills store is like that between night and day. Cincinnati store was very neat indeed.

Greensburg… only had dummy models on display… µ