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They're Everywhere (6/13/99)
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Where we grew up, Sears wasn't the only big fish in the little mall pond; the other large retail department store at the local mall was JCPenney, and so, in our eyes, those were the two department stores in existence. Yeah, there was a Service Merchandise across the street, but really, was there anything there that could persuade us to leave the comfortable cocoon of consumerism known as the mall? I mean, really-- Service Merchandise didn't even have a food court. How gauche.
So yeah, we're darn excited that both Sears and JCPenney are now selling iMacs. The Sears deal is the one everyone's talking about, what with the floor models and the employee training and the commercials and all that, but we talked about the JCPenney rumors back in April, when Apple Insider first broke the news that the iMac would find its fruit-flavored way into JCPenney's massive holiday catalog for 1999. Those rumors have come to pass, as faithful viewer G.W. Ruggles, Jr. points out:
Just got my JCPenney Fall/Winter '99 Big Book. There on page 786 is the iMac. They have it priced at $1399.99. It comes with the regular software bundle plus a special JCPenney bonus software package. This includes "You Don't Know Jack", "Master Cook", "Titanic", "After Dark Screen Savers", "Dr. Brain Thinking Games", "Fisher-Price Big Action Garage", "Davidson Learning Center-Spelling & Grammar", & "Fisher-Price Time to Play Pet Shop". Clearly the focus is on family fun rather than the home office. The big news is that Penney's has totally ditched the Wintel stuff. The iMac is the only computer you can buy through their Big Book. As far as I know, they still have an arrangement with CompUSA to buy stuff through them using a specialty catalog but I haven't seen very much of that catalog lately. However, the Big Book is the showcase and it gets the widest distribution.
Verrry interesting, no? Even with the extra software bundle, $1399 sounds kind of high, but if someone's looking for a computer in the Penney's catalog, it sounds like the iMac is now the only choice. Who knows? If Penney's sells enough iMacs this holiday season, perhaps they'll want to hammer out a deal with Apple to put iMacs into their department stores. By this time next year, Sears might not be the only mall department store with happy translucent computers gracing their floors. Is the iMac destined for Total Mall Domination?
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 6/13/99 episode: June 13, 1999: Apple buyout rumors are back and ready to rock. Meanwhile, Sears actually seems serious about selling iMacs, and JCPenney leaps on the bandwagon, too, albeit in a catalog-sales-only fashion...
Other scenes from that episode: 1598: Cue The Vultures (6/13/99) Woo-hoo! And here we were thinking that Apple's newfound financial health-- signs of year-over-year revenue growth, increased cash reserves, record-breaking inventory numbers, stock price hovering not too far from a five-year high, etc.-- was a double-edged sword as far as AtAT was concerned... 1599: Things Are Looking Up (6/13/99) How about that? Sears wasn't kidding after all; it looks like they're really serious about this whole iMac thing. Yes, we finally saw the long-fabled Sears commercial with three dads who were, in our opinion, showing possibly just a little too much enthusiasm while balancing checkbooks and writing email to government officials via their iMacs-- but hey, we're talking about Commercialville, here, where housewives wax eloquent about the virtues of non-abrasive bathroom cleanser while grinning like synchronized swimmers or those high school cheerleaders who compete in the national finals...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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