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That Karma Thing, Man (1/29/98)
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Wow, there sure are a lot of tech-type companies in financial trouble these days: Netscape posted a loss and is laying off 400 people; Micropolis shut down entirely; Seagate is laying off some 10,000 jobs; APS Technologies just filed for Chapter 11; Power Computing just auctioned off the last of its stuff before turning out the lights; Oracle's stock plunged almost 30% last month; and of course there's Apple, whose ongoing financial difficulties are legendary in our own time. And now the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Egghead Inc. is one of the latest casualties, saying that they're closing up every single one of their 80 stores, laying off 80% of their total staff, and moving to an internet-only selling model.
Bummer, man. We at AtAT actually bought our first Mac software ever at a local Egghead store (which, I believe, was The Seventh Guest and Shanghai II). And well before that, Yours Truly used to buy Infocom games for my Apple //e there. But times change, and Egghead's taken a beating from the growth of superstores like CompUSA, as well as from the increased popularity of internet-based storefronts. Egghead's brand name recognition might give it a boost as it tries to carve out a niche for itself on the crowded cyberscape, but with successful online stores like Cyberian Outpost, MacWarehouse, etc. already dominating the scene, they've got a tough time ahead.
Of course, nowadays we couldn't care less whether Egghead sinks or swims. As far as AtAT's concerned, they started down the "bad karma" path when they ditched the Newton a couple of years ago, and they irrevocably locked themselves onto the highway to hell when they ditched the Mac platform recently. See, people? What goes around comes around. Best Buy and Computer City, beware. ;-)
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SceneLink (403)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 1/29/98 episode: January 29, 1998: Screams of horror and sighs of boredom ripple across the Mac-using world as rumors spread that Rhapsody's shipping name will be "Mac OS Enterprise." Meanwhile, Egghead Software is the latest casualty in the recent rash of tech maulings; it's jettisoning 80% of its workforce and closing every store because it can't compete with giants the likes of Best Buy (whose recent divorce from Apple was a mutually-beneficial separation, with no ill will and no courtroom drama)...
Other scenes from that episode: 402: Losing the Name Game (1/29/98) Good gravy, what's gotten into Apple regarding product names lately? First there was the ill-fated PowerExpress project, which, had it not met its untimely death, was rumored to be named "Power Macintosh Extreme" when it finally made it out of the labs... 404: Best Buy Bye-Bye (1/29/98) Of course, just because Best Buy is no longer going to be selling Apple computers doesn't mean that they were the ones who ditched the platform (even though the press is putting that typical spin on the whole thing-- take the title of the CNNfn story "Best Buy drops Macs: Electronics superstore deals Apple Computer another blow" for one example)...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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