Amiga and retail chains

[JC]

It was never easy to find amiga stuff and if my cousin hadn't shown me his A1000 I probably would never have known about the Amiga. I used it once and I was hooked so I was willing to drive ridiculous distances to feed my passion. I honestly did have to go to extremes at times to upgrade or purchase something. But there was just something so special about not just the machine but also the programs and programmers writting for it. Whenever I did find a store that had Amigas they rarely had anyone working there who knew how to boot them up and show a demo or game or anything. The stores that did have them running usually had people waiting in line to try out Lemmings or were standing there with jaw dropped watching a NewTek Demo. I remember when Walden Software was selling A600's so cheap that I was actually buying them up and re-selling them for a slight profit. Sure miss those days.

[save2600]

I hardly ever read/post here - but should since the Amiga newsgroups are all but dead now!

Not to sound like a certain political figure that claimed they started the Internet (that's all people got out of it, when in reality, he stated that he was on a panel that were outlining the specs for it), BUT anyway... true story: back in the day, was married to a gal who's father was a VP of Montgomery Ward (was a coincidence really that we hooked up and then later went to work for Wards). Anyway, I sold computers and the like for two of their stores back in the late 80's: Touhy Ave @ Village Crossing Niles and Lakehurst Mall, Waukegan - both in IL of course. Was always into the Amiga since the 1000 and talked incessantly about how we should carry them at our stores. Between having a great rapport with my Electric Avenue manager/VP Father in-law/Bernie Brennan (CEO of Wards at the time) and our computer buyer - they took a chance with Commodore again and we FINALLY started distributing the A500! Boy - almost wish we didn't because... the 8088/286 computer puds at the time gave me sooo much {bleep} about it!   lol   Monkey Wards did a {bleep}e job of "promoting" the system and nobody besides me knew a damn thing about them - in our store anyway, and yeah... whenever I would call others stores to inquire about stock, etc. was like talking to a wall. Everyone thought of the Amiga as just a fancy arcade game system - partly thanks to Commodore's reputation with the 64 previously I guess. Wards really didn't help matters at all due to lack of proper training, poor in stock scenarios and NO peripherals - besides maybe a 1080 or 1084. No extra ram, no disk drives, etc. Still - this was during a time where IBM PeeCee's were selling for $2k-$4k and nobody wanted to take the Amiga seriously at less than $1k for a complete system!! Yes, there WAS a time where people wanted to spend more money on something and they were proud/would brag about how much they spent!! (opposite to todays Wal-Mart mentality) - boy, I really do miss the good old days.

Anywho... I *DID* a helluva job (comparatively) selling A500's through my store(s) as I would bring in demo's, etc. from my personal collection. If I remember correctly, whoever sold an Amiga would get around 5%-6% commission off it. A "quick" $60 in your pocket if you could convince somebody to spend less money on a personal computer for a vastly superior product. Yes - did accidentally sell the occasional PC once in a while (their commission % paid out even better actually), but I'm telling you... that customer had to REALLY want one of them if they were going to have me ring it up (always hated 'em and to this day, refuse to own one)!!  lol  

If we would have carried that trapdoor 286 IBM clone for the A500, along with HD storage for it at the time, I would have been able to bundle a killer system for those that wanted a PC AND a Miggy. And come to think of it, that's something else that really hurt the Amiga. HD storage was expensive and pretty non-existent for the Amiga 500. We certainly did not sell anything remotely close to "productive" for the system and the fact that you had to "add" all of the standard computer necessities at the time and have some of this {bleep} sitting outside your computer TI 99 style (disk drives, hard drive, more memory, clock/calendar, etc.) turned soooo many people off from taking the Amiga plunge. Shame really that Ward's went the A500 route, but I remember that the big wigs did NOT want an Amiga 2000 due to that system NOT being very competitive with a PeeCee clone at the time. Too bad really because a good salesperson like me  :-)   WOULD have been able to push it. Especially with a Bridgeboard and HD combo.

The other Commodore product I was trying to get them to carry (our Village Crossing store was THE test store for the rest of Wards btw) was the CDTV. But with the "poor" gross margins and sales of the Amiga - they decided to go with the Philips CDi instead!! That system was total crap compared to the CDTV of course, but the Philips reps/negotiators were WAY more professional than Commodore's and they understood marketing. Long and short of it, Philips did a better job of convincing corporate and honestly, even to this day, Philips STILL supports that damn system with software - both entertainment and training wise. I have a buddy that *STILL* received a catalogue from them for CDi stuff!   lol

Thanks for reading - it was good to share this before I lose any more of my memory and my mind living in these backwards times!!  lol    

[amigakidd]

The last time I bought an Amiga related product was 2 months ago and it was in Barnes & Noble: Rise and Fall of Commodore Book by Brian Bagnall.

[uncharted]

It was such a different story here in the UK.  Amigas were available everywhere, every games store sold Amiga games.

My local EB (now Game) was still selling Amiga games in late 1998.  Amiga Format was widely available in most major newsagents up until it closed.  All WH Smiths seemed to carry Amiga Active until the end too (2001).

I had a part-time job working in a Currys store while I was doing my A-Levels (back in 2000).  One day, out of curiosity I did a search on the DSG (Currys/Dixons/PC World) stock system for Amiga - and to my surprise, there were still some Amiga systems (mostly A1200s) still hanging about.

[theformula]

@ uncharted

I remember when I was younger my dad took me to Game to buy my first console and I had a choice between A1200 Magic Pack (no cd32's seemed to be about even tho that was my first choice), A snes or a playstion. My dad forced me to get a playstation as he said amiga was dead. I got the playstation, got it chipped and broke the lazer so i went back to amiga. Its rather surreal remembering that all those very different consoles rivaling each other in the shop.

I also remember in Whsmith they used to stock Amiga Format, Cu Amiga, Amiga Shopper. The shelves where very full of amiga Now I go in grab the copy of micromart and check out that half page 'amiga mart'. Its sad that amiga active went bankrupt. Its still good to see amiga news on the stand  no matter how small.

I also remeber an amiga shop in derby or mansfield or somewhere in the midlands. It was very professional and rammed full of games and systems. I was rather young so I cannot remeber anymore details.

[Nlandas]

Psy wrote:
It seems a common story for people in North America the Amiga was not carried in large retail chains when they (or their parents) were looking for their first PC.

To put this in comparison the Sega Master System (and its games) was more widely carried in retail chains then the Amiga (and its software) in North America.

I read this A history of the Amiga, part 5: postlaunch blues and was shocked with this bit:
"The Commodore 64 had been sold at big retail chains like Sears and K-Mart, but marketing executives felt that the Amiga was better positioned as a serious business computer. Astoundingly, Commodore actually turned down Sears' offer to sell Amigas".

That seems just retarded.

Yes, I do believe that Irving Gould was retarded from all the alcohol, jet-setting and who knows what else. What else could explain hiring a consultant to not only analyze your company but then later run it. Now that's retarded.

The other thing Commodore did under Jack Tramiel was to allienate large computer resellers by selling their products for less in retail chains. It's fine to sell in KMart and Sears but when you do - you better offer the big computer retailers some form of rebate or something to make it fair.

From what they say in the book, The Edge, That is not how Jack thought. He had no concept of long term relationships. Just what have you done for me lately. Which isn't only evident in Commodore's early dealing with other companies but with how many Excellent Employees, left to work elsewhere.

Can you imagine if Commodore had simply left open it's development facilities, retained all of it's best Engineers and fostered good relationships with dealers and retailers? I can't because it would be a completely different world.

[Nlandas]

ral-clan wrote:
Well, I guess all these stories disprove the original posters first point, then!  The Amiga was carried in major retail chains in North America.

It was just poorly advertised & promoted.

    The A500/A2000 were not officially carried in retail chains in the United States. The Canadian counterpart of Commodore did allow KMart Canada to carry them. Just about every other Commodore Office in the World was allowed to do a better job of marketing and positioning Commodore products than the US division.

I think management was too close to the US offices to keep their hands from messing it all up.

[Nlandas]

Rob wrote:
@Crom00

The Amiga didn't fit into this universe. Sad really when they had the world by the b*lls. I mean they had their own chip fab plants, they made the 6502 for everyone else.

Pretty crazy..

Even more crazy was that they had their own LCD plant, an LCD portable machine and a big enough order to kickstart a new market for themselves.

The boss of Radio Shack convinced Marshall Smith that there was no market for such a system, so he threw all that away.

Yeah, who needs hindsight to tell them - never listen to a competitor when it comes to what to release. Especially, when that competitor is the largest vendor in the market of the item you plan to compete with.

Now that is bone-headed. I mean really, who needs to look back and say - geez, I guess I should have release a portable computer based on completely virtically integrated technology, even the LCD, to compete with other vendors in that marketspace?

On top of that, this single decision and the elimination of C='s LCD abilities was likely one of the reasons that no portable Amiga was released.