Dell to sell laptops at Staples

Staples and Dell have reached a mutual understanding where Dell will be allowed to sell select desktop and notebook models at Staples, both online and in-store.

Like most other office supply stores, Staples already has a large offering of Desktops and Laptops from several manufacturers but Dell has only recently shown interest in establishing an “off the shelf” retail presence.

According to ArsTechnica, the first models to be offered will be Inspiron 1721 and 1521 notebooks as well as Inspiron 530 desktops.

It’s doubtful that the models offered will be the upper-tier models, they may not even be the mid-level offerings and probably won’t include a dedicated graphics card (which is bad for the laptops but one can easily be added to a desktop).

Consumers have been shifting to the “try before you buy” model of shopping and Dell is now moving to take advantage of that.  Even if you don’t like the models on-offer in the store, you can still go try one out and then customize it to your liking at Dell Direct.

Dell did try this before with its own retail stores that did not have retail inventory and would instead allow customers to order a computer from Dell.com, we all know what happened there, it ended up being a miserable failure.

Walmart and Sams Club already sell some Dell computers, the Staples move is just another notch in the belt for Dell.

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• Best Buy to sell Dell Inspiron laptop, desktop and XPS products
• Dell’s new Studio laptops to replace XPS line
• Dell heeds IdeaStorm demands and announces plan to sell Linux PCs
• Dell closes U.S kiosks, goes the Wal-Mart route
• Dell can’t ship customized laptops on time