By Dominic Maher, 13 April 1999 17:27
NEWS Australia's largest PC vendor, Harvey Norman, is threatening not to sell products from manufacturers which open direct Web-based operations. The high-street chain is urging other retailers to follow suit and take a united stand against manufacturers it says are now competitors rather than partners. Alison Hopkins, senior policy and development manager at the UK's National Consumer Council, commented: "Sounds suicidal." She said a boycott of specific PC vendors would limit consumer choice and would hurt price competition. "Unless they have a huge monopoly, nobody will take notice," she said. Nick Gill, international retail director at Cap Gemini, explained that with a supply chain already in place, "if you go around it, resellers could lose their primary customers". He added: "Maybe this could be the sign that the industry is sorting itself out. There are still heavy stakes to play for and they [resellers] are still sorting out their plans." Harvey Norman already refuses to sell machines from Dell, Gateway and Apple in any of its 100-plus nationwide stores. With annual sales of more than $300m, the chain is due to open another 12 stores this year.
In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.
Log in or create your silicon.com account below