Best Buy drops Macs
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January 28, 1998: 6:40 p.m. ET
Electronics superstore deals Apple Computer another blow
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Citing slow sales, consumer electronics retailer Best Buy Co. Inc. said Wednesday it would no longer carry Macintosh computers in its superstores.
Company spokesman Laurie Bauer said the biggest reason for the decision lies in the fact that Apple caters to the education and publishing segments while Best Buy targets traditional consumers.
"They were a very small part of our business. Our computer business is about 40 percent of overall sales which translates into more than $3.5 billion. Apple was less than one-half of one percent of that," she said.
She said Best Buy only carried two Macintosh models, neither of which were top-of-the-line.
Best Buy, which has 284 stores in 32 states, has carried Apple for about six years, Bauer said.
While the deal is not detrimental to Apple, it is a setback in its efforts to move more products through retail stores. Last November, Apple teamed up with computer retailer CompUSA to launch departments prominently featuring its products.
Apple also has started selling computers over the Internet. In the company's just-completed fiscal first quarter, Apple posted $15 million in Internet sales.
By early January, 57 stores had opened. They accounted for 14 percent of Apple's sales in its last quarter which ended Dec. 31.
Apple was not immediately available to comment on Best Buy's move.
--by staff writer Cyrus Afzali
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Apple Computer
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