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Aliens, astronauts and Pope partition PC World

Shareholders welcome their new overlords

Comments It's been a while since astronauts were last in the public eye, but recently a bunch of them have been quoted as saying that aliens exist. Well, they should know, having undoubtedly exchanged glances with little green men through the windows of their space station. The government suppressed news of these encounters, naturally. Meanwhile the Vatican says there's no contradiction between the Christian faith and the existence of aliens. As we all know, the church is another big coverer-upper of uncomfortable truths, but it may be that their armour is showing a chink and this is damage control. Or maybe they're just hopping aboard the intergalactic bandwagon. Who knows?

That would spice things up around planet earth. No more Eco blabla, no more fruitless peace talks, just war with aliens.

I will probably die first and probably while sitting on the toilet :-D

Anonymous Coward


If aliens do attack, the Japanese are the best placed to defend us. No one else has such a massive body of research into, for example, giant robots, planet sized spaceships, the techniques needed by zero-G fighters, how to vat grow giant humans that can fight in space and so on.

If aliens attack, I'm heading to Yokohama, since Tokyo will inevitably be destroyed in the initial salvo.

Dominic Kua


Why does everyone assume that aliens would bother attacking? Surely it's far more likely that we'd have a quick look around, then bugger off elsewhere.

Attacking an inhabited planet is just too much like hard work.

If we want metals and other minerals, we just go and smash up asteroids.

If we want slaves, we build robots. They don't rebel, and it's easy to fit them with 'off' switches in case of software problems.

Humans are just too *squishy*. Ugh.

Anonymous Coward


As I've noted before, the only realistic option, should aliens try to attack earth, is to say "Please Mr Alien! We'll do anything you say. Anything! Just stop dropping rocks on our heads!"

For "rocks" read "10-mile-wide asteroids". After the first few cities have been wiped from the face of the Earth, and absolutely nothing you can do about it, compliance seems the only solution.

Stuart Van Onselen


Quoting shuttle astronauts' opinion on ET life is a bit misleading, as it suggest that they are in a better position to judge than us Earth-bound lesser beings. Or worse, it suggests that 'out there' is in the vicinity of the shuttle flights, when it clearly isn't.

Taking astronauts opinion of life in the universe is like asking your work colleague at the next desk their opinion of Iraq, simply because they're 8 feet further east than you.

Gav


El Ron told us that we are all descendants of surprisingly humanoid aliens who all looked like 70's porn stars.

They are here, we are not worthy (well, not until we've spent thousands on becoming 'clear').

Elmer Phud


Dixons is biting the bullet and overhauling its chain of stores, as well as halving its shareholder dividend. Always happy to have a grave to dance on, you lot let loose:

"it's even worse than you thought"

I'm sorry? Dixons is worse than I thought? Nope, not possible...!

Mike Crawshaw


The problem is that these stores have become little more than glorified showrooms for a large portion of the populace.

For my own part, if I'm buying a new electrical item, I'll do my research on line, and create a comparison list. Then it's off to the local retail parks, mooching around all the retailers (Comet, Curry's,PC World etc) to get a 'real world' look at the shortlist, then I'll make my selection. Obviously, if I can get it cheaper on line, factoring in delivery cost and convenience, then it'll be an on-line purchase. It's not often that the stores beat the on line pricing. I've even had the experience of quoting their own 'on-line price' in the store and asking them to match it, then being refused. My reaction - I take my money elsewhere. If DSGI want to survive, then the instore pricing has to match up to the on-line pricing AND be competitive at that level.

BTW, I Do Not Want to be offered an 'extended warranty' every time I buy something. By all means send me the offer via snail / email later, but my reaction in-store will always be "no thanks".

dervheid


I used to work for DSG some years back. Their training was actually pretty good BUT it only focused on sales technique not on product knowledge. Consequently we all got very good at selling their wretched Mastercare Coverplan, but not so good at advising on what to actually buy in the first place. Some sales staff really knew their stuff, but they almost invariably moved on to better paying jobs.

Anonymous Coward


I used to work at PCW too, and left when the "one team" came in.. I was probably one of the rarest PCW Sales staff around, as I actually knew what products were, and how they worked.

Nowadays, it is shocking at the lack of product knowledge the staff posess. I don't think anyone in my local PCW has much knowledge of the latest gadgets, technologies, or anything like that, and only sell what is on the endcap, as it is on offer..

I remember when PCW put up huge 60x40's at the front of stores saying "Our staff don't work on comission".. well maybe it is about time to employ people who know what they sell, are enthusiastic to sell the right product, and have to know to be able to earn money to be able to do so.. !

I'm an anonymous coward too... oh well!

Anonymous Coward


The biggest issue these guys face is that internally, they struggle with having both real world and online stores. They cannot afford to have an online presence that is too effective as it'll eat into store footfall and therefore sales, which given the costs of operating these huge purple barns is something they desperately want to avoid.

Its the reason they introduced this "buy online, pickup at store" nonsense.

They know their staff are majorly rubbish, because just like any mass-market box shifting outfit their margins simply aren't going to be there if they're also having to pay for knowledgable staff who of course will be more expensive than the YTS trainees you encounter at the moment... I'll never forget the moment I was told that USB was the same as Firewire...

They need to massively reduce their physical presence and invest heavily in their online site(s) and fulfillment/delivery service, and simply take the write down financially for doing so and play the long game.

PC World lives, currently, in the dark ages of overpriced mass-market consumer electronics, high pressure warranty and accessory sales, and a general "don't give a stuff once you've paid" mentality.

Chris Walker

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