Why even carry PCs if you display them like this?

For some reason, it seemed as though when Wal-Mart began carrying Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) laptop and desktop computers last year, the world's largest retailer would have upped the game in terms of how it merchandised the equipment. Not so -- from the get-go, Wal-Mart mostly merchandised Dell's PCs in factory boxes on pallets. In fact, this reminded me more and more of the other "Wal-Mart," which is Sam's Wholesale Club. In these warehouse stores, the merchandise is stocked, well, like a warehouse. It's a shame when some of the hotter products in one of the best categories in any Wal-Mart location was merchandised like wholesale ramen noodles in a wholesale club.

But, that was then and the Wal-Mart/Dell relationship had just begun. Like always, time needs to be allowed to get merchandising up to par. When it came to Dell's laptop systems, they were merchandised under plexiglass where the customer could not even touch them (along with all the other laptops Wal-Mart carried). When I explain this to many people, the defense comes back like this: "The foot traffic in Wal-Mart stores is such that if high-priced electronics items were not secured, pieces of them would walk off." Nonsense, I say. If Wal-Mart intends on selling these types of items, the company needs to find a way to merchandise them properly. Get innovative already, would you please?

That was then, this is now

Like I said, that was December of last year. Fast forward to today, and indeed Wal-Mart is merchandising its laptop PCs in a different way then during the last holiday season. Desktop computers are on the decline these days, so merchandising of those systems is still done on the "box on pallet" approach. No surprise -- merchandising an entire desktop PC takes quite a bit of shelf space. But how about the hot sellers in the PC universe -- laptops?

Upon wandering into a few Wal-Mart Supercenters this past week, I found that the merchandising had indeed changed. It looks as if both Wal-Mart Supercenters had used a standard four-way shelf arrangement to display four different laptop PCs. Two were made by Acer, one by Dell and one from Everex. The kicker was this: these four laptops on display were not even laptops: they were hollowed-out plastic shells with keyboards that had come apart, probably from all the "fake typing" from passing customers.

Not only did the display look incredibly inept, but these shell pieces weren't even good representations of the real laptop product they were intended to represent. Sure, one could get a feel for the physical size, but not the actual "feel" for the machine. One thing I have noticed with PC shoppers is that they like to type on each PC they are testing out, as if that's the largest piece of the decision. It really isn't (a keyboard is a keyboard is a keyboard), but that's human nature. When you have a display of a plastic shell that moves all over its display surface due to weighing an ounce or so and has fake keys falling off the shell itself, the presentation really does not inspire confidence.

Why isn't Wal-Mart stepping up to the plate here?

Perhaps Wal-Mart is about to undertake a complete renovation of the way it merchandises PCs in the near future to try and equal how successful its newer flat-panel television customer presentation looks (and again, job well done with that one, Wal-Mart). In keeping up with weekly prices on laptops -- the PC category's hot seller -- Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) has Wal-Mart either matched or beat every single week in terms of entry-level pricing, which I consider to be a $450 to $600 laptop. Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE: CC) even has a very presentable merchandising presentation for its lineup of laptop PCs. Why can't Wal-Mart get in the game here?

It's true that Wal-Mart sees quite a bit more daily foot traffic than Best Buy or Circuit City. Still, that is not an excuse to have subpar merchandising on some of the hotter product categories in an entire store. Wal-Mart, you'd be good to find an innovative way to display live, working laptop PC products that customers can seen, touch, use and caress (don't think that doesn't happen) when it comes to PC merchandising. In fact, I'd rather see no display at all that the sorry excuse for a hollowed-out plastic shell type of display that could actually turn one off from buying a laptop PC from Wal-Mart.

The days of the "keep all electronics under glass, not powered and and locked up" are completely over. Walk into most national consumer electronics retailers and almost every laptop PC, MP3 player and digital camera will have a live display that's powered up and ready to be taken through the ringer by any passing customer. These are all very personal devices, and the merchandising of them required that they be usable to each potential customer. Locking them under glass where customers can't touch them, use them or even play with them in any form is disastrous when it comes to the merchandising of personal consumer electronics. With that said, here's wishing Wal-Mart will realize this, form an innovative solution to solve these merchandising issues and step up to the plate. Right now, it's in the dugout not even playing on the same field as its main national competition.

Stay right here next week for another edition of The Wal-Mart Weekly, and until then -- have a great weekend!