Tesco fills shelves with more PCs

Tesco is to double the number of Fujitsu PCs on its shelves just one week after its pilot sales project began in New Malden. The UK superstore has also ordered an extra 200 PCs from Siemens to extend a second pilot at its store in Pitsea, Essex.

Tesco also told Silicon News that a large number of the sales have been to self-employed people, as well as to students and families.

Each store originally stocked 300 bundled PCs, but Tesco said good sales have resulted in the extra orders. A spokesman for the superstore said: "This is a good sign. We are looking at the results to see if it would be worth extending the pilot to other stores."

A Fujitsu spokeswoman confirmed: "We will talk on Friday to review the pilot scheme and discuss the potential of rolling it out to additional TescoExtra stores."

Ian French, director of computer and service business at Ideal Hardware, a distributor for both computer companies, said: "Fujitsu has been desperate to break into the retail market for some time. It is a totally logical step as Tesco is getting very involved with the Internet."

The Fujitsu spokeswoman said 40 to 50 per cent of customers have taken its offer of free home installation. But she added that if the project had full implementation, the service would cost customers around £30.

She claimed the project has been a success because "people find it less intimidating than in high-street computer stores".