Walmart Begins Home Install Program
By Alan Wolf -- TWICE, 10/26/2009
Bentonville, Ark. — Walmart has begun offering home installation services for TVs, home theaters and PCs through a partnership with NEW.
The services, which start at $99 for a basic TV installation and $129 for a basic PC setup, will be sold via prepaid cards displayed on descriptive merchandisers and within the home-theater and computer aisles.
The offering follows a major assortment and display upgrade within Walmart's CE departments, and represents a major step toward filling the service vacuum that separates full-line discount stores from specialty CE dealers.
The install program has already been introduced in some stores, and is expected to be rolled out nationwide by month's end, a Walmart spokesperson told TWICE.
“It's an affordable and simple solution, and a real benefit to our customers,” the spokesperson said.
Unlike a similar NEW program that will debut at Walmart's Sam's Club division on Nov. 1, the Walmart offering does not include home delivery.
The in-home visits will be made by NEW's nationwide network of about 11,000 certified and insured installers. Basic TV services include a pre-installation consultation, TV placement, hook-ups to two A/V components, remote control configuration, packaging clean-up, and a follow-up visit and tutorial.
Walmart's premium TV service, for $339, also provides wall mounting, concealed in-wall wiring and two additional A/V component hook-ups.
PC services range from $129 to $199 and include software installation, peripheral hook-ups, data transfer, hard-drive defragmentation and tutorials.
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