Sears to rid shelves of PCs, film cameras

Sears, Roebuck and Co. will remove PCs and film cameras from its store shelves in the third quarter to make room for TVs, DVDs and other consumer electronics devices.

The retailing giant, which has carried computers from Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, Dell, Sony and others at various times, is winding down PC sales, after results failed to meet expectations, said Toni Duboise, an analyst at ARS. Film cameras will concurrently vanish from Sears shelves, she added.

"They didn't get the response they wanted," Duboise said. "When you think of Sears, you think of tools and dishwashers."

A Sears spokesman confirmed the company's plans to stop selling PCs and film cameras in the third quarter. "We're expanding the assortment of high-traffic items such as DVDs and software," the spokesman said. "(The PC) has been a small slice of family entertainment revenue."

Although never a giant in PCs, Sears definitely put some elbow grease into its attempt to sell them, crafting distribution deals with a number of manufacturers. Dell agreed to set up kiosks inside Sears stores but cancelled the effort after only opening a few kiosks. Sears didn't confine itself to the low end of the market but sold a wide variety of configurations.

The extra shelf space will be dedicated to TVs, DVD players and digital imaging products like cameras, Duboise said.