[Lincs] Retail Centre

[Chris Burton]

> this may be an even more stupid question... but if you don't, do you
> think there should be one... can you see an advantage.

Hi,

<IMHO>
To be honest I don't think one would last long - having worked in a computer 
shop in Newcastle City centre for a few years I know there is little money 
these days in building PCs and most seems to be from the 
maintenance/support. Add into that you probably couldn't use some "unknown 
hardware" products the costs could be even more than a regular PC (where the 
margins are small enough as it is).

Most Linux support is going to be either for businesses which are likely to 
want to pay for it (yay), or home users that are either a) will know where 
to get help b) novice and not likely to want to spend much (if anything) 
before resorting back to something else that "works". c) go to their local 
LUG and get it for free

I was looking at a small (275sq ft) shop in Balderton last year at a price 
of about £10,500 pa (rent/rates), I would imagine the costs in Lincoln would 
be even higher. To "cover" just this you would need to be selling at least 4 
machines every week with a mark-up of £50 and then you have to cover 
insurance/electricity/staff/etc costs - Not very practical unless you can 
secure some other income to cover the quiet periods or pull in some Business 
customers to support.

If you do try it then I wish you luck, but with big companies pushing Linux 
on cheap desktops/laptops I think you'd be hard pushed to make it pay the 
way things are these days.
</IMHO>

ChrisB.