Retailers Are All Keyed Up Over Windows 95 Egghead Says New Software Is Clicking With Customers
On normal days, Heidi Marie Drynan’s fingers peck at computer keyboards while she teaches Egghead Software employees how to solve application glitches.
On Thursday - the long-awaited release date of Microsoft’s Windows 95 - Drynan donned a chef’s hat and flipped hamburgers in front of a red-hot grill.
“This must be what my job description meant by ‘other duties,”’ said Drynan, Egghead’s Solution Center trainer.
Spokane-based Egghead is the world’s largest distributor of Microsoft products. That put the 300 sales representatives at the company’s sprawling Liberty Lake sales and service facility in a perfect position to see how Windows 95, an operating system for personal computers, altered America’s pulse.
Their tentative diagnosis: a case of national high blood pressure. An ordering frenzy kept 300 Egghead sales reps riveted to their phones and thumbing through manuals for information on related products. Employees will be on hand around the clock for the next week.
To keep the sales people nourished, Drynan and other executives took orders and cooked hot dogs, hamburgers and veggieburgers from 7:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. The personal catering service also allowed workers to stay near the phones at all times.
“This is our way of showing support and appreciation for the (inside sales representatives). It’s a real morale booster,” said Gary Whitman, Egghead’s government sales manager-cum-barbecue chef.
“I just hope they don’t get used to giving me orders,” Whitman said as he straightened his white chef’s hat.
Although Egghead officials won’t know the dollar volume of Windows 95 sales until this evening, employees estimated that sales were up at least 30 percent from typical days. Egghead expects to sell about $80 million worth of Windows 95 and related products in the next six months, according to Egghead President Terence Strom.
Usually software sales peak within a week or month after a product’s release. But with the swirl of hype that surrounded Windows 95, sales surged only seconds after midnight.
Technophiles worldwide have grown impatient. They want their Windows now, said Ron Foster, vice president of operations.
“We’re getting calls from corporations and individuals who want to go to the nearest retail center and pick up their Windows instead of waiting for it to be express-mailed by tomorrow,” Foster said amidst the din of ringing phones and the smell of char-grilled burgers.
But sales reps are urging the masses to refrain from such urgency and wait for the postman. Throngs of eager computer users have already strapped supply of Windows 95 at Egghead’s retail outlets nationwide, Foster said.
Windows 95 isn’t Egghead’s only hot seller. Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft designed 28 other products, from software to navigate the World Wide Web to high-powered desktop publishing programs, to piggyback on the success of Windows 95.
As an incentive, Egghead employees who sold extra products or upgrades Thursday got an extra slice of cheese, pickles or chips with their otherwise naked buns and beef. Phone reps who correctly answered questions about Windows - such as its price and hardware requirements - also won bonus condiments.
Egghead announced last month that it would move its corporate headquarters from Issaquah to Liberty Lake. The company opened its Spokane sales and service center in January, so most of the workers have been with the company less than nine months.
“It’s crazy. They’re swamped but they’re doing fantastic,” said Joseph Rand, manager of Egghead’s direct response team. Rand oversees phone reps, who were too busy taking catalog and corporate orders to pause for an interview.
Most Spokane distributors of Windows shared Egghead’s sales flurry. Windows 95 packages at Office Depot, which began taking reservations for the product last week, were sold out within hours.
“It’s going nuts around here. Absolutely nuts,” said Angela Warren, an employee at at Office Depot, 1003 E. Third.
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