
DATE: Wednesday, September 24, 1997         TAG: 9709240406

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MIKE ABRAMS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   82 lines

GATEWAY MOOOVES IN WITH BEACH STORE DIRECT MARKETER OF COMPUTERS TO OPEN ITS FIRST HAMPTON ROADS STORE.

Maybe you've already noticed the Holstein spots on your way through the Pembroke area.

If not, you will soon enough.

Gateway 2000 Inc. - the global maker and direct-mailer of computers shipped in cow-spotted boxes - plans to open its first Hampton Roads store next month.

The 12-year-old company, which builds personal and business computers, uses the cow theme in celebration of its rural roots in North Sioux City, S.D. The motif is carried out on spotted accessories such as mugs, T-shirts and mouse pads.

Gateway's 1996 revenue was more than $5 billion. Its bread and butter is selling computers directly to customers by phone, mail or the company Web site, a marketing model that more and more competitors are starting to use.

Through its outlets, the company sells returned, repaired and reconditioned computers.

Workers have spent the past six weeks transforming the former Luskin's electronics and appliance store at 4725 Virginia Beach Blvd. into a techno-barnyard inside with spots outside.

The 10,000-square-foot Gateway Country Personal Computers outlet is expected to open next door to OfficeMax in the strip mall as early as Oct. 2.

A year ago, Gateway moved into the region with a sprawling technical-support call center and manufacturing and distribution plant in Hampton, the company's second such U.S. facility.

Frank Tull, construction superintendent at the Beach outlet, said his company, Scott Thomas Construction Inc. of Williamsburg, has a contract to build 150 Gateway Country stores nationwide, including one in Richmond.

Tull said he recently finished an outlet in St. Louis.

Tull said he didn't use a Gateway computer to keep track of the work.

``I don't even own a computer yet,'' he said. ``I will, though.''

Randall Crowe, a Chesapeake painter with The Coater Co., said he expects the store's boulevard-facing wall to make cows everywhere proud.

``It's going to look good,'' he said.

He said he'll paint the exterior white, cover it with plastic and then paint black spots through holes. He'll copy a mural from a paper diagram provided by the company.

``This is my first cow,'' he said. ``This is a fun job to do, because it's different.''

The spots weren't allowed on the exterior of the company's $18 million Hampton plant because of design restrictions in Hampton Roads Center industrial park.

That won't be a problem this time, said Kevin Hershberger, a city zoning inspector who monitors signs and murals.

Ever since a Domino's Pizza mural featuring the chain's gremlin-like ``Noid'' logo upset residents in the resort area years ago, Beach businesses have had to meet tougher sign restrictions. Essentially, businesses can't paint murals that attract attention directly to the products they sell.

The Gateway spots are more akin to a Pizza Hut red roof, Hershberger said, adding, ``It's just a painted pattern.''

In other words, the computer maker can milk those spots for all they're worth. ILLUSTRATION: DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH color photos/The

Virginian-Pilot

The 10,000-square-foot Gateway Country Personal Computers...

Frank Tull is the superintendent

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ABOUT GATEWAY 2000 INC.

Based in North Sioux City, S.D., it is a leading direct marketer

of personal computers.

It sells laptop and desktop computers and accessories via the

phone, World Wide Web and its stores.