This information was collected by myself (Jeff Opal) and Scott Windom, and some other users of the BRHandheld eGroup. According to my information, it is a complete list of all stores in Baton Rouge that have handhelds displayed. I last updated the information on the page on 28-May-2003. The stores are listed in alphabetical order.
Best Buy: located around 300 meters east of the Baton Rouge COMPUSA store. This store began advertising in the Baton Rouge Sunday Advocate on Sunday, 6-Oct-2000, with a magazine-style insert (like Office Depot, Circuit City, Radio Shack, and other stores have been doing).
I last visited this store in the first week of 2003, and found a total of around 20 different handhelds.
An old photo, from October of 2002 (when the store was new and had few handhelds) is here.
Circuit City: located around 200 meters to the south-west of the intersection of Airline Highway and Florida Boulevard. This location of Circuit city has around 11 types of make/model of handheld computer, including ones running the Palm OS, and Pocket PC machines. Note: the last time I was in this store eight types of handheld were on display, but a worker said three more types were stored in a back room. Not all could be displayed, he said, because not enough anti-theft hardware was available.
Note: the Baton Rouge Sunday Advocate has been routinely carrying an advertising-insert from Circuit City's Baton Rouge store.
COMPUSA: located around 250 meters north-west of the Mall of Louisiana on Bluebonnent Avenue. This display currently (as of 12-Oct-2002) has the largest number of handhelds, by far, of all the displays in Baton Rouge. This photo was taken 12-Oct-2002 when they had 24 handhelds displayed, and 2 not displayed -- an amazing total of 26 handhelds available for sale!
Note: the Baton Rouge Sunday Advocate has been routine carrying an advertisement-insert from the Baton Rouge location of COMPUSA.
Computer Heaven: I know of only one location of Computer Heaven in Baton Rouge (on Oak Villa Blvd, around 400 meters south-east of Cortana Mall). According to one recent (27-OCT-2001)
report: "I noticed handhelds at Computer Heaven, but they weren't Palm OS devices. The only two I saw were early Pocket PC types of handheld. I'm not sure if they were used, or something they carry in their inventory."
Another report (around mid-2001) said that this store sold around a dozen new Visor Deluxes for a very low price ($100 each). This seems to have been a one-time-only thing.
Conn's: There are two locations of this store in Baton Rouge (one on Siegen Ln, and the other around 100 meters directly south of the above-described Circuit City). When I visited these two locations around Feb. of 2002, the Siegen Ln location had five types of handheld on display, and the display was very neat and professional looking. The other Conn's however had a very trashly & disorganized looking display. It was almost comical.
Note: the Baton Rouge Sunday Advocate has been routinely carrying an advertisement-insert from Conn's.
Franklin-Covey: This location on Citiplace Court, around 100 meters north-east of the Barnes and Noble bookstore, also on Citiplace Court. They carry both Palm OS machines and Pocket PC machines. This store specializes in planners, of both paper-based and handheld-based kinds. Because of this specialization, their salespersons are FAR more knowledgable and helpful in response to inquires about palmtops.
I bought my first handheld (a Palm IIIe) from this store.
K-Mart: K-Mart has recently gone bankrupt, but ATMI there is one surviving K-Mart superstore in Baton Rouge. I was in it K-Mart around June of 2002, and I saw a Casio Pocket PC displayed, as well as one of the Palm m-series of machines. Employees of this store told me they expected the store to be there until around December of 2002.
Office Depot: I know of three locations of Office Depot stores currently in Baton Rouge. One is on Siegen Lane in a shopping center located around 300 meters to the north-west of the intersection of Siegen Lane and Interstate-10. Another is on College Drive, and another is on the north side of Florida Boulevard, around 800 meters west of Cortana Mall (the mall at Airline and Florida). This photo shows the display at the Siegen Lane store.
According to my experience, all Office Depot stores in Baton Rouge carry the same inventory (or nearly the same). The last I checked (the one on College Drive) I saw on display 7 types of Palm OS machine and 3 types of Pocket PCs. The Palm OS Machines were these: Palm m100, the Palm m105, the Palm m125, the Palm m500, the Palm m505, the Palm VIIx, and the Symbol SPT 1500 ($199.99 aft. $50 rebate). The Pocket PCs were the Jornada 520 ($199.99), the Jornada 565 (599.99) the Ipaq 3835 ($599.99).
Note: the Baton Rouge Sunday Advocate has been routinely carrying an advertisement-insert from Office Depot.
This is a photo I took Oct 10, 2002, of a Fellowes keyboard/case on display at the College Drive location.
Office Max: I know of only one Baton Rouge location of Office Max: the one around 300 meters west of Cortana Mall. The last time I saw their handheld's display it showed around 7 make/models of handhelds.
Note: the Baton Rouge Sunday Advocate has been routinely carrying an advertisement-insert from Office Max.
Radio Shack: Until around August of 2002, my information said that Radio Shack's in Baton Rouge have been carrying one type of handheld: one of the color IPAQs. However, Radio Shack as recently (around August 2002) started having an adversiting insert placed in Sunday editions of The Baton Rouge Advocate. The last such insert I saw displayed three types of Palm OS device, and two types of Pocket PC.
Sam's Club: the Sam's Club next-door to the Wal-Mart Supercenter on Siegen Lane has been carrying palmtops. One old (OCT-2001) report says that this location has been carrying a older Jornada model: "It was one with a keyboard for under $400...but...it was an older model that would not support the new software."
Sears: the Sears at the Mall of Louisiana (East of Bluebonnet Blvd) has a display of handheld computers on the ground floor near the store's display of wide-screen TVs. The display has around six different models of Palm OS machine, and one type of Pocket PC machine.
Target: Until November of 2003, the "Super Target" store on Siegen Lane had been displaying around eight types of handhelds (about six Palm OS machines, and around two Pocket PC machines). When I checked this display on 14-Nov-2003, however, only 2 handhelds were on the display.
Wal-Mart: the Siegen Lane supercenter no longer sells handheld computers of any kind (I discovered this on 25-OCT-2003). Perhaps the Cortana Wal-Mart still sells handhelds.
The Wal-Mart on Perkins Road has never had any handhelds for sale, as far as I've seen.
1st: COMPUSA: 26
2nd: Best Buy: around 20
3rd: Circuit City: 11
4th: Office Depot (College Dr): 10
1st: Franklin Covey
2nd: COMPUSA
3rd: Circuit City
4th: Conn's (the Siegen Ln location)
NOTE: BRHandheld moderators Scott Windom and I (Jeff Opal) probably know more about handheld machines than any salespersons at any store in Baton Rouge. Local handheld-interested persons are surely better off consulting with us first about anything affecting handheld-purchase decisions.