The world entered a new consumerist age yesterday when two Russian cosmonauts on the Mir space station placed online orders for Dublin-made computers.
Flight commander Anatoly Solovyev and flight engineer Pavel Vinogradov made the out-of-thisworld orders for the appropriatelynamed Gateway 2000 computers, which are manufactured at the company's plant in Clonshaugh. The cosmonauts used the Virtual Emporium online personal shopper to select the computers which cost $1,999. They will collect their Christmas purchases at their Russian homes when they return. The order was placed with Virtual Emporium, forwarded to Gateway's website, received at the company's US headquarters and sent on to the Dublin manufacturing plant.
From there, the PCs will be assembled and transported to Russia by the US courier company, UPS. Mr John Shepherd, Gateway manager for Ireland and Britain, was clearly pleased at the new market penetration. "Gateway can claim to have 100 per cent share of the pangalactic sales," he said.
But he said that the cosmonauts had not made a duty-free purchase. The taxman's reach, it seems, goes beyond the cosmos.
The purchase would be taxed where the order was received, in Kansas, Missouri, he said.
He added that making website orders was now the most convenient way of acquiring computers.
