Think Secret Apple Store Article

imacfpimacfp
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Think Secret has a story about Apple's retail plans which seemed somewhat interesting. Not sure what any of it means, but I figured you might enjoy reading it.



http://www.thinksecret.com/news/retailpresentation.html

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    The beginning of the article was pretty much, "well, duh", but the focus on small business is interesting. I'm also wondering if some of these stores actually have enough physical space to do what they're talking about. The one at Cambridgeside in Boston (well, ok, Cambridge) isn't that big, and from what I understand, that is a typical size.



    CompUSA locations typically have offices set aside, out of public view, for their corporate salesman. They also have a special corporate pickup counter, etceteras. Not to mention that the tech shops in some of the locations are like half the size of an Apple store. So my question is how Apple planned on doing this. If you're going to have sales associates maintaining a rolodex of small business customers, they need a desk, and a place to make phone calls in notes. It's not even really a sales associate's job anymore, this is more of a sales agent or something.



    I just question how they plan on doing this. How do you fit desks for sales agents, a larger tech shop, and still keep enough room for sufficient inventory into the current stores? I've never been in the back, so I don't know. I'm just curious.



    Seeing laptop repairs go back in house... it's about god damn time. When I was a full time technician, I hated having to tell customers that no, I could not service the simple repair on their laptop because Apple no longer authorizes us to service them. It was getting really ridiculous. The PowerBook 2400, ok, I didn't like opening that thing anyway, and the policy was to always send that back to Apple... but the other laptops? If the user can install the RAM themselves, a certified technician should be able to service them. If you don't have faith in the technicians, re-evaluate the program that certifies them.



    Anyhow, yeah
  • Reply 2 of 6
    applenutapplenut Posts: 5,768member
    It may be limited to certain stores.



    SOHO has a basement i believe with a briefing room.



    Michigan Ave has the briefing room and other things



    who knows.
  • Reply 3 of 6
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Well, if you recall, Apple has had "Market Centers" in over a dozen major US cities for some time. A lot of these centers actually assisted corporate and academic customers with purchases, consulting, installation, etceteras. With a store like SOHO, yeah, I could see it doing those aforementioned tasks. But there is no store in Boston capable of that. There is, however, a market center downtown.



    *shrugs*
  • Reply 4 of 6
    imacfpimacfp Posts: 750member
    The SOHO was the most interesting you're right, but this line made you think too. "Microsoft Office "minus the crashes,"" Does that mean Apple is planning a MS Office replacement?
  • Reply 5 of 6
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    I think the path to an "office replacement" is the only logical direction for AppleWorks to head. Well, it won't be called AppleWorks, I'm sure, but you know...



    The thing I worry about that move is that it's going to be too consumer-ish. I don't want a nice friendly "lickable" word processor. Not if they're going to make it look anything like Mail does. I happen rather to like Word, thank you. *shrugs*
  • Reply 6 of 6
    cubedudecubedude Posts: 1,556member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by applenut

    It may be limited to certain stores.



    SOHO has a basement i believe with a briefing room.



    Michigan Ave has the briefing room and other things



    who knows.



    Walnut Creek and Emeryville(maybe all have this) have a second story. Well, it appears that way. Once they opened the door and I peaked back and saw a staircase, so, whatever.



    The same time(Walnut Creek) I saw a guy come in(sales guy) for an iMovie plugin. From what I heard, he was going around to all the Apple Stores and teaching the employees how to use his company's software. Apparently, the Walnut Creek store was supposed to be bigger than it is. I heard something like:



    Quote:

    Yeah, we were slated for a 45-foot store, but the owner of the building flubbed up and we only got a 30-foot store.



    He then went on to say this is why his company's software wasn't out on the shelves, but that they would find a place for it.
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