CompUSA pushing Macs, VPC, USB 2?

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Well, I went to CompUSA this morning looking for a video card (way too expensive), and walked over to the computer section. I walked by the HP notebooks, the Toshiba laptops, and the Compaq stuff. Right in the middle was a computer with a widescreen, running Windows 98 'stretched' across the entire screen.



It was in 1024 x 768 s.t.r.e.t.c.h.e.d across the screen. It looked awful. Then I noticed it looked a lot like the Titanium PBG4. Then I realized it WAS the TiBook.



Right in the middle of all of the PC notebooks, you had the PB G4 running in an awful resolution running Windows 98 in Virtual PC. Ewwww.



Then I walked over to the Mac section. They were 'blowing out' the old iMac models, but did not have the iMac G4. They had plenty of towers, unfortunately, and a ton of the older 733 MHz G4 w/o Superdrive (not Quicksilver) selling for $2400. :o



The thing that surprised me is that they had stickers on EVERY MAC 'proudly' stating that the Macs had Virtual PC on them for Windows. They also had USB 2 hard drives all over the place, as well as USB 2 PCI cards.



The nicest thing they had there was the Cinema Display on a 867 G4, but that too, was running VPC. The guy who was in the department asked me excitedly if I'd like to buy a copy of Virtual PC 5.0. I told him no thanks, and then he offered it to me with a 20% discount. I still didn't want it (I have an older version of it already).



Then he asked me if I was a 'Power User' and started showing me the new 'USB 2' devices that had just come in for the Mac. This guy was basically bouncing off the wall trying to get me to buy a USB 2 HD, when I told him I didn't have USB 2. I started walking away and he showed me a USB PCI card. I told him I had a laptop. Then he produced a USB 2 PC card (I didn't even know they existed), and I still passed.



I started looking at Civ 3 and he told me how great the game was. It was $50, though, and I have a gift card to the Apple retail store where I could get it instead.



Any way, I thought it was 'interesting' that there was someone actually in the Mac section actively trying to sell stuff, even if that stuff WAS Virtual PC and USB 2. I did see the guy sell a refurbished tower to a woman while she was there, and he 'threw in' a copy of Virtual PC, a USB 2 PCI card, and a USB 2 hard drive to convince her to buy a monitor too.



It came across to me as kind of strange, but I guess if CompUSA is actually trying to sell Macs, it's a good thing.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    Sounds like your CompUSA has a wako with a USB 2.0 and VirtualPC fetish...seriously.
  • Reply 2 of 4
    imacfpimacfp Posts: 750member
    That's almost as bad as my CompUSA story. What the heck is wrong with these people?
  • Reply 3 of 4
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    That's really weird. Actually kinda scary.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    I went to CompUSA yesterday (Jantzen Beach store in N. Portland) looking for a KVM switch. Their Mac section was a disaster, for the most part.



    In addition to one new TiBook (no price) and one iBook (12" display and combo drive, but at the "old" price of $1699), they had one graphite iBook ($1599) and one tangerine iBook with the "C" and "X" keys broken off ($1399). No mention of "closeout" or anything, just 9+ month old computers at full OLD price. And those broken keys were a nice touch... Somebody had placed the smashsed "X" key back in the general vicinity of where it belonged, at an odd angle, as if to disguise that somebody had smashed the keyboard with a hammer or something, but the "C" key was nowhere in sight.



    They had moved out 1/2 the software section and were loading in zillions of boxes of what I'd call junk software -- clip art and other $9.99/box crap. They did have Flash and Illustrator and Office, and about 10 boxes each of 3 flavors of VPC, and a so-so selection of games, but overall the software section was a great example of why people think you can't get any software for the Mac.



    There was a nice large-format Epson printer with archival ink on display -- model 2000P I believe -- but if I hadn't known what it was, I wouldn't have given it a second glance. There were no printed samples anywhere, so no reason to understand why you'd pay $900 for an inkjet printer.



    They had tons of shelf space devoted to USB keyboards, mice, hubs, Zip drives, and cables, but not a single Firewire device that I could see.



    The CompUSA stores in Portland are absolutely horrible about displaying old, obsolete gear marked full price. The other CompUSA in Tigard still has old iBooks too. Sometimes they'll have the old Powermacs marked down, but apparently they think a 300mhz iBook with 800x640 LCD and 6gb drive and CD-rom only is gonna sell for $1399, when somebody could go elsewhere and buy a new iBook (twice as fast, twice as much hard drive, better LCD, lighter) for $200 less. Oh, and without the keyboard smashed-in, too.
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