Who wants to go to Circuit City to buy a Mac, not i. If anything i would go to CompUSA first, but other than that i would go straight to the Mac store, and if you are a new customer wouldn't you want to got the the Apple store? Circuit City sucks! They will not do well, unless of course you can't get them online and all the other stores are out. Tell it like it is.
Amen to that. If you don't think that the size of the cut is the raison d'etre for all commissioned salespeople, I've got a story for you...
Just today I was trying to buy an add-on component for a wireless audio system at a local big-box technology retailer. I clearly explained that I already had the main system and just needed a single component for it. However, once the salesperson saw the cost of the main system, he was trying to convince me to return my existing system and buy it again from him. Saying that was the only way I could get the add-on component. Ridiculous.
Don't believe for a second that any commissioned salesperson is going to recommend a Mac without some monetary incentive to do so.
Best But does not get commission. They haven't for a very long time.
Ironically the closest CompUSA to where I am now is about a 2 hour drive; Circuit City is just down the street. Since neither is all that great in my book, having just the one nearby is fine. We also have a third of a Best Buy hah.
BestBuy is a dump! They have allowed the stores to deteriorate and the customer service is gone. The last several times I went to a BestBuy the line was a mile long, yet they only had one or two registers open. Most importantly... the salesperson never seems to know anything about the products.
P.S. I have had the same experience at Circuit City.
If the store within a store model doesn't work at CompUSA, why will it work at Circuit City?
I think the primary goal of expanding through Best Buy and Circuit City is to simply get more Macs on more shelves in front of more people.
Plain and simple, it will add more dollars to Apple's income statement. The incremental gains (sales) will outweigh any potential incremental losses (poor representation and FUD by in-store, non-Apple reps).
Think about it, Apple will not sells any LESS Macs by having them in the top 2 brick-and-mortar electronic re-sellers in the country. In some ways it also further legitimizes Apple as a computer brand just by being on the shelves in front of 99% of consumers.
Think about it, Apple will not sells any LESS Macs by having them in the top 2 brick-and-mortar electronic re-sellers in the country. In some ways it also further legitimizes Apple as a computer brand just by being on the shelves in front of 99% of consumers.
This is not exactly correct. The sales people will direct those potential Switchers away from the Mac because they don't understand or appreciate the product.
And if they do sell a Mac, they might pitch the CC service plan over AppleCare -- both situations are a loss for Apple.
Nevermind the negative association customers will have with CC and Apple products.
Agree with Watashi, if shelf space is the only factor, sell them at Wal-Mart. At least there they won't have annoying sales people steering buyers to pcs.
Agree with Watashi, if shelf space is the only factor, sell them at Wal-Mart. At least there they won't have annoying sales people steering buyers to pcs.
I'm sure there will be some negative effects. We're in agreement there. But I still predict that:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stecchino
The incremental gains (sales) will outweigh any potential incremental losses (poor representation and FUD by in-store, non-Apple reps).
Schemes like interest-free financing and nearly-impossible to complete rebates will sucker someone -- unfortunately, I can say that as my mother just bought a PC from CC.
Even though she admits she got all her questions answered at BB because the kid there knew five times as much as the "gentleman" at CC -- the rebates CC was offering made it too good of an offer to pass up (fixed income and all). Sad thing is, I called her tonight and she was nearly in tears because the requirements for the rebates overlap, but go to different places, and she was frustrated trying to figure them all out. (I didn't want to add insult to injury by pointing out the fact that her rebates won't even cover the cost of the extended service plan she wasted her money on, and the lame printer she got for "free" with her new PC bundle takes ink cartridges that are only half the cost of normal cartidges, but only hold a third of the ink of normal cartidges).
ANYWAY, one way or another they will sell a handful of Macs -- that's a given. But they will only sell them grudginly and the experience will likely not be the same as if they had been able to visit an Apple Store, BB or CUSA.
I guess we're spoiled. We've got two decent Apple-authorized resellers within 10 minutes drive, one CUSA and four BBs within 20 minutes. Within 45 minutes we have four more CUSAs, about 10 BBs, two MicroCenters (the best of the class, IMO), and two Apple Stores. In the same area there are 10 CCs that all look run down or just out of business.
I'm sure Apple has a master plan and does see legit value and opportunity in having their products on the shelf at CC. But even though the gains may outweigh the losses, that could just mean .500001 to .499999. I think that energy and, in the case of really hot selling items, stagnant stock could be put to better use elsewhere.
I guess we'll have to wait and see. Here's to hoping you're wrong and Apple trains the in-store reps and give them free Macs so they become on-fire Mac zealots and Apple sells millions of Macs at Circuit City and Best Buy! Hear hear!
watashi is right - bb and cc make all their money on service plans. sad but true. Business Week did a big thing on it. Those places only exist because of the plans.
most bb employees don't really know anything about computers, just like the general public.
same for cc employees.
apple store employees aren't much different. anyone with plausible experience isn't going to be working retail.
Sure, some people at all the places might be an exception. And the apple store ones are likely to know more about Apple because it's all they're supposed to know. But surely they are putting out tons of pc misinformation. And sometimes they have to look up the most basic things I ask on the Apple web site. and they lie about things, like saying the mac laptops don't really run hot.
the experience will likely not be the same as if they had been able to visit an Apple Store, BB or CUSA.
All they really have to do is make sure that the Mac buying experience at CC is no worse than the PC buying experience at CC. It's a pretty low bar to shoot for, so with a little bit of Cupertino training, they should be fine.
I guess we'll have to wait and see. Here's to hoping you're wrong and Apple trains the in-store reps and give them free Macs so they become on-fire Mac zealots and Apple sells millions of Macs at Circuit City and Best Buy! Hear hear!
Or those Circuit City and Best Buy guys could just wipe the Mac hard drives and run Windows only. I've already been to one CompUSA store where they had a Macbook Pro in the PC section running Windows only.
I take it you must think Apple selling Mac's is not good thing? The customer could say: What's the difference with P.C. and Mac? The sales rep. could respond: Well P.C. tend to cost less, but Mac's don't get viruses, and are easier to use.
He did say "depending on which sales rep they get".
It's good as interim measure, but Apple's future resides in the Apple store. Apple needs to spread out their stores a bit better.
It's extremely expensive to open stores. Considering that retail is not Apple's business, the money allocated for that has to be carefully spent. While they are now one of the largest specialty retailers in the world, they have to be careful where they expand. One of the reasons why GTW's store failed was because they didn't place them. They put them in almost any empty storefront that they could find. Often in areas that were simply not in the market for these kinds of goods. Apple has learned from that carelessness.
They have been successful because they have been evaluating locations in markets where they believe that their products will be most happily received. I'm sure that as they continue to expand, and that as their brand becomes more universally accepted, they will be able to move into areas they don't think they will do well in now.
They now have 155 stores. That's a lot of retail presence. It has been said they they could expand to a maximum of between 300 to 400 stores before they run out of areas for their upper scale product lines.
I would rather see them be conservative in this, than see some of their stores fail. That would be devastating to their image, and thus, to their plans, and sales.
Right now, their retail arm is seen as being invincible. If it loses that luster, the entire company will be hurt.
So, I think that what they are doing with Best Buy, CompUsa, and Circuit City is exactly right.
If Apple's sales do well there, it will be attributed to Apple's strong brand, and if they do poorly, it will be attributed to the poor organization of the stores, and management.
This is, therefore, of little risk to either Apple's sales, or reputation. If the products don't sell well, no one can say that Apple is faltering, which is exactly what Apple's critics WILL say, if some poorly situated Apple stores fail.
One must look to the big picture, and not have some latent prejudice against some retailer cloud one's understanding of what Apple is trying to achieve by this.
I would rather give encouragement to this project, than to put it down without actually understanding where it might be going.
As I said earlier, Apple's brand, and product lines are now much better known, and understood by the public. It's much more likely that a consumer going into one of these stores who knows iPods, and that Apple also has computers, and software, will ask for an Apple product by name, and whose intention for going into the store in the first place is to buy an Apple product.
This is much different a situation that existed in past attempts to sell Apple products, where consumers didn't know about Apple, and its products.
The fact that these companies want to sell Apple's products again should be looked at as a good, hopeful sign that the name, and products are finally going mainstream.
Agree with most of your points especially about the future being with Apple stores. I don't live very close to one myself, but whenever I visit a city that has one I generally stop by. The stores are unique and offer a special experience not offered in many other specialty retailers. The stores are stylish and well thought out. All of Apple's products are there for a test drive. I've personally found the staffs to be helpful, although I recognize that probably varies quite a bit from store to store.
Having said that I've serious misgivings about CC selling Apple computers. iPods are probably ok but often when I visit CC the service is poor and the sales 'advice' (I use this term loosly here) seems slanted. I worry that Apple will be poorly represented and this has been the history in the past. As I mentioned earlier, if ot didn't work out at CompUSA why will it work out here. The added exposure may help but that argument could have been made in the past as well and yet Apple felt it necessary to pull their products at CC. Count me as a skeptic on this one.
I bought my first iMac at a Circuit City and would love to seem them return. I live in the Metro Detroit area on the east side where no computer stores seem to really exist short of a computer builders warehouse that's really really small. One needs to drive to the wealthier Oakland County to get a Microcenter or a CompUSA (which both have mac sections) which for me is a 45 minute drive through traffic. Whereas the Circuit City and Best Buy are only 5 minutes away. The Apple store is also over on that side of town in a fancy upscale mall (read: rich people mall). So I gladly welcome a closer place to buy a mac or at least window shop for one, even if the sales people don't have an f-ing clue, who really listens to them anyway?
Comments
Amen to that. If you don't think that the size of the cut is the raison d'etre for all commissioned salespeople, I've got a story for you...
Just today I was trying to buy an add-on component for a wireless audio system at a local big-box technology retailer. I clearly explained that I already had the main system and just needed a single component for it. However, once the salesperson saw the cost of the main system, he was trying to convince me to return my existing system and buy it again from him. Saying that was the only way I could get the add-on component. Ridiculous.
Don't believe for a second that any commissioned salesperson is going to recommend a Mac without some monetary incentive to do so.
Best But does not get commission. They haven't for a very long time.
P.S. I have had the same experience at Circuit City.
If the store within a store model doesn't work at CompUSA, why will it work at Circuit City?
I think the primary goal of expanding through Best Buy and Circuit City is to simply get more Macs on more shelves in front of more people.
Plain and simple, it will add more dollars to Apple's income statement. The incremental gains (sales) will outweigh any potential incremental losses (poor representation and FUD by in-store, non-Apple reps).
Think about it, Apple will not sells any LESS Macs by having them in the top 2 brick-and-mortar electronic re-sellers in the country. In some ways it also further legitimizes Apple as a computer brand just by being on the shelves in front of 99% of consumers.
Think about it, Apple will not sells any LESS Macs by having them in the top 2 brick-and-mortar electronic re-sellers in the country. In some ways it also further legitimizes Apple as a computer brand just by being on the shelves in front of 99% of consumers.
This is not exactly correct. The sales people will direct those potential Switchers away from the Mac because they don't understand or appreciate the product.
And if they do sell a Mac, they might pitch the CC service plan over AppleCare -- both situations are a loss for Apple.
Nevermind the negative association customers will have with CC and Apple products.
Agree with Watashi, if shelf space is the only factor, sell them at Wal-Mart. At least there they won't have annoying sales people steering buyers to pcs.
I'm sure there will be some negative effects. We're in agreement there. But I still predict that:
The incremental gains (sales) will outweigh any potential incremental losses (poor representation and FUD by in-store, non-Apple reps).
I agree they will sell a few products.
Schemes like interest-free financing and nearly-impossible to complete rebates will sucker someone -- unfortunately, I can say that as my mother just bought a PC from CC.
Even though she admits she got all her questions answered at BB because the kid there knew five times as much as the "gentleman" at CC -- the rebates CC was offering made it too good of an offer to pass up (fixed income and all). Sad thing is, I called her tonight and she was nearly in tears because the requirements for the rebates overlap, but go to different places, and she was frustrated trying to figure them all out. (I didn't want to add insult to injury by pointing out the fact that her rebates won't even cover the cost of the extended service plan she wasted her money on, and the lame printer she got for "free" with her new PC bundle takes ink cartridges that are only half the cost of normal cartidges, but only hold a third of the ink of normal cartidges).
ANYWAY, one way or another they will sell a handful of Macs -- that's a given. But they will only sell them grudginly and the experience will likely not be the same as if they had been able to visit an Apple Store, BB or CUSA.
I guess we're spoiled. We've got two decent Apple-authorized resellers within 10 minutes drive, one CUSA and four BBs within 20 minutes. Within 45 minutes we have four more CUSAs, about 10 BBs, two MicroCenters (the best of the class, IMO), and two Apple Stores. In the same area there are 10 CCs that all look run down or just out of business.
I'm sure Apple has a master plan and does see legit value and opportunity in having their products on the shelf at CC. But even though the gains may outweigh the losses, that could just mean .500001 to .499999. I think that energy and, in the case of really hot selling items, stagnant stock could be put to better use elsewhere.
- watashi is right - bb and cc make all their money on service plans. sad but true. Business Week did a big thing on it. Those places only exist because of the plans.
- most bb employees don't really know anything about computers, just like the general public.
- same for cc employees.
- apple store employees aren't much different. anyone with plausible experience isn't going to be working retail.
Sure, some people at all the places might be an exception. And the apple store ones are likely to know more about Apple because it's all they're supposed to know. But surely they are putting out tons of pc misinformation. And sometimes they have to look up the most basic things I ask on the Apple web site. and they lie about things, like saying the mac laptops don't really run hot.the experience will likely not be the same as if they had been able to visit an Apple Store, BB or CUSA.
All they really have to do is make sure that the Mac buying experience at CC is no worse than the PC buying experience at CC. It's a pretty low bar to shoot for, so with a little bit of Cupertino training, they should be fine.
I guess we'll have to wait and see. Here's to hoping you're wrong and Apple trains the in-store reps and give them free Macs so they become on-fire Mac zealots and Apple sells millions of Macs at Circuit City and Best Buy! Hear hear!
Or those Circuit City and Best Buy guys could just wipe the Mac hard drives and run Windows only. I've already been to one CompUSA store where they had a Macbook Pro in the PC section running Windows only.
I take it you must think Apple selling Mac's is not good thing? The customer could say: What's the difference with P.C. and Mac? The sales rep. could respond: Well P.C. tend to cost less, but Mac's don't get viruses, and are easier to use.
He did say "depending on which sales rep they get".
It's good as interim measure, but Apple's future resides in the Apple store. Apple needs to spread out their stores a bit better.
It's extremely expensive to open stores. Considering that retail is not Apple's business, the money allocated for that has to be carefully spent. While they are now one of the largest specialty retailers in the world, they have to be careful where they expand. One of the reasons why GTW's store failed was because they didn't place them. They put them in almost any empty storefront that they could find. Often in areas that were simply not in the market for these kinds of goods. Apple has learned from that carelessness.
They have been successful because they have been evaluating locations in markets where they believe that their products will be most happily received. I'm sure that as they continue to expand, and that as their brand becomes more universally accepted, they will be able to move into areas they don't think they will do well in now.
They now have 155 stores. That's a lot of retail presence. It has been said they they could expand to a maximum of between 300 to 400 stores before they run out of areas for their upper scale product lines.
I would rather see them be conservative in this, than see some of their stores fail. That would be devastating to their image, and thus, to their plans, and sales.
Right now, their retail arm is seen as being invincible. If it loses that luster, the entire company will be hurt.
So, I think that what they are doing with Best Buy, CompUsa, and Circuit City is exactly right.
If Apple's sales do well there, it will be attributed to Apple's strong brand, and if they do poorly, it will be attributed to the poor organization of the stores, and management.
This is, therefore, of little risk to either Apple's sales, or reputation. If the products don't sell well, no one can say that Apple is faltering, which is exactly what Apple's critics WILL say, if some poorly situated Apple stores fail.
One must look to the big picture, and not have some latent prejudice against some retailer cloud one's understanding of what Apple is trying to achieve by this.
I would rather give encouragement to this project, than to put it down without actually understanding where it might be going.
As I said earlier, Apple's brand, and product lines are now much better known, and understood by the public. It's much more likely that a consumer going into one of these stores who knows iPods, and that Apple also has computers, and software, will ask for an Apple product by name, and whose intention for going into the store in the first place is to buy an Apple product.
This is much different a situation that existed in past attempts to sell Apple products, where consumers didn't know about Apple, and its products.
The fact that these companies want to sell Apple's products again should be looked at as a good, hopeful sign that the name, and products are finally going mainstream.
Agree with most of your points especially about the future being with Apple stores. I don't live very close to one myself, but whenever I visit a city that has one I generally stop by. The stores are unique and offer a special experience not offered in many other specialty retailers. The stores are stylish and well thought out. All of Apple's products are there for a test drive. I've personally found the staffs to be helpful, although I recognize that probably varies quite a bit from store to store.
Having said that I've serious misgivings about CC selling Apple computers. iPods are probably ok but often when I visit CC the service is poor and the sales 'advice' (I use this term loosly here) seems slanted. I worry that Apple will be poorly represented and this has been the history in the past. As I mentioned earlier, if ot didn't work out at CompUSA why will it work out here. The added exposure may help but that argument could have been made in the past as well and yet Apple felt it necessary to pull their products at CC. Count me as a skeptic on this one.