Circuit City No Longer Carries Apple Products

glurx · February 7, 2002 9:36AM

An email I received this afternoon:

[quote] From: [email protected] on 02/07/2002 07:35 PM

To: [email protected]

cc:

Subject: Re: Back In Stock Notification [SUP2002020800000004321542]

Dear Customer:

Thank you for contacting CircuitCity.com. Circuit City will no longer be

carrying Apple products. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Sincerely,

David C.

Customer Support Coordinator

<hr></blockquote>

ghost_user_name · February 7, 2002 9:38AM

Oh my god. This is horrible if true.

eman · February 7, 2002 9:41AM

[quote]Originally posted by Macintosh:

Oh my god. This is horrible if true.<hr></blockquote>

Why's it horrible? Who gives a shit about them? They suck at selling Macs.

eugene · February 7, 2002 9:47AM

Hmm, the local Circuit City is in a horrible location, but their Apple displays were semi-decent.

Oh well.

cosmonut · February 7, 2002 10:21AM

Circuit City never SOLD Macs, they just had some on display for you to look at and maybe buy one -- MAYBE.

I swear, that place treated Macs like the "red-headed stepchild" of computers. <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" />

brian j. · February 7, 2002 11:06AM

I bought a graphite iBook SE 466 Mhz on clearance at Circuit City for $700. Their salespeople had no idea what they were talking about. I ended up buying a copy of OS X, after they reassured me Apple was offering a free OS X.1 upgrade. Well Apple was, but you had to have OS X first. Idiots.

nonsuch · February 7, 2002 11:14AM

It's never good news that Apple loses a retail venue. The CC in my neighborhood never had their Macs in the best of shape, but even so they drew some pretty good foot traffic. The more people see Macs, the more they'll understand that Macs are a viable option.

sizzle chest · February 7, 2002 12:06PM

I think that having Apple stuff represented poorly, is WORSE than not having it represented at all.

To have these half-assed displays of hardware, with zero Mac software or accessories, creates the impression of Macs as a dying platform. PC users notice that CC sells Macs, but they don't see any of the other stuff that goes along with it, and they assume there must not be any Mac software or any peripherals, because this place that sells Macs doesn't have them. Completely unenthusiastic support is worse than no support at all.

nonsuch · February 7, 2002 12:55PM

You have a point, but then again, if people see a nonfunctioning Mac, it might at least motivate them to learn something more about it. Apple doesn't just need marketshare, it needs mindshare too: it needs to send the message that Macs are out there, being used by ordinary folk, not just weirdos and print shops.

sizzle chest · February 7, 2002 1:09PM

I think people see a non-working Mac and they think "Pathetic junk." And they see tons of Windows software and even a few Linux programs, and little or nothing for the Mac, and it creates this impression that there isn't any Mac software. I remember 6-7 years ago, before I bought my first Mac, I thought you could only few a few programs for MacOS any more, aside from graphics and music software. I was shocked to find out that there were thousands of games and productivity apps and utilities, because I spent lots of time in stores that sold Macs, and I never saw this stuff.

I figured, if I want Windows software I go to the store where they sell PCs and they have tons of Windows software. But I go to the store where they sell Macs, and there's no software. Ergo, there is very little software available for the Mac. People don't come up with that "no Mac software" out of nowhere -- it's because they don't see the software so they don't know it exists. They don't get MacZone catalogs delivered, I guess!

eman · February 7, 2002 5:36PM

My local Circuit City doesn't have an iBook on display anymore, but when it did it wasn't in good shape. They still have old iMacs out there probably running 10.0.4 because they're very slow. Who would consider getting one after they see how slow it is?

pscates · February 7, 2002 8:04PM

The two Circuit City stores in my area both sucked when it came to Apple: horrible, neglected displays, salespeople who didn't know OR care about the stuff, etc. You know, the usual stuff.

I've always maintained that more harm than good is done by stuff like this. People go "well, at least they're out there, and in view for the masses..." or whatever.

Yes, but if the display is crap, prices are wrong (or not even visible), the screens have blinking question marks, there's no literature available, the salespeople don't give two damns and aren't interested in ANYTHING regarding Apple, units are missing keys and mice, the iMac has 400 folders on the desktop and can't launch anything because some wise-ass has gone in and screwed with everything (trashing stuff, locking stuff, etc.), then HOW is that helping Apple?

Quality, NOT quantity.

If there was some sort of guarantee that Apple would be given fair and honest treatment in places, then that's fine. But honestly, all I ever saw from Sears AND Circuit City was half-ass or outright anti-Apple.

I don't know what the solution is, short of having an Apple retail store in every major city of all 50 states (yeah, right), but I do firmly believe that Apple is better off not having their image and name tarnished by the shoddy, lackluster treatment they receive in some of these retail outlets of late.

Besides, I truly, truly doubt Circuit City and Sears contributed much, if anything, to Apple's overall sales.

I'd love to see some figures on this, but I don't think Macs were exactly flying off the shelves at either place, so...

fran441 · February 7, 2002 8:16PM

From what I've seen, Circuit City actually did try to sell Macs. (Shock). The problem was, that when they made a big effort to sell Macs, they were trying to sell Power Mac G4 Cubes. That's right, the machine that didn't sell well and draw demand until after it was off the market. Not only that, but when Apple stopped selling the Power Mac G4 cubes, Circuit City sent all of them back to Apple. That's when people went to Circuit City tring to buy them.

Now, Circuit City is selling the older iMacs, and the 'older' iBooks (no 14"). Apparently, they were near last on the list to get either the new iMac or the new iBook. Would you want to try and sell a product when you can't even get it in stock from the manufacturer? I'm guessing that if Circuit City is going to stop selling Macs, this is why. For this, I don't blame them.

macsrgood4u · February 7, 2002 8:50PM

When CC first started selling Macs they had a fairly large display area. In the past year or so that area has grown smaller and smaller. My local CC had 2 iMacs and an iBook on display... all not working. Poorly maintained Apple computers on display is not a plus. I have a suspicion that CC is actually going to phase out computer sales in the coming year. The reason? The one near me, completely renovated last year, has put computers in the back of the store. CC is pushing television, video, MP 3 players, etc. They're smart to get out of the computer business (if they do). It's a low margin business for them. They got out of appliances because of that. Anyways, no great loss.

smacsteve · February 7, 2002 8:54PM

I think that Circuit City was not much of a factor in the overall sales numbers for Apple so this doesn't bother me that CC isn't carrying Apple any longer. Their sales help stunk not only on Apple but just about everything they sell.

For cities not lucky enough to have a Apple Retail store yet I think that Comp USA and Micro Center does a decent job of selling Apple, especially since Apple has staffed the Comp USA's with their own Reps. This is smart, BEST BUY has reps for the wireless providers to rep their co's and Apple should continue with this and staff all the Comp USA's and make sure they keep them well trained.

spotbug · February 7, 2002 9:03PM

[quote]Originally posted by Fran441:

From what I've seen, Circuit City actually did try to sell Macs. (Shock). The problem was, that when they made a big effort to sell Macs, they were trying to sell Power Mac G4 Cubes. <hr></blockquote>

This fits right in with my Circuit City, Mac shopping experience.

When The Cube was out, the CC in my area was doing a really fine job of presenting Macs. They had a couple iMacs in different colors, an iBook and a really nice Cube setup. Every time I went, all the Macs were totally functional and all were running Apple's eye-catching demos.

After The Cube was pulled, it went straight downhill, until finally (last time I checked) they have an iBook and an iMac. Neither was running the demo. The presentation was pathetic. It seriously looked like they wouldn't even have been on if some customer, that day, hadn't accidentally pressed the power button.

I figure the higher-ups at CC based their whole perception of Mac sales on how poorly The Cube sold and axed Apple products based on that.

If they tried selling the new iMac, they'd probably change their tune.

seb · February 7, 2002 9:04PM

I worked at a CC and a Wiz during Christmas 2000 - Cube Era.

I sold a few iMacs. It wasn't easy, but I did it. Sold a few G4 towers too, but they didn't buy them at CC/Wiz (gave em places to get a better deal - or they wouldn't have gotten them at all).

Completely an uphill battle all the way. Although I did manage to do a decent job of training most of the less hardheaded employees on some of the cooler things you can do with a Mac. Took in an iShock and a few games, as well as my DV cam to show off iMovie. Haven't been back to the stores since. though. Both places have employees that sell computers on commission, they loved it when I was there helping. I did all the work, and they got the sale. Maybe that's why they were nice to me. <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />

commonsense · February 7, 2002 11:03PM

Circuit City is a total cluster****. This we know. I think that, in the early 1980s, they were actually a good, relatively high-end electronics store. Now they're lowest common denominator.

But here's the important question now: Can we get some good fire-sale deals?

brian j. · February 7, 2002 11:13PM

[quote]Originally posted by CommonSense:

But here's the important question now: Can we get some good fire-sale deals?

<hr></blockquote>

Probably. Call around to multiple Circuit Citys though. They seem to independently price their clearance items. My 466 Mhz iBook was on clearance for $700 at a Circuit City thirty miles away. At the same time, an older, less powerful, DVD-less iBook was $1000 at my local Circuit City.

bodhi · February 7, 2002 11:58PM

Look for incredible stock closeout deals at Circuit City!

mars_attacks · February 8, 2002 2:21AM

I bought an iMac 600 graphite for $500 last night.

They told us they are going to stock the new flat panel iMacs.

Circuit City No Longer Carries Apple Products

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