Saturday, June 14, 2003
CompUSA's Apple Stores respond
I was pleasantly surprised to see the number of responses I got from CompUSA Apple Reps from around the nation. One of them came, fittingly enough, from the Apple Rep at the Deerfield Beach store that I had written about. He invited me to come back over when he was on duty, and meet with him. I happened to go at a time when the Apple section was extremely busy, and I spotted him but didn't want to pull him away from helping actual customers, so I just spent time playing with the various display Macs. During that time, several red-shirts came into the Apple section to see if they could help me. When I told them that I was waiting for the Apple guy, they said I didn't have to wait for him, because they could help me with anything Apple-related. Of course, they had no way of knowing why I was waiting for the Apple guy; they just saw a customer in the Apple section, saw that the Apple guy was busy, and came over to help. It was clear to me that any employee in that store would have gladly made an attempt to help me with any Mac needs I had, in lieu of the extremely busy Apple rep. This greatly alleviated my fear of what goes on in the SWIAS when the Apple rep is off-duty, at least in this particular CompUSA.
When things slowed down and the Apple rep was finally alone, I approached him and found both him and his manager to be extremely hospitable, not only to me, but to the teacher from my staff who had come with me to buy some odds and ends for her new PowerBook. The Apple Rep even went so far as to offer to come to my school's next Apple User Group meeting and help present, despite the fact that we are not a large group. During our conversation, a customer came by to ask about getting a SuperDrive installed in his first-generation Titanium PowerBook. The Apple rep went in the back for a moment, and during that time the customer couldn't help but brag to me about how much he loves his Titanium, having thrown his old PC "in the garbage". I didn't ask him where he had purchased the Titanium in the first place, but it was obvious that he had no fear of trusting CompUSA to perform an internal drive replacement on his baby.
I'm starting to think that I could be wrong about not steering first-time Mac buyers toward this store and others like it. Time will tell, and the Macintosh landscape in Deerfield Beach will change entirely when Apple opens it own store in neighboring Boca Raton's Town Center Mall later this summer, a mere ten or fifteen minutes away from this CompUSA. The really good thing is that any potential debate these days centers around which of the two retail options offers the most ideal Macintosh shopping experience, whereas three or four years ago the debate would have been based on which option stunk the least. Anyone remember Sears? Things have certainly changed.
Some of the CompUSA reps who wrote in provided various reasons why they thought their store could provide an even better Macintosh experience than a true Apple Store:
* Potential-but-hesitant switchers may be more willing to go and look at a Mac in a cross-platform store such as CompUSA, than at a dedicated Macintosh shrine like the Apple Store.
* Because the vast majority of peripherals on the market are Mac-compatible, CompUSA has a larger variety of peripherals available to Mac users than does an Apple Store.
* CompUSA offers a no-questions-asked replacement plan for the iPod and other products, meaning that if you drop it and break it, you get a new one.
Consumers, as always, will vote with their wallets. Potential Switchers who are already avid computer users may be more comfortable buying a Mac from the same CompUSA that has always serviced their PC-based needs, while non-computer-types who are interested in the Mac but fear being overwhelmed in a computer superstore may be more comfortable checking out the eMac in an Apple Store in their familiar shopping mall. From Apple's point of view, both sides of the equation seem to be covered quite nicely. Either way, Apple wins, and so do the customers.
I was pleasantly surprised to see the number of responses I got from CompUSA Apple Reps from around the nation. One of them came, fittingly enough, from the Apple Rep at the Deerfield Beach store that I had written about. He invited me to come back over when he was on duty, and meet with him. I happened to go at a time when the Apple section was extremely busy, and I spotted him but didn't want to pull him away from helping actual customers, so I just spent time playing with the various display Macs. During that time, several red-shirts came into the Apple section to see if they could help me. When I told them that I was waiting for the Apple guy, they said I didn't have to wait for him, because they could help me with anything Apple-related. Of course, they had no way of knowing why I was waiting for the Apple guy; they just saw a customer in the Apple section, saw that the Apple guy was busy, and came over to help. It was clear to me that any employee in that store would have gladly made an attempt to help me with any Mac needs I had, in lieu of the extremely busy Apple rep. This greatly alleviated my fear of what goes on in the SWIAS when the Apple rep is off-duty, at least in this particular CompUSA.
When things slowed down and the Apple rep was finally alone, I approached him and found both him and his manager to be extremely hospitable, not only to me, but to the teacher from my staff who had come with me to buy some odds and ends for her new PowerBook. The Apple Rep even went so far as to offer to come to my school's next Apple User Group meeting and help present, despite the fact that we are not a large group. During our conversation, a customer came by to ask about getting a SuperDrive installed in his first-generation Titanium PowerBook. The Apple rep went in the back for a moment, and during that time the customer couldn't help but brag to me about how much he loves his Titanium, having thrown his old PC "in the garbage". I didn't ask him where he had purchased the Titanium in the first place, but it was obvious that he had no fear of trusting CompUSA to perform an internal drive replacement on his baby.
I'm starting to think that I could be wrong about not steering first-time Mac buyers toward this store and others like it. Time will tell, and the Macintosh landscape in Deerfield Beach will change entirely when Apple opens it own store in neighboring Boca Raton's Town Center Mall later this summer, a mere ten or fifteen minutes away from this CompUSA. The really good thing is that any potential debate these days centers around which of the two retail options offers the most ideal Macintosh shopping experience, whereas three or four years ago the debate would have been based on which option stunk the least. Anyone remember Sears? Things have certainly changed.
Some of the CompUSA reps who wrote in provided various reasons why they thought their store could provide an even better Macintosh experience than a true Apple Store:
* Potential-but-hesitant switchers may be more willing to go and look at a Mac in a cross-platform store such as CompUSA, than at a dedicated Macintosh shrine like the Apple Store.
* Because the vast majority of peripherals on the market are Mac-compatible, CompUSA has a larger variety of peripherals available to Mac users than does an Apple Store.
* CompUSA offers a no-questions-asked replacement plan for the iPod and other products, meaning that if you drop it and break it, you get a new one.
Consumers, as always, will vote with their wallets. Potential Switchers who are already avid computer users may be more comfortable buying a Mac from the same CompUSA that has always serviced their PC-based needs, while non-computer-types who are interested in the Mac but fear being overwhelmed in a computer superstore may be more comfortable checking out the eMac in an Apple Store in their familiar shopping mall. From Apple's point of view, both sides of the equation seem to be covered quite nicely. Either way, Apple wins, and so do the customers.
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