So there's been a lot of blustering lately about how Apple has been keeping what few G4 iMacs that dribble off the assembly lines primarily to itself instead of playing nice and sharing the goodies with the rest of the class. It's tough to deny that Apple's own retail stores have suspiciously more iMacs in stock than most of its third-party resellers, and anyone with two brain cells to rub together might have trouble reconciling that situation with Apple's promise that, when it came time to determine who got the goods, it would never stock its own shelves over those of its faithful and long-suffering authorized resellers. As any reasonable soul might conclude, yes, Apple probably broke its promise-- but just how badly is that harming other Mac stores?

Well, according to Capitol Mac of Richmond, Virginia, the hurt goes long and the hurt goes deep. Yesterday, MacMinute reported that the reseller was shutting down after twelve years in business because Apple's "competitive tactics and anti-reseller policies" left the store with "no choice." The buzz around the hive is that Capitol Mac specifically claims to have been torpedoed by competition from the Tysons Corner Apple retail store in McLean and by a complete and utter inability to get flat-panel iMacs in stock at a time when customers just don't want to buy anything else.

Say what, now? We don't know the first thing about Capitol Mac, but it strikes us as odd that an otherwise-healthy business could be struck down by competition from a store two hours away-- let alone by shortages of a product that was only announced two months ago, and that has only been available for purchase anywhere for about the past five weeks or so. Still, if you're the type that's looking for evidence that Apple's unfair supply policies are Pure Concentrated Evil™, perhaps Capitol Mac would be a nice cautionary tale with which you could frighten young children.

Or perhaps not. We've been getting a lot of mail from former Capitol Mac customers blaming the store's demise not on the same dearth of iMacs that all resellers have had to weather, but rather on such completely-unsubstantiated-by-us factors as outrageous prices ("RAM costing more than at the Apple Store") and management nightmares straight out of the Dilbert Zone. And the point is moot now anyway, since faithful viewer Matt Wolfe notes that MacNN is now reporting that Capitol Mac is not closing, because of "a last minute tentative agreement" between the store and "a yet-to-be-announced investor."

Suspicious? Hey, you know us-- we're firm believers in the notion that paranoia is a perfectly acceptable lifestyle choice. The fact that suddenly everything's okay again and tomorrow's "final liquidation sale" has now turned into a "normal closeout sale" (with appropriately less impressive bargains, we assume) may well get you wondering whether the entire story was a massive bait-and-switch scam to get free publicity for a Saturday sales event. But don't expect us to make any accusations... we're just riding the crest of the drama wave.

Hey, speaking of those Apple retail stores, they may not have finished out the year in the black, but it looks like most observers admit that they've been a positive move for Apple overall. We base this on nothing but a gut feeling, but it seems to us that the number of industry analysts and pundits bad-mouthing Apple's decision to open its own stores has dropped dramatically since the company first announced its intentions back in May of last year. Back then, there were an awful lot of people stating in no uncertain terms that it'd be a costly experiment doomed to failure-- and they pointed at the closing of scads of Gateway Country stores as justification for that viewpoint.

Of course, there were a few big differences between Apple's proposed retail stores and Gateway's boutiques. For one thing, customers could slap down the plastic and walk out of an Apple store burdened with the Mac of their choice and an extra helping of high-interest debt; the Gateway stores don't stock any inventory, meaning that customers would walk out with the debt and a promised ship date-- which doesn't strike us as being nearly as satisfying. There's also the fact that Apple's stores are sleek and roomy, with snazzy hardwood floors, swooping white and matte black surfaces, a theater, a Genius Bar, and even their own bathrooms. We've never had occasion to venture into a Gateway store, but we're told they have a "barn motif." Mmmm, yeah, that ought to inspire confidence in people who are considering parting with hundreds of dollars to take home a piece of high technology... or, um, order one to be shipped later.

So it doesn't come as a total surprise to us that, according to a CNET article pointed out by faithful viewer David H. Dennis, Gateway is "overhauling its retail strategy" in a suspiciously Apple-like direction. For one thing, the company is "replacing the stores' barn motifs with more high-tech interior designs"; apparently the marketing folks at Gateway must have commissioned a massive focus group study which indicated, much to their surprise, that prospective customers don't want to buy computers in a building that normally houses farm animals. Go figure.

But that's not the big change. Starting today, most of the 277 Gateway Country locations will actually keep two (Yes, two! You get a choice!) specific computer models in stock and ready for customers to take home with them. The focus group comes through again, and an analyst with Technology Business Research concurs: "There undoubtedly is a percentage of customers that walk into a store that want to walk out with a computer." This stuff is gold. What we want to know is, how did Apple ever figure all of this out ahead of time? We figure maybe Phil Schiller is secretly psychic.

What do you mean, you're still counting Mac sightings in movies and TV shows? Geez, folks, given the near-omnipresence of Apple's hardware on the tube and the silver screen, you'd be better off listing which productions don't have Macs onscreen-- it'd save you an awful lot of time. Either that, or maybe you could tweak your criteria a little, just to keep from aggravating your carpal tunnel syndrome to the point where your wrists burst into flame because you've been trying to type in the names of 99% of all films and television programs to issue forth from the boundless cornucopia of Hollywood over the past four years.

Seriously, we're concerned for your physical well-being. How about this: instead of just spotting Macs in these productions, why not spot Mac commercials, instead? And we're not talking about ads shown by the networks during Will & Grace or the movie of the week; we're talking about Apple commercials spotted in the background of the shows and movies themselves.

Okay, you're wondering what in Steve's name we're talking about. Here's the skinny: AtAT's resident fact-checker and Goddess of Minutiae Katie was, as usual, assimilating every single new development in the entertainment industry to be reported on the 'net in the past twenty-four hours, when her speed-reading eyes snapped into focus on the last bit of Roger Ebert's review of Showtime, the new buddy cop flick starring Eddie Murphy and Robert De Niro. The movie itself sounds a shade less than compelling, but Mac fan Ebert makes it a point to note that "this is the first movie in which an entire iMac commercial runs on TV in the background of a shot."

So there you have it-- the first entry for your new list. We're willing to bet that maintaining it will be a lot less stressful on the ol' tendons. As for whether you're the type of Mac fanatic so devoted to the platform that you'd rush out and see a movie just because there's an iMac commercial on a TV in one shot, well, that's between you and the little voices in your head. Work it out.