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Simple And Direct (11/14/99)
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AtAT's official descriptive phrase for Apple's overall retail presence is this: "less than compelling." That's mostly just us being polite. Judging by what we witness ourselves and what others write in to tell us, the harsh reality is that Apple's retail presence would be better described by a phrase such as "Kill me, kill me now." Sure, there are individual shining examples of stores with a stellar Mac-knowledgable sales force and gleaming product displays in full working order, but on average, we tend to think that Apple would be better off selling Macs out of the back of a truck. (Actually, that's not a bad idea. Perhaps the Apple Mobile could come around on alternate Thursdays...)
For Apple, retail is broken. It's not as broken as it was a few years ago, but it sure isn't fixed, either. So Apple's got two choices, here. First, they can try to fix the retail Mac-buying experience. That's what they've been trying to do for the past two years, with the elimination of uncooperative partners, the establishment of stores-within-stores, etc. That's all made progress, but not enough. The other route would be to move to a sales model that focuses more heavily on direct sales, by boosting the Apple Store-- and several signs indicate that Apple's ready to make that move. A CNET article confirms that Apple has hired Allen Moyer, a retail development guru, possibly with the hope of opening its own boutique stores, à la Gateway Country.
Want more evidence that Apple's planning a big direct sales push? The company just registered shop-different.com and buy-different.com. Right now those domain names just point to Apple's main web site, but it's increasingly obvious that something's going on here. As for just what that is, well, you'll find out when we do.
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SceneLink (1910)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 11/14/99 episode: November 14, 1999: How many times do we have to watch the same sad story? The Apple-Best Buy relationship struggles back from the grave. Meanwhile, soon a poor retail experience may be a thing of the past, as Apple considers opening its own stores, and the AtAT staff snags an excellent deal on an iBook by braving the savings-crazed rabble at Micro Center...
Other scenes from that episode: 1909: Who's Up For A Movie? (11/14/99) You thought inept salesmanship and apathy killed it back in '97, but it crawled back from the grave. When it was once again found dead earlier this year, the coroner determined the cause of death to be pig-headed mismanagement and a phobia of multiple colors... 1911: But We WORKED For It (11/14/99) Oooh, we can tell that some of you are just going to hate us after this. Guess who just scored a particularly sweet deal on a brand-spankin'-new Blueberry iBook? That's right-- none other than your friendly neighborhood AtAT staff...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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