Say, remember how, when Apple finally admitted that it would be opening its own retail stores, it swore to its resellers that it would never stock its own shelves with product while the resellers' cupboards were bare? Promises, promises; anecdotal evidence over the past couple of years strongly suggests that Apple's own retail stores frequently had the latest gear ready for customers to take home while resellers were stuck resorting to overhead transparencies, hand puppets, and mime in order to sign up pre-orders without so much as a demo model on hand. Thus, most observers conclude that Apple's repeated assurances to resellers were emptier than Steve Ballmer's jerky bin on a Saturday night and can be categorized strictly as a verbal symptom of acute Pants On Fire Syndrome.

Well, sometimes-- and you could have knocked us over with a feather when we heard this-- apparently actions have these thingies called "consequences." Go figure. The Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal reports that Elite Computer and Software Inc. has shut down five stores in the Bay Area, citing "Apple's allocation of product" as a major factor in the decision. According to Elite bigwig Tom Armes, "we didn't get as much product as the Apple stores, and we got it later than the Apple stores."

Longtime viewers may recall that Elite isn't the first Mac reseller to announce the closing of a store or five while blaming Apple's retail practices for the unpleasantness; in March of last year, CapitolMac of Richmond, Virginia announced it was shutting its doors, claiming that Apple's "competitive tactics and anti-reseller policies" had left it "no choice." (Cash from a last-minute investor reportedly allowed CapitolMac to stay open after all.)

Of course, there are always twelve sides to every story, and if you're so inclined, you can always choose to believe that Apple's iffy product distribution tactics are merely a convenient scapegoat when resellers' businesses are already on the skids. Back during the CapitolMac crisis, several viewers familiar with the store cited outrageously high prices and management by a team of lobotomized howler monkeys as more fundamental reasons for the store's brush with bankruptcy. Meanwhile, after sixteen years of selling Macs, we strongly suspect that Elite's real problem is that it's failed to keep up with the times; had it changed its outdated name to "733t Warez" a few years back, we doubt it would be in such a pickle.

Still, with twenty more Apple retail stores opening over the course of the next year, we can't help but wonder whether the third party Mac reseller is doomed to extinction-- not this year, of course, but maybe another ten or fifteen down the line. Suppose Steve's long-term game plan is 100% control over every aspect of the Mac shopping experience? And more to the point, could it actually work?