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More Store In A Store (3/15/98)
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As noted previously, Fry's Electronics has jumped on CompUSA's bandwagon and has opened it's own Apple store-within-a-store in its new Sunnyvale, CA location. (That's Sunnyvale, not Sunnydale, in case you were worrying about a potential vampire infestation.) At first we felt this was simply good news because it represented an increased interest in selling Apple computers in the retail sector. But after reading Apple's report on the opening, the event was noteworthy in its own right.
Remember earlier, when we referred to the CompUSA environment as a "cluttered warehouse?" It seems that this new Fry's is an entirely different animal. Yes, it's still a warehouse-- a 60,000-foot one, at that-- but this one just happens to be "paved in Italian marble tile and dressed up in fine wood detailing." And since shopping for a new system while logy is a mite dangerous (what if you accidentally bought a 6500 instead of a G3?), Fry's includes a cafe where you can get nicely wired before blowing your whole savings account. Just take a look at the pictures at Apple's site for a sense of how serious this place it. All this in a store large enough to justify eighty checkout cashier stations. Yow.
It's a shame that not all stores can be as magnificent as this new Fry's sounds. At least, it would be a shame if we could be guaranteed that such luxurious trappings wouldn't jack up the prices of the merchandise. Given that this is the real world (sorta), we've got to assume that the money comes from somewhere. Still, we at AtAT would love to shop in a store as majestic as the new Fry's appears to be-- window shopping, at least, costs nothing.
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 3/15/98 episode: March 15, 1998: CompUSA's Apple stores-within-stores officially debut to mixed, yet overall positive, reviews. Meanwhile, new Powerbooks are set to appear considerably sooner than most had expected, and if CompUSA is too cramped and icky for your shopping needs, you might consider the new Fry's in Sunnyvale, CA...
Other scenes from that episode: 537: Bread and Circuses (3/15/98) The Grand Opening of CompUSA's Apple "store-within-a-store" is now over, and if today's AtAT excursion to the Brighton, MA store was any indication, things may be going pretty well for Apple indeed. True, not everything was perfect-- even in the Grand Opening high-profile situation, a few of the Macs were off or crashed... 538: New Powerbooks NOW! (3/15/98) It's been confirmed, in a sense-- seeing that the Powerbook G3 had disappeared from the Apple Store and wound up on Apple's discontinued list heavily implied that Wall Street and Main Street, Apple's new Powerbooks, were going to be introduced very, very soon...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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