“Best Buy is prepared to expand a new Mac pilot program to additional retail stores if the concept proves to be successful, one Wall Street analyst says. The nations No. 1 consumer electronics chain last week began evaluating a new planogram layout that prominently displays Apple’s Mac line in a designated area of its personal computer department,” Prince McLean reports for AppleInsider.
“For the time being, the retailer is testing the program at just seven Best Buy locations in the Southern California region. Some 900+ remaining Best Buy outlets traditionally stock only Apple’s iPod digital music players, and to a lesser extent, Mac mini desktop computers,” McLean reports. “However, Best Buy has indicated that it is prepared to scale the Mac pilot program ‘rapidly’ if it proves to be a hit, according to Steve Lidberg and David Niederman, two analysts with Pacific Crest Securities.”
Full article here.
Apple Macs in Best Buy photos via CNET here.
MacDailyNews Take: Excellent. If some miracle happens with the Best Buy test stores, we look forward to 900+ locations where pimply-faced blue shirts can tell customers that “Apples are incompatible,” “too expensive,” “can’t run the internet” and “don’t have antivirus software” instead of just seven stores in SoCal.
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Related MacDailyNews articles:
Best Buy mucks up MacBook photo on website; shows MacBook Pro instead – June 01, 2006
Best Buy now selling Apple MacBook Pro, MacBook, and iMac models – May 31, 2006
How about: “Yes mam, your son needs a Mac to run his iPod”.
BB Employee, “See, there’s no Blue ‘e’ on this weird Apple, so it obviously can’t surf the web. Nobody buys these things. Now, let’s get back into the Gateway aisle where we belong.”
My response to the article is, “Yeah right…”
My response to MDN’s take, Nail has been hit on head.
My response to “Dennis”, And the Gateway isle is excatly where the BB employee and that costumer belong.
MDN you have nailed it yet again!
While it is great to see Apple have a well branded and product stocked area in Best Buy, the problem is Best Buy employees, not Apple products being in the stores…
Before Apple has any more dealings with Best Buy, Steve-O has got to contratually squash BB into having each store provide an employee that is capable of answering Apple-based questions, and is just as pro-Mac as anything else.
Oh I’m sorry, was I dreaming again!?
Steven, There’s a BB right down the hill from where I live, maybe I’ll take that job.
How much would it cost Apple to place an Apple Specialist in every Best buy store that expands its Mac section like this? As they do in CompUSA’s.
I know there are a lot of Best Buy stores, but would it be worth it? After all, there’re a lot more Best Buy’s than Apple stores out there. And then at least the consumer would get accurate Mac product information while in Best Buy. Finally.
Might be worth the expense to Apple during these “expand market share” years.
I spotted Mac minis in a Fort Worth Texas Best Buy last year. The one unit was right at the end of the isle (not on the end display, just at the end) but had a lame 3rd party monitor and keyboard hooked up so you kinda had to know the mini wasn’t some external DVD burner.
Equally lame was that I asked for Mac software and they said they didn’t have any. “Not even MS Office?” “Nope”.
Does anyone know for a fact that it’s the BB Blue shirts selling these computers, or does Apple have their own people selling the computers?
OK, If Apple goes into Best Buy you might as well just forget it. Their image will suffer more than it can take. These idots at Best Buy are retards.
“Equally lame was that I asked for Mac software and they said they didn’t have any. “Not even MS Office?” “Nope”.”
To be fair, the salesperson may have misunderstood the question to read: “Does Best Buy sell Mac software”, rather than “is software for the Mac is available in general”. If the salesperson understood the question with the former meaning the blue shirt is correct, BB doesn’t sell any Mac software.
Maybe, just maybe, they will train their staff about the myths surrounding Macs – perhaps Apple pointed this out to them in their negotiations.
It would be SWEET to have best buys selling Macs properly.
How many times do we need to see this happen.
Go to Best Buy and the iPods are frozen or nothing is loaded on them.
The Mac computers are frozen because someone put every thing in the trash. The Apples at CompUSA are a mess and it won’t be any different at best Buy…Thank god for Apple stores.
Apple should pay kids min wage to go into Best Buys and test the people who work there. Have them reprimand and correct all their bullshit. They could hit 4 best buys a day. Do it randomly.
I haven’t purchased ANYTHING from BB in years. They have the worst buying experience of any box store. Simply awful. I remember when they sold Macs years ago and it was a terrible experience for someone interested in the Mac. I think this would do a lot to damage Apple and the Mac’s reputation.
Chances are Apple would do the same thing they do at CompUSA, have a Apple employee working in the store to sell its products.
I bought my first Mac at a CompUSA in Charlotte, NC. The one I thought I was buying was supposedly the dual 1.8 G5 model. When I got home, I checked the “About this Mac” only to find out that they gave me the single processor model. I took it back the next day and they unwillingly exchanged it for me. Needless to say that that was not a great first impression. And CompUSA majors on computers! BB is a hundred times worse! This is a bad move for Apple. Just stick with your own stores, Apple!
Maybe we should all run one of those social experiements like the Improv guys do at all the Best Buys.
http://www.improveverywhere.com/mission_view.php?mission_id=57
An amusing look at the mentality of the chains management.
‘bought a MacBook at an Apple store last week, and then stopped by a CompUSA to grab a modem the next day. Day and night experience.
A cute gal, peppy, and enthusiastic listened to me brag about having purchased over 40 Macs at the Apple store, and still managed to ask all the right questions, and ensure the experience was memorable.
At ChompUSA, back in the darkest corner, a plodding, overweight dude said, “We don’t have much Mac stuff.”
Sure enough, no UPS modem. Wheeled out of there.
Won´t be one Best Buy store with Apples within 20-50 miles of an Apple store.
Right next to the Best Buy in Beaverton, Oregon is the Beaverton Mac Store…1.5 miles away is an Apple Store.
————–
Quote:
“… prepared to scale the Mac pilot program ‘rapidly’ if it proves to be a hit,…”
The big “if” word.
RePlay,
Your link was a kick in the pants. Thanks! Made my day.
NON-SAFARI SITE!!!
Guys, we need to hit this site hard so that they support our browser.
All you need to do is click
http://www.zillow.com/
“Sure enough, no UPS modem. Wheeled out of there.”
Well, sure. If you don’t know what you’re asking for (WTF is a “UPS Modem”?! A modem with a built-in power supply?), you might have a harder time…
I stopped by our local CompUSA over the weekend to see about CoD2. The person in the Mac section knew about it, but said it hadn’t come in yet.
Of course, she’s an Apple employee…
One of the issues that Apple will always have is in the use of spiffs. I’m sure if Apple sells a batch of Macs in Best Buy, HP/Sony/Gateway will start offering spiffs to the salespeople. The salespeople will obviously steer people toward the machines that they make extra cash selling.
“Won´t be one Best Buy store with Apples within 20-50 miles of an Apple store.”
Well, if they’re testing this in Southern California, then they’ll have a hard time finding a Best Buy that is not within 20-50 miles of an Apple Store.
Hopefully, if Apple does expand this program, they do it wisely and put their own people in Best Buy, or at least ensure some sort of “Mac training” for their employees.
“prominently displays Apple’s Mac line in a designated area of its personal computer department,” Prince McLean reports for AppleInsider.”
…..And, Prince McLean’s cousin, the Hamburgler, reported, “Rofle, rofle, rofle, rofle.”