“With all the news going around the web on other Mac-centric websites about forthcoming retail Apple Stores debuting across the nation–whether they’re opening soon or currently being constructed–there’s one place where Apple’s been beefing up their presence in a significant way,” Joe Leo reports for PBCentral.
Leo reports, “Best Buy is selling Macs once again. In recent weeks (to this columnist’s observations, who is a weekly visitor to said store, so consider it “fact”), the spaces/sections reserved exclusively for Apple products in-store have received a major makeover.”
“The makeover is so major that when you first come across it, you might think you took a wrong turn somewhere. Once you step foot into the new Apple section, you might think you were magically transported to a regular Apple Store, except this one’s a mini version,” Leo reports.
Full article, with photo of a Best Buy’s Apple section, here.
MacDailyNews Note: This rollout is in progress. From what we currently understand, not all Best Buy stores will have such Apple sections. Call ahead to your local Best Buy to see if their new Apple section is up and running.
I’m on my way to the local Best Buy to check it out.
I could not find one Apple product at the Best Buy in Brandon FL last weekend. This will be a big shock if it actually rolls out nationwide.
Now that’s pretty jazzy! Apple has always known branding. They will need to keep an eye open. Years ago at my CompUSA store within a store, things got pretty un-Apple at times.
Apple and Starbucks should collaberate.
How many times have we seen this before? How long before this idea bombs again because the Best Buy salespeople don’t get SPIFFS (financial incentives) for selling Apple products? I actually saw a Best Buy saleswoman recommending some third-rate MP3 player to a customer and she said that it was “rated better than the iPod”. I know for a fact that this is not true, but she got a kickback for recommending that MP3 player. The same thing will happen with the Apple Store within Best Buy — almost all of the salespeople are PC users, and they also get commissions for recommending PCs. This is why Apple built their own retail stores right — no commissions for the salespeople so you can get honest advice. But an Apple Store within Best Buy? This is destined to fail yet again.
Totally in 100% agreement with MacBill.
Employees have to care and at Best Buy they dont. Hell – you think Apple would know that by now.
This is destined to fail yet again. Good call MacBill.
Didn’t Apple try this before? I keep on going to Best Buy only to come out empty handed. They ether don’t have what I am looking for, or they simply are not the “Best Buy”.
The local MicroCenter keeps “All Things (strictly) Apple” in a single room, as they do PCs, peripherals, reading matter and “the rest”. You walk into that room and you have a couple folk from sales who are Mac users and who can help you with most minor problems or questions – major ones being referred to either the Tech Dept or Apple itself. That’s about 5% of the store devoted to Apple, with Mac-capable or related stuff elsewhere in the store.
DLMeyer – the Voice of G.L.Horton’s Stage Page Pod-Cast
I thought Apple would be supplying their own employees to the mini stores… kinda like how Halmark sends its own employees to look after their stands in Walmart stores.
There are more places with Best Buys than there are Apple Stores. If the Best Buy in Bozeman, MT adds an Apple mini-store and sends out two employees for Apple store-like training this will be a great service to the community. It’s not like Bozeman can expect to get an actual Apple store anytime soon.
This might not work in NYC of SF where people have the choice of going to a real Apple store but it’s a great boon to those in more rural locales.
If they supply their own salespeople employed by Apple, fine. Otherwise, and I hate to generalize, but from experience, most of the Best Buy computer sales people are PC gamers, most of whom don’t really know that much about computers, but can certainly recommend the latest MMORPG expansion packs. I hate to have Apple products represented by such a low-class store.
I was just in the Laird St Best Buy Store in Toronto last weekend and the Apple product line-up was a disaster. The iMacs and one of the Macbooks were turned off. The white keyboard was dirty and it’s space bar key pushed downward and stuck. The salesperson I spoke to was indifferent.
With any luck the retail stores have helped bring us to the tipping point wherein Macs are now so in demand that they almost sell themselves in places like Best Buy so the sales pitch/interference of the staff won’t hinder sales.
At my CompUSA there was at least one Apple employee in the Apple section at all times. (And he actually knew his stuff too!) If Best Buy does this, it might work.
If Apple really wants to grow market share, these kind of initiatives are important. More exposure will translate into more sales and usually Apple Stores and Best Buy will NOT be close to each other or will attract two entirely different types of customers.
We’ve had this kind of Apple mini store in the Vancouver Cambie St. BB for several months now.
@MacBill
Um…as an ex-Best Buy employee I can attest that we did NOT every get kickbacks for selling any particular product. We did, however, have some incompetent people working for us and that could be why someone would have gotten their information screwed up.
Apple and lumber companies should collaborate. That would be where I would purchase all my Apple cedar…n’yuk n’yuk
@monalisa….same here in Montreal. Guess we are more advanced than the USA.
No Macs at all in the Winston-Salem, NC store. I hope they never do either. The last time they did the sales force was absolutely horrible. I went in and found a sales guy at the Mac Mini display area, and I described what I wanted as best as I could. What I described was a Mac Mini, and the guy walks me AWAY from the Mini and over to an eMachines. I feel like this is gonna be day-shaa-voo vu all over again.
Not as Advanced as Buster & monlisa claim….
Sure, Canadian Best Buys do tend to have all the Macs in one place.
Usually trapped behind the rolling stairs used to get the PC stock stored on the high shelves above the small linear Apple section. Half the time I can’t actually access the section because of these rolling staircases. The Langley BC Best Buy has NO Apple TVs, NO 802.11n Airport Extremes and the sales people don’t ever offer to help in the “Apple” section (iPODs are elsewhere in the store).
In contrast, London Drugs (a chain with a great computer section) has everything in stock (or on order if sold out) and is very Mac friendly – they even have an Apple TV set up and streaming to a high def TV in the theater room.
Found a good way to check stores. Went to BB sit, chose a MacBook, and checked for in store availability. Try it out:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=pcat17006&type=page&sourceId=1162592946851&sourceType=product&skuId=8165193&productId=1162592946851&itemId=985164
The employees manning the Mac section at the Best Buy here in San Diego seem very knowledgeable. From what I understand, they each receive special training.
Additionally, the Mission Valley, San Diego store was one of the pilot stores. They have had the exact setup shown in the article since the beginning of the program.
It sounds as though the Emeryville, CA Best Buy just did a poor job setting up their initial Apple section. Here is a photo I took almost a year ago with a camera phone.
Since this way the initial layout, I’m not quite sure this is actually the final “Mini Store” layout.
Nevermind, it doesn’t work. BTW sorry MDN about the paste, it was not intentional.
DL Meyer,
Are you talking about the Microcenter near Villanova University?
Given the recent stories about BB employees signing up customers for “services” — such as MSN — that they did not even agree to, I will not shop there for anything. They are crooks.
Boycott the bastards.
What’s that burning smell?
Ahh yes, it’s my Best Buy card burning a hole in my wallet.
I don’t know… We’ve been around this Apple at Best Buy thing so many times its become ad-naseum with follow-up puking.
I love the “store inside a store” concept. The idea is to differentiate the Apple product from the lower tier commodity products.
You know how people complain that Apple isn’t at the Las Vegas CES shows. It works like this: There’s Apple, then there’s everybody else.
I certainly hope there’s diffentiation in the Best Buy staff. Knowledgeable staff vs. the other kind.
Not at the Best Buy in Daytona Beach.
Just checked with someone in the store’s management and he said he hasn’t heard anything about that store getting an in-store Apple kiosk. Boo.
Wonder if they’re going to be placed in any Florida Best Buys?
I really hate to see a non Apple store in charge of Apple products. Never works out. Imacs are frozen and iPOds don’t have anything on them so you can’t play and scroll. Apple products didn’t impress in CompUSA and I hate to see them look like crap in Best Buy. They really need to have someone in charge and responsible for Apple products.
I know it’s important to “reach” consumers where there are no Apple stores but….
Nothing in the entire state of Florida according to Thorin’s page.
@MacBill
When I was in retail we got Spiffs and PM’s from Apple. Some of the spiffs (free stuff) were things like t-shirts, pens and caps. We also got PM’s (Profit Motivation) not much for hardware $2.00 on a MacBook for instance, but the PM on AppleCare was about $40. WooHoo!
I don’t know if the terminology is used differently where you are, and also I didn’t work for BB but Apple was quite generous.
Isn’t Apple supposed to staff their own people for this section? If so this may be different than before and may succeed. Besides more people understand who and what Apple is as opposed to before.
“How many times have we seen this before? How long before this idea bombs again because the Best Buy salespeople don’t get SPIFFS (financial incentives) for selling Apple products?”
It doesn’t matter if Best Buy’s salespeople are lame, which they are. It doesn’t matter whether Apple sells a single item in Best Buy stores.
What does matter is that large numbers of people who otherwise would never have set foot in an Apple Store will accidentally bump into the Apple displays while shopping for the crap they usually buy at Best Buy and will be motivated by simple curiosity to take a closer look. Just a look. For many, the seed will have been planted—like seeing a shiny new sports car on the street and suddenly realizing that your old sedan looks a little shabby by comparison.
“Nothing in the entire state of Florida according to Thorin’s page.”
The page doesn’t work, I’ve found. I tried California for the whole product line and got nothing. We all know that’s where most of them are. Oh well.
@Mark
YES! At the BB here they also park the stupid rolling stairway right in front of the Apple display, and lock it in so you can’t move it! Damn frustrating.
London Drugs is WAY better.
Anyone who says that BBY employees get “kickbacks” from selling certain products has no CLUE what they are talking about. BBY is a non-commission sales role! Has been for 10 years. The margin on Apple products is much higher than the margin on the garbage Windows PC’s. Therefore it is better business sense for the BBY employess to sell the Macs. Don’t speak out unless you really know what your talking about.
These mini-stores are almost a year old.
What kinda news is this?
@Old News,
Those were pilot stores, now they are expanding it big time. It’s big news, for good or for bad. You decide.
Thorin:
Do you mean nothing came up, or the page was not responsive? I specifically asked for store locations in Pensacola and Jacksonville, (North Florida); Tampa and Orlando (Central Florida); and Miami (South Florida). All showed the exact store addresses in all the listed cities. Some of the South Florida addresses I recognized. All said nothing was available.
Are you saying that information about those stores are not necessarily being displayed correctly?
Reading the article, the author believes this display is a new Apple/Best Buy marketing concept. While, this is actually the ORIGINAL year old 7-store pilot concept.
Yes it’s good that they’re expanding the program, more points of sale. But that’s not what the article is about. The author didn’t know that this has been the Mini Store concept since the beginning. The author’s story is Old News.
I believe the author is mistaking this new (old) layout for the rumored store-within-a-store layout rumors from Piper Jaffray.
“[Piper Jaffray] believes Apple’s store within a store at Best Buy will be much different compared to the current pilot store rollout, which was a table with Apple products on it.” – The “table with Apple products on it” is the layout the author is praising as “new.”
“The difference is they expect some (smaller number) of these 200 stores will have walled-off Apple stores, while others will have improved layouts. What is clear, you won’t wander around Best Buy to shop for Apple. A good way to think about Apple & Best Buy is the Coach or Chanel store-within-a-store concept at Nordstrom.”
Again, this is Old News.
apple needs to give a $50 spif to the saleman who seels a system with apple care
and all of a sudden every best buy person will be a expert on macs
and apple will sell a ton thru this channel
From reading this thread I get the impression ALL BB stores except the one here in Montreal are awful and staffed with losers.
There are NO rolling stairs in front of the displayed macs. The people are relatively knowledgable. And some of the sales staff at that store were incredibly helpful and in two separate cases, saved me money by giving me helpful information.
Too bad everyone elses store sucks…mine doesn’t.
Let’s all move in with Buster! I’ll pitch in for gas.
Cool….I’ll treat y’all to some real Canadian brews….
Jay,
I couldn’t find a single location that was reported to have stock on the numerous Mac models that I tried. Knowing that at least some of them have stock in their “mini stores”, I came to the conclusion that the page was a waste of time. There are a lot of mini stores in Cali, but none of them came up with stock.
@Old News,
After taking a good look, I agree with you. I kind of skimmed it before, sorry.
Thorin: Thanks! So for now, the page is worthless.
Here in Canada we have Sony stores. BB sells Sony products without an issue. Do you think the BB staff not being a Sony specialists tarnishes Sony’s image? I think some people are more afraid of their own personal images as “Mac users” being tarnished by Best Buy. Get off your high horse.
About 2 weeks ago, I was in a Best Buy and the computer rep was trying to sell a family a iMac. He said he was selling about 20 per week. Not too bad.
I agree that the Apple section has been pushed into the corner of most Best Buys. I’m glad that there will be a mini store within BB. This will force the product out into the open.
It’s very apparent that BB makes it’s profit on their service plan. They probably won’t even be pushing Applecare. Macs are easy to sell extended warranty’s on so this should be a win/win. Lots of hardware sales for Apple, lots of service plans for Best Buy.
Best Buy sucks camel ass. This won’t last long. It’ll die on the vine like all their other past Mac attempts. They don’t really give a crap about Apple products. Their loss…
The only way you would know that Best Buy sucks is if you had been in one. Apparently they are doing something right as they are always busy and likely all of us highly intelligent Mac users have shopped there.
The macs are in the back near the cheap desks at my Best Buy. When I asked the guy if they sold macs he said yes and pointed all the way in the back. He made no movement to take me there. I went to find them and gave up. When I was frustrated and leaving the desk section I noticed two iMacs side by side with one Apple header on the shelf unit.
Typical!!!
I just discovered the new Mac section at the BB in Framingham MA. There was actually someone there that could answer my questions. Since the Comp USA store just closed here, it”s at least an alternative. Did not have the software I was looking for but at least the guy knew waht I was talking about.
I don’t think the guy was claiming it to be “news.” If you look, the dude labels his articles by category, and this one was a feature.
I came across this article today which is based on the original article written by that guy, and this is the real point of the story, IMHO. Hits the nail right on the head.
Like a previous poster from Canada? They said their Mac stuff is hidden in a corner.
From Infinite Loop:
Best Buy has started selling, stopped selling, and begun selling Apple’s computer offerings since then. And if this article [original article] is any indication, the Apple line in Best Buy stores is beginning to <u>enjoy a more prominent display and position. No longer relegated to the back of the “Computers” section</u>, Apple is enjoying a new look.
http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/05/11/apple-best-buy-presence-becoming-more-prevalent