“The Macintosh has landed at Best Buy – again. Eight years after California-based Apple Inc. stopped selling its computers in the retail megastores, it has returned in a major way with ministore-style displays inside certain Best Buy locations. Those ministores mimic Apple’s own retail chain, and showcase the bulk of its Mac line,” Julio Ojeda-Zapata reports for The Pioneer Press.
“Apple has had its storeswithin-stores at about 50 Best Buys since earlier this summer, and last month announced plans to be in 300 of Best Buy’s more than 820 stores by the end of this year,” Ojeda-Zapata reports. “‘It’s going very well,’ Apple Chief Operating Officer Timothy Cook recently told reporters and industry analysts. ‘Both parties are very happy about it, and that’s the reason we are expanding.'”
Best Buy “customers can kick the tires on recently upgraded iMacs as well as iPods, MacBook laptops and Cinema Displays. Only Apple’s recently released iPhone and its professional-grade Mac Pro towers are absent,” Ojeda-Zapata reports.
“Apple appears to have taken greater care with its staffing, too. Apple workers run the displays and leave business cards if they’re not around. Blue-shirted Best Buy staffers have received Apple training as well, to pitch Macs better,” Ojeda-Zapata reports.
Full article here.
@ AAPL guy
You have made my day with the “imagine Zune Tang as a parrot” idea. Of course he IS a parrot!
@ awesome: if you can do all that, I’m sure someone here can hook you up! LOL
The weak link in the mini-store concept is, as always, Best Buy. When they say “Apple workers” staffing the mini-store, does this mean they’re paid by Apple, or are they really just re-branded Best Buy drones? Having worked retail in the past for a significant length of time, I can just about guarantee you that if they’re really Best Buy people, the store manager will pull them off their Apple duties in about a week. “Because of staffing, we need them elsewhere in the store,” will be their excuse.
I don’t have a lot of faith in Best Buy to execute this as Apple wants.
Best Buy in Calgary continually poorly supports the Apple platform of computers. They want the revenue from cleaning off the HP and Toshiba machines. They charge over $200 to set up your new computer.
Best Buy continually promotes the Apple machines as overpriced and you still have to buy all the windows software anyway to do everything.
As well, our Mac stores in town are lazy marketers.
We need an Apple Store for Apple to really succeed here.
Oh Thank God there will be Apple employees there.
Those Best Buy “Geeks” don’t know anything about a Mac.
Best Buy offers some of the worst customer service imaginable. I will not be buying any Apple products from them. Period.
The last two times I was sucked into the local store (killing time in the strip-mall) I would be in the iPod area looking at accessories, and overhearing customers, looking for iPods, being steered to Zune by the ever-so-helpful goons. The last time I had to interrupt the process. Some poor Mom, wanting to buy an iPod for her son’s birthday… Can you imagine the pain of her kid expecting an iPod with video and getting a… Zune??? My empathy for this scenario compelled me butt in and to ask the customer, loudly, “Did your son ask for an iPod?” She looked at me, looking a little confused by my question. She said “Actually, yes he did.” So as politely as possible I told her that her son would NOT be happy with a Zune. I politely explained the differences as briefly as possible, all while the sales dude was giving me a look of incredulity and distain. I’m surprised he didn’t call security.
Anyway, she bought an iPod. And I felt a little bit better.
Just a reminder.
I went into the Fort Collins, CO Best Buy and the Apple Store was very impressive.
However, as soon as I tried to use the 24″ iMac, I noticed the mouse was barely crawling across the screen.
I checked the Keyboard & Mouse System Preference and the mouse was set to the lowest tracking speed.
I went down the line and all Macs were set the same way.
So I fixed them.
Windows users likely aren’t going to know how to do that and will think Apples suck.
When you go into a Best Buy, whether you’re buying or not, check out the Macs and see if it may need “re-adjusting”.
I’m pretty certain the self-proclaimed “Windows Fanatic” working that day changed all my settings back, but at least I tried.
@Bandit Bill:
“I’m having difficulty comprehending how you got that out of what I said…”
First of all, let me thank you for rebutting me with a reasoned post, rather than the “u suxx0rz” variety; this is a commendable and rare thing on this (and pretty much all other) forums. You must concede that your first post had a sarcastic air, accusing Mac “snobs” of “slagging” and “bragging” etc. I agree wholeheartedly with everything you say in your second post; apparently initially we were attempting to say the same thing, but it got lost in translation between the long-time Mac fan’s two choices in how to remember the Dark Days: “Let it go” vs. “Never forget.”
So maybe you are right, and it is time to do as you suggest and give Best Buy a clean slate. (Heck, maybe I can even forgive Sears too, while I’m at it. Well, maybe not.) Although other reports on this thread show that Best Buy still has some customer service problems, and as PeteyZ and you agree, someone’s gotta take away admin user privileges and get those “reset demo to spec” scripts running correctly. Much like “never forget the past,” the idea among Best Buy employees that “for ten years I’ve told customers that Windows PCs are better; I’m not going to stop now” won’t die easily.
kit-N
Thats exactly why I expect the mini stores do disappear in a quarter.
You cant teach intelligence. And Best Buy hires PC Dullards. Without fail.
The Best Buy Mac experience is a bunch of bullshit. I was just in there the other day, and none of the frickin’ Macs are connected to the Internet! You can’t do anything on it! Plus, there were just 4 Macs on a table, and there were absolutely NO SALESPEOPLE that knew ANYTHING about the Mac. It was an abysmal experience. Thank God Apple has their own retail stores.