What is Digg?Sponsored by HTC
You and You and You. view!
youtube.com - You don’t need to get a phone. You need a phone that gets you.
52 Comments
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+23It doesn’t matter what retail store is carrying the Macintosh line.
What does matter is the type, depth, and quantity of education the sales persons are given to represent the product appropriately. - TheTankengine, on 10/12/2007, -2/+21People who speak English will Digg you down.
- darthsnoopy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14Wow...the internet has such a short memory....
The reason most stores dumped Macs goes back to when Computer City was still around. Before the BillG bailout and advent of the G3, iMac, and OSX, Apple was about to go under, and the amount of store space reserved for Mac software was utterly dismal.
The iMac came out, and sales started to revive. However, the amount of floorspace in retail chains wasn't growing...they were still in the back corners of the store, and eMachines were dominating the floorspace. Apple went to retailers, demanding 25% of floorspace to continue to allow apple computers to be sold in the stores.
Computer City had just gone under, and most computers were sold at retail chains that sold other electronic devices. The amount of margin on a computer tower is exceptionally low. Stores like Circut city, Future Shop, Best Buy, etc. in the US were in no way going to devote 25% of thier entire store floor to apple...they barely devoted that to PC's in general.
Apple fired back with the apple stores, creating an entire store front that fit thier image. But with that move, most retail stores dumped the rest of thier mac merchandise. For some stores, such as Comp USA, they held onto small Mac sections, which eventually grew with the G3 / G4 / G5 tower series, cubes, iMacs, and eMacs.
I imagine now that they're back in full force and growing, more stores will pick up Apple hardware, leveraging 3rd party accessories. Hopefully this will force in store OEM's to lower prices or offer better features to continue to compete...which will benefit us all. - dickeytk, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10who cares? the description is the entire article, but who cares anyways, it's not like they are selling in record levels or anything like that, all the article says is that they might be starting to sell them again... so what? if i'd buy a mac i'd rather go online or to a mac store anyways, circuit city sucks, we all know this
- omelette, on 10/12/2007, -5/+12If you ask me, this isnt good for Apple's image at all. Maybe they're different elsewhere, but here in Maryland, Circuit City is about as ghetto as an electronics store can get.
- nusuni, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6As someone said above, the sales people DEFINITELY have to be well trained with Apple products. From my own experience Circuit City employees seem quite a bit smarter than the average Best Buy employee. And don't get me started on how much better they are than CompUSA employees :-/. Anyways, we can only hope they don't act like CompUSA employees, for example: by badmouthing Apple in front of potential customers.
- carguy84, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Awesome, Macs at CC just before they file for Chapter 11. This could mean discounted Macs when they have a firesale though, you never know.
- bloqmon, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7I wonder if Mr. Ed can make an appearance at ravenofwinter's house.
- tehdvd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I dont see how circuit city would benefit from this since we can't rip customers off by selling them norton internet security and spysweeper with install. ;)
- NonPC, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5CircuitCity sold Macs prior to Apple retails stores opening. So didn't Sears. And it was awful. The part-time sale employees use Windows at home and are 100% clueless about any other OS. The Macs were often completely screwed up by customers (and more likely employees) trashing the OS etc. At the Apple Stores they do a complete wipe and reinstall of all the software on every display Mac in the store every night. The Macs at CC were often beat to death. Often having no mouse or keyboard. The OS was never updated and the applications on it were few and often messed up. Just awful.
- deuceswilde, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Yeah, Apple needs to preserve their brand image. I used to think they were loons for being so damn protective of the whole Mac image, but if you go to a store and have a horrible buying experience or some moronic salesperson then it not only affects your image of the store but it can rub off on the product itself. I've heard salespeople at Circuit City blatantly make uplie about information to customers and even to me when they start to ramble about false information. Their website used to (maybe still does) list every single TV they sell as an EDTV which is just flat out not true. The last thing you want is people going to the dropouts at CC asking questions about macs that they don't understand, and getting pissed off with mac as a result.
- wes121593, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7Why Circuit City? So you can get there "extended warranty" or what ever you want to call it.
On a side note: There needs to be a way to undo diggs to comments. The buttons are so small I clicked the digg up instead - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I agree , macs arent profit able to stores like CC, becuse they cant add all the optional add ons, spyware cleaner, anti virus, and all the other garbage
- iDrinkKoolAid, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5@newAccount
Don't be shy about exploring your sexuality. - selectodude, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3That's what really pisses me off about Dell ect. They basically sell my computer to advertisers before I actually buy it.
- Hollister, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3They are going to sell Mac at 10 test stores in the country. The store I work for is one of them. Apple is going to fly CC emplyees to California to train them to be Mac salesmen/women.
- acurism, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3They have been making a steady comeback in the last year mainly because of all the HDTV LCD and plasma's they are selling as they have much more variety than Best Buy, as well as the online sales...(http://www.twice.com/article/CA6349174.html)
Circuit City reported a $6.4 million profit in its fiscal first quarter vs. a year-ago loss of $13.1 million.For the quarter, ended May 31, net sales for the chain were $2.6 billion vs. the year-ago performance of $2.2 billion, a 17.5 percent increase. Domestic sales were up the same percentage, from $2.1 billion last year, to $2.5 billion for this year's first quarter.
In the video category Circuit City had a double-digit comp-store sales increase for the first quarter. Total television comp store sales increased in the double-digits, led by triple-digit growth in flat-panel displays, the chain reported. Comp-store sales of digital imaging products and accessories increased by double digits. - MacParrot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@twatwaffle
You are correct that service makes the sale. My experiences with salespeople outside of Apple Stores (CompUSA, Sears, Circuit City, Computer City) was terrible. Worst of all, they didn't seem to know much about PCs either. The one store I have been to that had decent Mac Staff was Micro Center. CompUSA actually has to bring in Apple people to make sure all their computers are operating correctly. Many hands playing with files makes for a sick computer no matter what OS is on it.
newaccount. Wow, check your meds - iDrinkKoolAid, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3That's funny, the last Mac User's Group meeting I went to was full of geriatric couples.
- Archaic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Excuse me, but where is that $40 rebate that you 'conveniently' forgot to give me?!"
- Bob042, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Or, they'll still sell them and say it's the consumer's fault that they can't install it, and they have to pay a 20% restock fee to return it.
- QuietStorm21A, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Circuit City does go through training for every product they sell. I use to be a PC technician for them and we had on-line training process of every new product we basically got in our stores from cameras, to desktop computers. I know that there are employees that don't do the whole training and just basically bs people about the product but for those who really do the work there and do the training they know what i am talking about and know a good amount of information needed to sell the product the right way. I also think it is a good move for apple cause now it making them i think more of a public item for people to get interested in and a choice a retail stores between PC and macs and i am a Microsoft fanboy.
- markhowson999, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5I'm not sure what I think of this. Apple should open more Apple stores, or at least have Apple employees at resellers
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Mr. Ed? Well, assuming he can still sing, that would cover two of my three conditions.
But wasn't he used to make shoes for Roy Rogers anyway? - newbill123, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I was under the impression that it was Apple that chose to part ways with Circuit City before due to reports of bad sales experiences. Now that Best Buy is getting Apple products, it's obvious why CC wants Apple back.
Perhaps Apple has been persuaded to come back, but why? What's in it for them? Even if Circuit City was paying Apple, why would you want someone to [spit] on your products? Wouldn't having a huge number of nasty retail outlets just mean more [spit]? - hottcarl, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3PremPC5 baby :-D
- Slovenian6474, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2A few mac computers doesn't do well in large stores like BBY or CC. I've been there, i've seen them come and go. If a large store is going to carry Macs, they have to carry a lot of them. Something similar to Microcenter or CompUsa, both of these stores have set areas where they carry most of the Apple line. For Circuit to pull this off, they'd have to have most of the Apple line there. Otherwise they'll stop selling them in 6-7 months.
- charged2885, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3it's true. the other day, while i was there, i was disgusted with the fact that when you buy a laptop there (or anywhere else), there is so much bullsh*t already installed, that they offer a cleaning service. the associate agreed and then suggested i wait for the macs to come to the store "next week".
- oneiroi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I thought my experience was isolated.
I've been to Circuit City's in New York and in Texas. Both tended to be disorganized, prices not listed, correct prices not listed, workers wandering around casually hanging out, not talking to customers. - huntrm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1 Agree with Claco, if only Circuit CIty could make a comeback!
- foxsynergy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1We could do a CSI SPYREM and whack all that helpful WildTangent crap the CPQ/HP machines come with. :P
- antdude, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Mr. Ed is like dead, duh!
- theballdredge, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Unless youre in annapolis or potomac everything is gehtto, even with the multi-million dollar houses being built all over the place.
This state is too crowded. - Ryokurin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I worked there back then.
It wasnt more about the salespeople not being trained, (that was more on CompUSA) but more on the fact that Apple wanted more space and Circuit City wouldn't give it. That along with the fact that they wanted to order the computers by the color and Apple wanted to do it randomly. There were frankly some colors that just didn't sell and those machines basically sat in the back until they were eventually sold at a loss. - MacParrot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@markhowson999
CompUSA has Apple employees on occasion at their stores. - CyberSkull, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It doesn't matter to me, as my local Circuit City closed up some months ago.
- Greycloak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I just started working for CompUSA last week, and the Apple rep at the store has actually been very helpful in getting me trained to sell Macs. In fact, I just completed several training courses before I saw this post.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2People actually shop at Circuit City ?
- Poddo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2For the love of god, please tell me its not true. I'll quit. Seriously.
- claco, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1My CC had a lousy Plasma/LCD section compared to Best Buy. The pushed mainly projection stuffs. What it did have, however, was a kick ass speaker eval room when you wanted to compare different brands of surround sound setups.
- victheslick, on 10/12/2007, -16/+16Macs are fine... CC not so much.
- deuceswilde, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1sorry, it duped me
- Slovenian6474, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Wow, badmouthing a product in front of customers! That adds to my list of CompUSA employees NEVER contacting me. I can stand in front of any product in that store for 30 minutes flat and not even see an employee in the dept. It didn't surprise me to hear the news report about 2 guys walking behind the counter, grabbing 15ish ipod videos and just plain walk out of the store without an employee in site! Anyways, i sure hope they do go through some decent training before told to sell Apple products.
- claco, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I'm still waiting for Circuit City to make a comeback. Ours closed last year, probably killed by the ShamVHVHBest Buy next door.
- damonic, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3And we buy alot of them!
- deuceswilde, on 10/12/2007, -8/+4you misspelled flamer... moron
- Nahor, on 10/12/2007, -11/+4...said the man with the rainbow flag operating system...
- macfanboi, on 10/12/2007, -15/+2In other news... "Steve Jobs took a huge dump today..."
- newAccount, on 10/17/2007, -26/+3there may be something to this rumor, the circuit city in my town is hiring, the ad says they're seeking "young males with uncommonly limp wrists."
- iNoles, on 10/12/2007, -33/+5if it in Circuit City, i would get it. Mac are cool OS ever.
if your digg me down, you must be a windows fanboy. -
Show 51 - 52 of 52 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is