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Please don't let a Bill Gates Jr wannabe try to sell the Macs in Best Buy.

I was going to say something about how Best Buy employees aren't qualified to sell Macs, but quite frankly they aren't much worse anymore than the warm bodies staffing Apple retail stores.

I actually visited one of these, in Boston's Back Bay. It was indeed its own area with the Macs and iPods lined up, with a big video screen in the wall showing a movie about OS X, and it even had a long bar with stools and free WiFi access, apparently in case people wanted to just hang out and use their laptops there. That's a shockingly non-standard attitude for Best Buy.

I wasn't expecting much out of this. But apparently customers' dollars are doing the talking this time.

Have never had an issue with any of the Apple retail store staff. Have been in a LOT of Apple stores around the country as well. Good to hear that it sounds like Apple at least has their own staff in the stores at times, because man the sales people in Best Buy stores are the same crowd that should be asking "would you like fries with that?"

Here it comes again, another round of Mac snobs slagging Best Buy.

I like Best Buy (Canada). I like their 14 day money back guarantee on computers, 30 days on accessories and price protection. Their employees tech knowledge pales compared to my local Apple stores employees. However, I'm intelligent enough to be able to pick up a box, walk up to the cashier and make a purchase, all on my own.

It wasn't long ago many people on this forum were saying putting Apple products in Best Buy was a mistake. Apparently based on this article, you were wrong. I don't see Apple's reputation going down the drain. You may feel less exclusive, but that's your issue. Maybe you can offset this by bragging about how well your Apple stock is doing because of it.

Bandit Bill, I don't particularly like Best Buy stores. Follower said: "... It was indeed its own area with the Macs and iPods lined up, with a big video screen in the wall showing a movie about OS X ... That's a shockingly non-standard attitude for Best Buy.", and I agree. The whole thing seems more like a "hosting" arrangement than a marketing agreement. I've shopped Best Buy in the past, but have tended to walk away empty-handed.

Dave

@Bandit Bill - So what you are saying is "If you remember bad experiences in the past, but they are not happening any more, then you are stupid and insecure for remembering them." Interesting.

My experience at the Best Buy in St. Catherines Ontario has been abysmal. I went in there a couple of years ago to buy a FireWire drive enclosure and was told by the salesdoofus there "Oh, that's mostly just an Apple thing." I told him that yes, it was to connect to a Mac and walked away disgusted. So then I started looking at their Mac display. They had a 17" iMac, the G5 PowerMac and an iBook. None of it worked. It was just sitting there in disarray, like a trailer park garage sale. But the iPod section was well-staffed, with young salesdorks asking me every 15 seconds or so if I needed any help with anything. I wrote to Apple Canada about the problems there and got a call the next week. I was told that there were some changes taking place and those problems would be alleviated, and they were for the most part. Just don't go looking for FireWire anything at Best Buy, 'cause it's mostly 'just a Mac thing'.

MACs don't play games.

Your potential. Our passion.™

"Please don't let a Bill Gates Jr wannabe try to sell the Macs in Best Buy."

Rory John Gates is eight years old and a Bill Gates, Jr. actualbe.

But not including his enormous wealth, I think his elementary school educational level makes him overqualified.
Besides, he's probably too busy squirting his hired staff playmates.

Zune Tang:

Take that excuse and your MAC Lipglass and shove it up your you-know-where. We know that Microshaft pays you. If I wanted to play games, I would have bought a Wii or a PS3, not a computer.

Anyhoo, I hope that this enters the Best Buy stores here in Fort Wayne real soon while we're waiting for our Apple Store (and it would be a hoot if they put it in the Apple Glen Crossing store). It probably is not a matter of if but when...

MDN MW: "long", as in it will be a long time before Zune Tang surrenders

Unfortunately Apple started the same 'crap' in Germany. Here the stores are called Saturn and Media Markt. It belongs to one big player anyway, but compared to the main market US, it does not work.
The guys tried to sell me a PC laptop in 3 different markets instead... They do not know nothing. Not about mail setup, not itunes and not the difference of Safari to Internet Explorer...

Please, Steve, give us a real, a retail store in Germany. And for your own good, do it quickly...

Picture hearing Zune Tang's posts spoken by a parrot.

"Your potential. Our passion. Raaahhk."

How appropriate.

Had they simply placed a $1200 iMac on a standard shelf next to a $400 HP then the Best Buy thing would have been bad. The mini store concept, however, is different. This sounds like it might be a good match. Just image mini stores in other places where you have good concentrations of potential customers:

• Ikea & Target
• Major supermarkets
• Busy transit stations/retail districts

@follower "So what you are saying is "If you remember bad experiences in the past, but they are not happening any more, then you are stupid and insecure for remembering them."

I'm having difficulty comprehending how you got that out of what I said, but in response:

You're not "stupid or insecure" for remembering past bad experiences, but you shouldn't get caught up in them and be afraid to move ahead. As many have indicated they have had poor experiences in the past. Their expectations were not met. From the sounds of it. Now Best Buy is exceeding some peoples expectations. To me that's the way to do business.

As indicated in the article Apple tried selling their products through Best Buy in the past and it did poorly. It appears they've learned from their experience. The market has changed and so has Apple's approach. Apparently this new approach is working for the time being.

At least once a day someone ducks into the office of one of my colleagues and makes some comment about the two Macs on his desk. He teaches computer science at a local university and used to run Windows and Linux but now has a TiBook and an iMac. Once each day he listens as someone derides his choice of a "toy machine."

I ask him what his answer is, and he shrugs and responds, "What's the point?"

"What's the point?" I exclaim. "The point is that your Mac ships with Java, Ruby, Python, and Perl. The point is that you can open up a Terminal window and edit using vi or emacs. You can set up sendmail or use lynx. You can enable the Apache Web server that ships with every Mac by checking a check box. That's the point."

"I usually tell them that," he says, "but then they ask me if they can play the latest version of some game on it like they can on a Windows box."

"Well then," I reply, "which one is the toy machine?"

http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2002/12/10/osx_java.html

Let's hope that Best Buy mini-stores are not like the ones that used to be in CompUSA! Steve need to be on record for occasionally popping his head into a random Best Buy store. I have had a Best Buy TV salesman sell me all the discounts in order to sign up for their card(with another discount), and, when I got all signed up...suddenly I was turned over to a higher up guy...and suddenly, two of those discounts didn't apply. He told me I couldn't cancel, and I said "Watch Me"...I went to the front and the lady got me the district manager on the phone, and I cancelled
everything right there on the spot and walked out. Now, I will never forget, and I would never drop a penny for a paperclip in any Best Buy store...Apple ministore included or not.

I want to add my belief that there's little difference between BB's blue shirts and Apple Retail Store's lime green t-shirts.

Very, very disappointed in the a ability of anyone in my Apple Retail Store being able to answer more than basic questions.

Ever asked one of them about setting up a 3-machine Airport network? Good luck.

@ Same People:
Give me green card, I would apply at an Apple Store in a second..
Airport questions! Lovely! Computer-to-computer network with 3 Macs incl. Internet sharing? Or with a router/base station?
We could do that, I am pretty sure. And there should be at least one Genius in the US, who can also do it. Just find him or her...

I friekin love macs. I'm so glad they are coming back to best buy. http://www.themacfan.com is too

@Same People

Did you ask sales people or the Mac Genius? The sales people at retail stores are very knowledgeable for sales people, but they are not technicians.

give me a american girlfrined and a Green card, I can I come over help sort your Gun control your, Pressedent, change your Entertainment industry, ban windows,

and Go to disney land. and Brind some scenery from NZ.

I love Nz, and mac and Cake and I am cool so You should al also.

PS I HATE pcs I worked in a call centre for years in a help desk, and We know they crap user go through believe me.

I am still so angry with society for allowing the lies,

So people if you still uninformed,
test yourself, while you are at it,
:e mac realist lest go now, Get rid of windows Now.

I visited a Best Buy in Fair Lakes, VA, yesterday, which had an Apple mini-store. The ups: excellent placement of the ministore, in direct footpath back to HD TVs and home entertainment center. Had 24" and 20" new iMacs on display, and a 17" "old" iMac (which looks REALLY dated next to the new offerings). Had one MacBook Pro, and a black and white model MacBook. Had an end-cap with Apple software, including copies of iLife and iWork 08. Good signage throughout the store. The downs: the 24" iMac had all the applications, but none of the data to show them off. No photos either in iPhoto or laying around (other than some goofy PhotoBooth shots) to put into iPhoto. No movies in iMovie. The MS Office demo had expired. Several of the permissions were fscked up yielding very little access. Although the Airport was active and showed a strong signal, no web pages came across in Safari.

It reminded me of the old days at Apple mini-stores in CompUSA. The machines were there, but had been vandalized or allowed to lapse into poor states of "demo-ness".

I looked around (5:00 PM on a Thursday evening) for anything resembling an "Apple Guy" or blue-shirted Orc with a clue and found none.

There were many people looking at the new iMacs and MacBooks, and it's a shame the machines weren't better prepared to greet visitors.

Sometimes I wonder if it's better to have no Macs at all than vandalized Macs.

MDN magic word: "would", as in "this would be a great idea if it was implemented uniformly and correctly". I give it a C++ (for you programmers out there).

Oh, and Hillary's an idiot.

Love to all,

PeteyZ

@PeteyZ

I agree demo's should be brilliant. This is one thing that Apple could do to set itself aside from the competition. The demos should restore themselves back to a pristine state each night (to get rid of the DELL RULZ) comments that trolls leave

@ 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.