Filed under: Apple Corporate, Retail
Apple extends Best Buy program
About a year ago, there was a single Mac mini set up in my local Best Buy. It quietly disappeared, and I wondered if Apple was giving up on Best Buy. Today, I got my answer: No.According to an article at MacNN, the Apple/Best Buy retail venture will grow to 200 stores in 2007, up from the current count of 50. That's great and all, but let's hope that the staff at these extra 150 stores aren't as blatantly anti-Mac as the employees I've encountered. I've actually seen staff steer interested shoppers away from the mini and towards some hulking PC. I only hope they bought virus protection software as well.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Leonard Nimrod said 7:22AM on 4-05-2007
It seems everyone's experience with Best Buy employees shunning the Mac is universal. What gives?
Apple really needs to get a dedicated section of the store for Macs (and iPods) and have a "genius" always on staff just to deal with Mac-related issues.
I'd also like to eventually see a "genius bar" setup at Best Buys where Apple has little interest in setting up it's own brick and mortar stores. I think this would go a long way to appease any fears that switchers may have about the new platform.
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Aron Trimble said 7:34AM on 4-05-2007
After working at Best Buy selling digital cameras, here is what I have learned:
1) Every employee has a "favorite" product/brand that they sell to EVERY customer. If the customer doesn't know what they want, this product/brand BECOMES what they want.
2) Having representatives come in from different brands works. Apple should send in Apple employees to sell Macs. It works for Epson, Canon, HP, Pioneer, the list goes on.
3) Most computer sales people at Best Buy are uneducated (if not biased) about Macs and will always say they are worse.
Aron T
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Mark said 8:23AM on 4-05-2007
It's tough to take some salespeople seriously when they so blatantly put their own skewed viewpoints and preferences above that of the customer.
Without doubt many computer salespeople are massive Windows fanboys and as such would trash anything not PC related.
Even if a customer came in the store and laid down a textbook case for a Mac, a Windows fanboy saleskid would still try to sell them a PC that would fill their needs only half as well as a Mac would have.
Add in the fact that many are on commission, and you further clutter the sales process with a salesperson often trying to sell you a product that is totally overkill or unnecessary simply because it will give them a few extra dollars at the end of the sale. Monster cable, anyone?
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Jason Ross McMillan said 8:43AM on 4-05-2007
best buy doesn't work of commission, but yeah I completely agree with aron the salesperson develops their favorite and pushes it more than any other. I work in home theater and 9 out of every 10 costomers comes out with a samsung and at least looks at the appletv (only sold one so far). If our store had a macs i promise everybody would come out of there with a mac even with me in home theater I would tell them how well the mac mini works as a media center.
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Chris said 8:43AM on 4-05-2007
I'd actually like to point out to Mark that Best Buy employees are NOT paid on commission, so that argument is a bit moot in this context. I'm a computer department lead at my local Best Buy (#1159) in Acworth, GA. As a Macbook owner myself, I must admit that it is strangely uncommon to find an employee at most BB stores that knows an eMac from a Mac Pro. The aforementioned bias is evident too; there is some ridiculous stigma associated with OS X among the rabid fanboys of PC culture that shows its ugly face on the floor quite often, I'll admit. My co-workers will often playfully chide me for owning anything short of XP (though they know better than to praise Vista... yuck. A *select* few are at least smart enough to run Ubuntu Linux). It's actually quite sad.
Personally, I always try and make sure that customers who visit my department are informed of all of their options, and oftentimes I can be seen showing a customer a Macbook or iMac on Bestbuy.com rather than leading them to the latest antivirus software. I present an unbiased opinion of all their options and show them the benefits of all their options. My fellow employees have come to know me as "the Mac guy" when the scenario calls for such an expert.
The good news is, I believe my store is one that is supposed to start getting Macbooks and iMacs in the store, so at least from my corner of the world, you guys can rest assure that theres SOMEONE who can proudly show a customer a new Mac.
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Mark said 8:54AM on 4-05-2007
I do realize that Best Buy is not commission based, so I should have mentioned that.
That aside, they remain an oddity in this respect in a sales industry (especially big-box) that is typically always on a commission based pay structure.
Best Buy aside, I bet if Apple offered a $50 "commission bonus" to salespeople for every Mac they sell (totally unrealistic, but for example purposes only) you'd see Mac's flying off the shelves. The sad reality is that allot of the salespeople wouldn't have a bloody clue about what they're selling (see above fanboy comments) but hey, they'd have an extra $50 in their pockets.
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DJ said 9:15AM on 4-05-2007
As we all know, Best Buy Canada (at least in my area, Toronto) has a much wider selection Mac products (selling everything but PowerMacs?) and usually have examples of each product available (probably because there are very few Apple Retail Stores in Canada still). This doesn’t mean the staff are well trained though. I was in just last weekend and passed by the Mac section to see if AppleTV was in yet, overheard staff ‘educating’ customers about the differences between Windows and Mac and I immediate had to jump in to correct some serious misrepresentations. I would suggest if Apple is serious about this (and I suspect they may only be for the low end/high volume products), that they at least ensure properly trained staff exist.
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cs0875 said 9:56AM on 4-05-2007
I work in electronics sales as a manager for a Radio Shack store. When we try to sell, we try to fit the right product for our customers needs, and offer as many options as possible. For example
A customer comes in for an MP3 player, I show them iPods but also the Zune, and Sansa players. Because they now have several choices based up price. I could show them an iPod and tell them that iPod is the best thing in the world and everything else doesn't compare, the problem then comes that if they say $149 is more than they want to spend, I can't show them the Sansa e250 for $99, since they already know (from what I told them) that it doesn't compare to the iPod. They leave go somewhere else (most people don't realize that iPods cost pretty much the same everywhere). I need to keep all options open.
In the case of Mac vs PC, there may be 2 or 3 Macs while there are 20 PCs. The difference between a Mac and a PC is much larger than that between an iPod and a Sansa. So I tell a customer that Macs are great, and wonderful, and tell them all the reasons why they are better then PCs, if they can't spend the money, they won't buy the PC. Best Buy has PCs from $399 up to $1800, a computer for every budget. They won't have a Mac for every budget.
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Leonard Nimrod said 10:19AM on 4-05-2007
It appears that at least some Best Buy stores will have a dedicated, closed off section for Macs.
http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2635
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Eric said 10:41AM on 4-05-2007
My Best Buy had a Mac mini (connected to an HP CRT) about a year ago, and I've not seen one since. Salespeople don't usually bother me in the store, after the initial "Can I help you?"... I guess I just look like I know what I'm doing.
The Mac mini, anyway, was in with the other PCs (I'll add, it was actually in the low-end, $400 PCs in the narrowest aisle), with nothing marking it to show that it wasn't a Windows computer. They even had a black/silver Logitech mouse and keyboard on it, rather than the nice white Apple combination.
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Mike said 12:31PM on 4-05-2007
The reason they don't push macs and steer people away from them is because 8 out of 10 that are sold get returned. Most people don't realize the challenges of switching. They know that microsoft office runs on the mac but don't realize that they have to buy the mac version etc. I can't tell you how many people come in to buy a mac because theyre tired of windows and then return it a week later because they don't know how to use it, none of their software works on it, theres a limited selection of games available for their kids etc. The fact of the matter is a mac just isn't a good solution for most people. The only people I really steer towards macs are either a) old and dont do much besides email and web surfing or b) new to computers so don't have a back catalog of things that wont work.
I know you can run boot camp or parallels etc. but if you set someone up with that they will end up running in windows most of the time which defeats the entire reason of buying a mac.
Please note I am a mac user but also realize that macs aren't for everyone.
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rp said 12:57PM on 4-05-2007
I bet you anything that there's a directive from higher up at most Best Buy stores that says not to push Apple products. The reason being that Best Buy will not make as much money from Apple products as they will from PC products. Apple products do not require anti-virus software, PCs do. Apple products offer an extended warranty program through Apple, so it would be hard for Best Buy to peddle their store warranty on the Apple products. Best Buy can peddle more software for PCs. Finally, Geek Squad, a division of Best Buy, would find it hard to support itself on Apple products because most Mac users would take it to an Apple store and get it looked at for free. Thus, there is very little reason to push support for Mac products.
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Solutions Consultant said 1:47PM on 4-05-2007
These stores that have the dedicated Apple section (black carpet, black tables, lots of Macs) ALSO HAVE AN APPLE EMPLOYEE THAT RUNS THE MINI-STORE.
Most of these stores are in California, and Vancouver Canada right now.
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David said 2:20PM on 4-05-2007
I totally agree with Mike's comment. Apple computers are not for everyone.
And to rp: of course they can't sell anti virus software or anything but think about this... Apple hardware contains loads more margin. Most HP & other PCs have barely any margin. Apple price fixes their hardware, but that does not mean that it doesn't have loads of margin. Plus I guess you could sell a training.
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DerekJ said 9:23PM on 4-05-2007
Well I work at computers at my local Best Buy (#21) in Coralville, IA, and I've been selling mac's to my customers like a kid in a candy store. I love selling them, and having the people come back to tell me how much they love them. Yes, we have, and are encouraged to have our own opinions about things, so we'll tend to express that. I'm the black sheep who like's mac's...but most people on the extreme team (Computers/Geek Squad) own, or plan to own a mac...for what it's worth.
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Catt said 8:26PM on 4-05-2007
I went to my local Best Buy sometime ago trying to find an external DVD burner to work with my Mac Mini. BTW the one Mac Mini they had at the Best Buy was no longer there its a complete PC World in that store. Anyway, I was asking the salesperson if a particular external DVD burner would work with said Mini and he told me no then proceeded to tell me about Apple's Market Share. I simply gave him the evil eye and walked away mumbling how incorrect he was about alot of things. I later found out after looking at the specs that the DVD burner would have worked just fine but eneded up getting a Lacie DVD burner via mail order. After my recent trip to the College Bookstore that sells Apple Computers near me and the complete ignorance of all things Apple that the sales people had there I realize that Best Buy is not alone. I end up having to do these people's jobs most of the time coz they can't answer simple spec and features questions regarding the Apple products at said store. I'm for Apple sending some reps to these stores so that customers who want to purchase their products can get some decent advice and help.
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ShaleX said 4:00PM on 4-09-2007
This Comment thread has been a great example of Mac Zealots vs. the world. Mike has been the only intellegent one here.
Mac's aren't for everybody. it's another PC up on the wall... and if a salesman really was going for a commission, of COURSE he'd be trying to sell a mac. Many are more expensive then most PCs. Applecare? No Anti-virus software? Pfft... I used to work at a Circuit City... we still sold our protection plans with iPods.. i didn't know about Applecare till the last week i worked there.
But Applecare is very costly, non-renewable, and dosen't support acidental damage.
So add on top of that that most PC sellers in the buiesness are, at best underinformed. Gaming has bread alot of power-users... but Macs arent for games. Let's add to this that.. Well, 've used almost every Windows OS, and I'm a recent partial convert. Most of you are as wrong about Vista as the poeple you talk about ar misinformed about OSX. Part of this is helped by the fact that most of you like to repeat apple's jargon.
Misconception of OSX... everything just works. It's true! As long as it's the latest and greates from apple. Whyfor can't i find a webcam that will attach to to my Poawerbook that works with iChat? How about that apple would prefer you buy a totally new system every 2 years. New macBooks come with a built in camera.. so screw everyone who dosen't have one. I espically love the program that i downloaded that didn't tell me it was only for intel based macs till i tried to run it.
I've used lots of computer platforms and none of them are perfect. I truly love my new Powerbook G4. (It was given to me as a trade for a Dell laptop. I wanted one because i wanted to give MAcs a try and the $500 PPC MacMini was a useless POS.) And with this new OS I want to take advantage of every new feature there is on this platform. But unlike a PC, i can't do simple hardware upgrades to get them.
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