CompUSA, An Upside -- Calling all AMUGS!

Cliff Earle wrote:

"Hi Bill--Cliff again.

Just wanted to share my impressions of the California/Woodland Hills store. I spent about an hour there today. The store, which is completed, is located in the far left corner of the floorspace, and is fully stocked with every model you could wish-- 6500, 8600, G3, all four PowerBooks, an e-Mate, etc. Accessory shelves hold mice, zips, Apple hard drives, and Connectix Quickcams. There are two Umax scanners, a few Apple printers, and one or two 3rd-party printers as well. A software aisle on the left has lots of Mac apps and the hottest games. Only one of the Macs bombed while I was there, a 6500/300 demo unit with OS 8 installed. It was running that annoying "I'm easy to use-- click a button, come on, CLICK ONE!" intro, and made for kind of a bizarrely intimidating effect when you stood in the middle of the section with six Macs tell you to just go ahead and click it. (I tried the restart option, as did another gentleman who happened to pass by, but the unit kept crashing).

The "Mac friendliness" of the store was neutral. Mac was not being snubbed, but neither were employees stampeding over to help. I was not approached even once the entire time I was there. You had to go grab someone from over by the Wintel stuff to get attention, and even then they were not knowledgeable -- one *very* nice elderly couple were looking for a landscape program and a chess program, neither of which the employee could help them with (truth be told, he never even came over to help, and after trying to find the program unsuccessfully myself, they left for Mac Universe, a specialty store. I did get them interested in upgrading to 8, though-- another item the employee never hit on.....).

Several more upbeat points:

One, I was impressed as always by the friendliness of the Mac community. Over the course of the hour I was there, I and another man I met were able to help answer several peoples' questions. It's great to see Mac people taking time out to help, and this is far from the only time it has happened.

Two, I was reminded of how loyal Mac customers are. The couple from above talked about how much they loved their machine. Another man -- get this -- wandered in looking for a dust cover, and during the course of our conversation revealed his machine, an 8600/300, was his first computer ever. I asked him why Mac. He answered that he had wanted one ever since 1980 (?!), when he had been to a convention that Apple had sponsored. Seventeen years for a Mac....now that's *got* to be a record.

One final point. During the time we were helping people, the person I was working with (who is a big force in several LA-area User Groups) mentioned two items that clicked with an idea I have been turning over in my head. He said that one, a few mac people in the CompUSA section could move a lot of boxes, and two, Apple should rely more on its User Groups.

As a general plea to any user groups reps that you might share this with, why can't the local User Groups in any given location go to the CompUSAs in their area and offer to a) help train their salespeople in basic Mac skills/product options, b) help answer questions where appropriate (maybe access to the tech support lists?), and c) put on some type event similar to the Apple Demo Days -- maybe one night a month when 2-3 volunteers will come into the store and make themselves available to help (and, of course, to do a little steering of customers to the "correct" solution for their computing needs ;-) ). It seems like a win-win situation -- CompUSA gets help, Macs move more boxes, and the User Groups get free publicity and a chance to gain new members who may not be aware of them. I think it's a good idea, and should be strongly considered. Apple needs a strong presence in "first-time" outlets now more than ever.

Anyway, off the soap box. Keep up the good work, and I'll keep you posted!"