Circuit City has tons PC software, but no Mac software to speak of (although there are a number of hybrid educational titles.) CompUSA had a decent Mac *hardware* section, but a pathetically small Mac software section - especially compared to the PC game/software section (although that's shrinking also as the console game section gets bigger and bigger.) Unless Apple can address the "no software" problem, it seems unlikely that Circuit City and CompUSA will add much in the way of Mac sales and mind/marketshare.

Of course, Apple stores have also gutted their Mac software sections and replaced them with aisles of iPod accessories...

Make that tons *of* PC software. Best Buy has the same problem: no Mac software.

Software shelf space for the Mac seems to be dead or dying - unless Apple does something about it (maybe an iTunes software store?) Mac sales in retail stores (even Apple stores) are going to suffer...

I think it's generally a bad idea for apple to sell their systems at "Big Box" electronic stores, for one major reason: commission.

Apple systems have a set value at every store, meaning big box stores have to get creative with clearance systems or bundles if they want to add profit margins for employee incentives. Back when I was training Future Shop employees to sell iMacs several years ago, one of the staff laid down the math. If they sold one of the clearance models featured in the weekly flier, they earned $28. If they sold a Macintosh, they'd make $7. Which meant that unless a customer walked in with their mind set on buying a Macintosh, they would not try and sell them one.

Simple as that.

You make good points, but Circuit City employees are not on commission. They all have a fixed hourly wage.

CC has no commisions like it did in 2000. What will hurt apple at the stores is their PC guys are just that pc guys. They are the basic gamers and guys that like to fix pc's. Deal with viruses and and spyware is more of a profit maker now days. They will care less about making movies, music, websites, photo albums or any of the other things that come easy with the ilife apps that ship with macs. Some of their guys work hard enough stearing customers to other mp3 player instead of ipods because of their dislike for apple.
CC sales guys would need an attitude change for this to actual work.

I'm not worried whether or not the sale people understand or even like Macs. Ignorance is found everywhere. Intel-based Macs are less threatening to sales people. This deal provides more points of purchase for Macs during the Christmas season.

More and more people are returning to bricks and mortar retail outlets for PC purchases and exposure in Circuit City stores fills the bricks and mortar retail gaps for Apple. There are only so many malls in the US that make financial sense for Apple to open a retail store.

Whether or not this deal works in the end for Circuit City it represents an opportunity for Apple. If if someone doesn't buy a Mac on their first trip to the store, it's good exposure. Outside of Apple's own retail stores, Macs are usually sold before the buyer enters the store.

Circuit City needs to offer as many options for PC buyers as possible. Dell sells direct. Lenovo isn't really present in retail. Gateway's eMachines and Gateway nameplates are top sellers in this space. Offering Macs is an attractive option for Circuit City because in general Mac retail buyers tend to spend more than PC buyers. It's about yield per customer.

How long has it been since the wireless mighty mouse has been announced? I have still NOT physically seen one at a physical store, neither the local CompUSA or Apple Store has had even one of those new mice. I'm sure the day after I break down and order one, they will be everywhere... But I still cannot grasp why Apple has not actually released these to even their own stores! I was in an Apple Store and I saw a saleperson helping someone and the buyer wanted a wireless mouse and the saleperson knew Apple had just made such a mouse, but since the buyer was at the store and the Apple mouse wasn't, the salesperson pointed out a different brand of mouse - I witnessed a lost sell because Apple just cannot deliver goodies quick enough to physical stores. I doubt if adding more stores will improve this huge gap that Apple has.

The Apple Online Store is very nice and I have yet to have a problem when using it; however I would still rather have the experience of going to a store and looking around and buying stuff to take home. Either Apple needs to increase advertising to drive people into their online store OR Apple needs to actually get products out to the stores they presently can before trying to grow that number.

But I will offer that this beef is more a 2nd or 3rd step, the 1st step is to get a mac COMPUTER into more homes and more stores would help that goal. If I'm waiting for a simple mouse, then I suppose ordering a computer online would likely give a lot of people a lot of pause, especially if the computer is running a whole different OS then they are used to. I guess the goodies train can wait for more computers to be bought.

Docster87, welcome to the Apple Finance Board forum.

Our local Apple store can't keep the wireless Mighty Mouse on the shelves. They are all sold before they are even put on display. So, it is not a matter of Apple not getting them out to the stores, it is that they are backordered at most of the locations.

CompUSA is a different matter. I don't think they have received any due to backorder at the Apple online store and the Apple B&Ms.

The mighty mouse is not for me, at least right now.

Long live The Puck.

I must say, I bought my 1.33GHz G4 iBook 19 months ago at a CompUSA in Anaheim, CA and I had excellent service and considerably better deals that I have gotten at Apple stores. I have since purchased another Mac from the Apple store but since I had such individual attention at that CompUSA store and I would recommend them again.

The reason I bought my Mac there was because my parents got their iMac there (their 4th Mac) a month earlier and I liked the attention they received so much I went back to the same salesperson, an Apple certified employee at the store. Instant RAM upgrades with my AppleCare by him and bonus incentives (rebates, printers, etc.) made it a better experience.

I love the Mac stores but for personalized attention without the lines, I say try them out.

I cannot help wondering if the CC move is due in any part to a chilling of the relationship between Apple and Comp. Did anyone see this past Sunday's Comp flyer? Headline: "All MP3 Players on Sale!" Fine print: "Excludes Apple". As Tom Waits said - "The large print giveth, the small print taketh away."

When my Comp first started the SWAW representation was great, and has gone downhill since.

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Brutno wrote:
I cannot help wondering if the CC move is due in any part to a chilling of the relationship between Apple and Comp. Did anyone see this past Sunday's Comp flyer? Headline: "All MP3 Players on Sale!" Fine print: "Excludes Apple". As Tom Waits said - "The large print giveth, the small print taketh away."

When my Comp first started the SWAW representation was great, and has gone downhill since.

Edison,

Your statements are true, and I agree. What I failed to mention was that this is also the first time in a while that iPods have not been in Comp's advertisements, at least in my market. While I don't think Comp would turn down Apple's ad payments, or that Apple would pull iPod ad space at Comp - it just struck me as a mildly coincidental event.

Quote

Docster87 wrote:
How long has it been since the wireless mighty mouse has been announced? I have still NOT physically seen one at a physical store, neither the local CompUSA or Apple Store has had even one of those new mice. I'm sure the day after I break down and order one, they will be everywhere... But I still cannot grasp why Apple has not actually released these to even their own stores! I was in an Apple Store and I saw a saleperson helping someone and the buyer wanted a wireless mouse and the saleperson knew Apple had just made such a mouse, but since the buyer was at the store and the Apple mouse wasn't, the salesperson pointed out a different brand of mouse - I witnessed a lost sell because Apple just cannot deliver goodies quick enough to physical stores. I doubt if adding more stores will improve this huge gap that Apple has.

John Martellaro's Hidden Dimensions column hints that the Circuit City (and even the Best Buy) move is focused on home entertainment, and not so much on computing.

If Circuit City sets up a theater where primarily Macs access the Web to buy a movie/show and then wirelessly send them to an HDTV for viewing, that would help sell Apple Airport Expresses (assuming that's announced tomorrow) and sell Apple's vision of Internet-based content delivery through iTunes.

That might be why Apple wants to be there, because many people buy TVs at Best Buy/Circuit City.

Yeah, CC and BB both have hourly-only employees. I used to sell cameras at Best Buy on behalf of Kodak. Everyone in the department was excellent at selling based on features once they were familiar with the features. For instance, Kodak P&S cameras are pretty crappy, quality-wise. The auto white balance is atrocious, and the presets only slightly better. But you won't find a camera that is easier to use for someone who doesn't want to ever read the manual.

The Canons on the other hand are fantastic for quality, but to get the best quality you should be familiar with the features and operation. Once the sales guys/girls understood this distinction the first question they would ask people was "who will be using the camera?", followed by something along the lines of their experience with electronics and/or cameras. Then they would make a recommendation based on the customers' answers.

The trouble, then, is that these salespeople may be overly influenced by Apple's current commercials that basically depict Macs as incapable at basic office computing tasks.

Anyway, based on my experiences with Best Buy employees, supervisors, and managers, I have no concerns about the sales of Macs once the employees know what Macs can do. The best situation I can think of is to have an actual camcorder and digital camera with the Mac so that they could give live demos of taking video, importing to iMovie, and creating an iDVD with animated menus and music. A 60 second video would only take a few minutes to throw together with the existing templates. This would get the employees playing with it during down time (one of the great joys of working at BB) and their knowledge and enthusiasm would increase every time they do.


- Jon

wrong, i work at circuit city and i'd love to sell iMacs would make the customer a lot happier, I'm tired of sending people to the apple store. And I don't work off commision, we haven't for awhile now, like several years. I think it's awesome. the only problems I for see is that maybe the competition will get high inside the store as far as what people will buy what. I think the apple would be awesome replacement for the SONY's we've recently pulled from our desktop line up. and it would get the apple word around.

Big Box stores like Circuit City DO NOT sell on commission. Circuit City hasn't had commission salespeople since 2002.