[Loose Cannons] What is going on with Apple and its Retailers?

A couple of weeks ago, the Cannons decided to run some retail tests. This past weekend, we went out to the CompUSA and Sears in our cities to check out the Mac OS 9 Demo Days and iBook, new iMac and G4 availability.

We'd like to say that we were pleasantly surprised by what we found. Sears was fully stocked with iBooks (both flavors!), there were lots of Demo Day Apple reps, lots of OS 9's loaded on machines and Graphite G4's and iMacs were everywhere!

We'd like to say that, but we can't.

What is going on with Apple and its retailers? Does anyone at Apple actually bother reading the reports they get from the field? Do they know or understand what's going on out there?

Rumor has it that Steve and some pals hit a couple of CompUSA's a couple of weeks ago. Well, bully for them. We've got to assume that the CompUSA's near Apple are in tip top shape (if they're not, CompUSA marketing people aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer).

Hey, Steve? How about going to the CompUSA's in New York? Or Seattle? Or, according to Macs Only!'s CompUSA Watch Page any store in Texas?

Out of approx 208 CompUSA's (with 4 criteria to meet) there are a total of 243 negative reports. Almost 30% of CompUSA's have at least one definite negative report (Surprisingly enough, all eight stores in Massachusetts trended to the positive side with 5 of them having Mac Savvy staff. Massachusetts, you rock!). 57 stores trended negative overall (Another 57 stores trended positive). That's more than 27%. Only 55 out of 208 stores (26%) have Mac Savvy staff.

Does Apple even care? Do they realize what this kind of negativity does to their sales, not only now, but in the future?

There are further rumors.....naw, we can confirm them. Apple will be initiating a program of "Volunteer Secret Shoppers" to scout out stores in their cities and report back about the state of affairs.

Does this sound familiar? It should. Apple announced about 6 months ago that it was hiring extra staff to do Secret Shopping. Whatever happened to that program?

Well, why pay people when they'll do it for free? Apple knows the majority of Macoholics still bleed rainbow and are more than happy to drink the Kool-Aid and do Uncle Steve's bidding.

This also has the added advantage of not painting CompUSA into a corner. Think about it. If Apple hires "professionals" to scope out the stores, they have to act on the reports. And, with the above stats in hand, you know a disturbingly high percentage of those stores would get negative reviews.

But, if Apple gets you to volunteer, when the negative reports come in, they can pass them off as the rantings of a biased source and can more gently nudge CompUSA into cleaning up their act.

But face it. Does Apple really need to have people tell them that CompUSA isn't a good retail environment for a large number of people? No. We know it, you know it, Apple knows it. But CompUSA also knows that Apple doesn't have much of a choice. There are not many Nationwide Computer Superstores that Apple can turn to in order to sell product.

Granted, there are other outlets for Apple. There's the mail order catalogs, small Apple Only retailers, Fry's and the much-hated-by-retail Apple Store. But none of those places really reach out and grab Apple's most crucial audience.

People who don't own computers.

These are the people Apple needs to reach the most. For those of us who already own Macs and are on the Net, Apple will get us the info we need to make purchases almost by accident and we will find some place to buy what we want. But those folks who have never bought a computer look to places like CompUSA for their purchases and buying advice.

Now, leaving aside the fact that the last person in the world you should ask buying advice from is someone who is trying to sell you something, non-computer users go into CompUSA's, grab the first sales person they find and ask, "What computer should I buy?"

Wouldn't it be in Apple's interest to have that sales drone be Mac savvy? Or, at the very least, Mac friendly?

OK, we've got that figured out. Why hasn't Apple? Why do we still go into stores and see lousy presentation, few machines, lack of hands on demos and indifferent, if not hostile, sales staff?

Apple, "Show them the money!"

Spiff the hell out of these guys. Pay for their training. Make selling easy for them. Give them t-shirts. Do sales contests and give away iMacs or iBooks to the best sales people. Make them feel like they're appreciated. Remember, you're number two in their minds. You've got to try harder.

cannons@applelinks.com

May 16, 2012