bringing the light to a dark world...

[krossfyter]

The other day while I was in Corpus Christi hanging out with my girfriend I decided to head on over to comp usa store just to see the new imac demo...hoping they had not sold it yet (Corpus Christi does not have an apple store..so this is why im having to do this). I got there.....saw a bunch of hopeless crap that surronded the iPod. Powerbooks, Ibooks, Apple Flat screens, Software.. (which were convienently hidden in the back..like always) etc. etc.....nothing new. While looking at the mac software, I remembered someone on these forums who had a great idea that I wanted to try out. I can't remember the persons name but the idea that he gave me (not meaning to) was to get enough of those apple books from compusa, you know the ones that are free for the taking near the specific apple hardware, and take them over to best buy and place them in certain areas there. So after recalling this great, fun, wonderful idea I went and retrieved some of those little books..about 10 of them....and then proceeded out of the store, with my girlfriend, to best buy. So now I was on a mission.... a mission to advertise for apple in a store that does not carry apple items/products. I managed to systematically, methodically and meticolously place these little apple books in certan areas... the Tibook one near that crappy new Toshiba laptop...the Powermac G4 one near an HP desktop puter ....etc. etc.... im sure you get the point. I felt somewhat devious...but devious for a good cause. After it was all said and done I thought about the philosophical/theological aspects to my little endevour and tide it to a sort of spirtual battle. What i just did could basically be summed up by one small phrase "Bringing light to a dark world".


Now my question to you all is....

am i wrong for doing this? if not...why not join me in this fabulous idea to help out mac in our own area? i know its only a little help that may not make a big difference as opposed to buying thier product (which we do already) or buying stock but its something new and fun...regardless. Are you all with me or not? Am I just stupid for thinking about doing this...or am an okay cat?

Any comments would be appreciated.


dig it!

[Ensign Paris]

I do a similar thing at PC World.

More details later.

Ensign

[alex_ant]

This reminds me of a story of my own. It has nothing to do with Apple, but it made me laugh.

I had major surgery a few years ago, and my grandparents, who are strict pro-life hard-line Catholics, came to visit me in the hospital shortly afterwards. My mother, who is not religious, recalled with much amusement how my grandmother brought a cache of pro-life "abortion is murder" pamphlets with her and dispersed little stacks of them in various places inside the hospital waiting room.

I'm neither pro-life nor pro choice - I guess I just don't care - but I find fanaticism on either side of the debate highly annoying. As such, I would imagine many people would find such guerilla-Apple-advertising tactics highly annoying as well. I realize that the argument of Macs vs. PCs is not of the same importance or significance as the argument of pro-life vs. pro-choice, but with the zealotry plainly visible on sites like this, it's easy to forget.

I DO NOT want to start any abortion debates. I just thought this tied into the fight-for-light or whatever the hell it's called. I repeat: No abortion debates. Thanks. :)

Alex

[krossfyter]

i guess im a mac zealot then. so be it...rock on. im cool with that. beats being a pc moderate and or zealot (if there is such a person). i mean...i dont try to be annoying or mean.... im usually not...i hope.... i just want people to decide for themsleves ...without microsoft making desicions for them...on what platform or computers they want.

my guess is that you are okay now alex...right? i hope so. i know some people like your grandmother there... they are cool cats...im cool with them... im always interested in the eccentrics.

[krossfyter]

Originally posted by Ensign Paris
I do a similar thing at PC World.

More details later.

Ensign

cool! i cant wait to hear the story....be it that pc world is one helluva dark place. thats the big time. that be cool to do that there.

[alex_ant]

Originally posted by krossfyter
i guess im a mac zealot then. so be it...rock on. im cool with that. beats being a pc moderate and or zealot (if there is such a person). i mean...i dont try to be annoying or mean.... im usually not...i hope.... i just want people to decide for themsleves ...without microsoft making desicions for them...on what platform or computers they want.

my guess is that you are okay now alex...right? i hope so. i know some people like your grandmother there... they are cool cats...im cool with them... im always interested in the eccentrics.
I realize you don't try to be annoying, and that's good. But sometimes it's the zealotry itself that can be annoying. To non-zealots, anyway (and the non-zealots do outnumber the zealots by far). I'm a Mac user and I find lots of Mac zealots annoying - I can only imagine how a PC zealot would feel.

I suppose guerilla advertising tactics could be successful to a limited extent on customers who enter a store having no idea what they're looking for and relying on pro-Wintel salespeople to help them make up their minds. But those ad tactics would be plenty annoying to many other customers who did know what they want - even possibly so annoying as to turn off a customer who was "looking in" to buying an Apple, which would be my biggest fear. Just an thought, anyway.

And yup, I'm okay, thanks for asking, and my grandma is great, even though she is a religious zealot. :)

Alex

[krossfyter]

yeah i do see your point.

after all... you have to question thos people who go in to best buy to buy a pc. if your going to buy a pc and are not ignorant about them or macs...then you would not go into best buy to buy a pc. thats my guess. so the majority of the people who are in best buy to buy a pc are the ones who need to pick up those little booklets....even if a handful of the many will be annoyed by it. hey...if you won one over... its all worth it..aye! if you annoyed one....well chanced are they did not care for macs in the first place and never were going to buy one...or think about it.

i realize that i may be swimming in greys here but...hey i might not be.


got to do something to help apple out. if it proves to be more bad than good than.... i will stop.


im only wanting to help here...help apple and the people buying computers.

[krossfyter]

nah im not a zealot...

a zealot blindly follows the flag or "bleeds in seven colors.

i just recongnize good technology. thats all. what wrong with that? i am impartial.... i do see the beauty and usefullness of those alienware computers.

i dont even send hate mail. so there you go... i cant be a mac zealot.


dig it!

[cb911]

i guess it's okay as long as you don't annoy too many people. although it would be bad if Apple was accused of getting their people to do this sort of stuff.....

[Macmaniac]

I love those little info books, in fact I collect them (Now u know I have no life) I have the cube book, origninal airport, 17in studio display(Ugly one), lime green iBook, 600mhz black and white iMac. I need to get some new ones so I can sprinkle them around my local compusa store. Actually a good note about that store, my mom and sister went to buy ink for our printer. So my sister decides to see if they have a new iMac, and they tell her they just got three in and they have already sold. Hey thats good news. I'm gonna visit the Princeton Gateway store and fill it with new iMac phamplets!

[teabgs]

I think what you did was great. Its not like you forced them onto people, just left them aroudn to be found, like buried treasure. Maybe your work will bring just one person over to our side, and they may bring others, who bring others, who bring more, and then they bring more, and exponentially because of you apple gets up to 20% market share in 3 months....AHHHHHHHH HEAD EXPLODING!!!

wow, that came out of nowhere. But seriously, good job. I'd do that but I don't think we have any best buys in NYC.

[menoinjun]

Well, I'm in on this little plan. As you all know by now, I work for CompUSA, and I can have a basically unlimited resource to those little books. How many do you need?

-Pete

[mcrain]

What all mac users should do on a regular basis is walk into Best Buy, Circuit City, PC world or whatever, and ask if they have apple computers and/or products. When told that they do not, say oh, thanks, do you know who does sell apple products. Then, you have to turn around, and walk out. They have to see customer demand for the product followed immediately by lost customers because they do not carry the products. Putting pamphlets in the store may expose one or two people to apple products, but if you can make the store think that there are droves of people searching for apple products, then they will/may consider carrying something apple related.

Note: You can't look like a macaholic, you have to look like you are genuinely interested in buying a computer, software, or peripheral and because you can't see a mac, or better yet compare it to the pc's they have, you won't buy from them. Make them think you are completely open minded, but want to see the mac too, and b/c they don't have it, no sale. Bye bye. See ya.

[blackpeter]

I think everyone here is missing the bigger question...

How did Kross keep his girlfriend after spending his date this way?

[mcrain]

Originally posted by tfaz1
I think everyone here is missing the bigger question...

How did Kross keep his girlfriend after spending his date this way?

He has 650+ posts, he couldn't have time for a girlfriend.

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by krossfyter
i guess im a mac zealot then. so be it...rock on. im cool with that. beats being a pc moderate and or zealot (if there is such a person). i mean...i dont try to be annoying or mean.... im usually not...i hope.... i just want people to decide for themsleves ...without microsoft making desicions for them...on what platform or computers they want.

my guess is that you are okay now alex...right? i hope so. i know some people like your grandmother there... they are cool cats...im cool with them... im always interested in the eccentrics.

i have been a pc tech for three years in and around silicon valley...no pc zealots yet

mac zealots and linux zealots mostly...one seems bent on changing the world and the other, well does the world criminal mean anything to you? he he...or more precisely a free world/open source for all and no way for any techie to make any money...actually i have seen some mac types willing to "break" a few laws or step on the other side of decency to get something done

and as far as commiting a crime against microsoft...is that possible? i first heard the word pirate referring to bill gates and he was one of the "pirates" of silicon valley in that movie

so i guess we are all criminals unless there is someone here who has not copied a piece of software, got a music "download", or innocently downloaded a piece of freeware which was anything but free

but it comes to scale and bill gates certainly has been the all time thief in the IT field but it is good that i believe he does not own any part of apple as far as i know...but with day trading, i dare not make any assumptions on what he owns on any given nanosecond

[dualburn001]

Originally posted by mcrain


He has 650+ posts, he couldn't have time for a girlfriend.


true but he got all of them in only 2 months

[krossfyter]

Originally posted by tfaz1
I think everyone here is missing the bigger question...

How did Kross keep his girlfriend after spending his date this way?


Funny!
My girlfriend was looking for PDA stuff at the time. N by the way shes a recent mac convert because of me...of course. While she would like more time spent with her instead of the tibook she can deal with it... This is why I bought her a PDA.... so she can have something to do while im on my Tibook. Shhhhhh.... its a secret! :D

[krossfyter]

Originally posted by mcrain


He has 650+ posts, he couldn't have time for a girlfriend.


Actually I do. Wierd aye!

[mischief]

800+ and Married, employed full time. I have a Relative Time Distortion device.:D

[mcrain]

Actually, who am I kidding. Once you get married, you have lots more time to post and surf the internet. Work... that's when you post...

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by mischief
800+ and Married, employed full time. I have a Relative Time Distortion device.:D

yo! same here

...aren't you the guy from computerware who worked in capitola (with the ultra cool mountain bike) but got a job in the gaming sector/pc gaming world?

you don't have to answer but i am curious...if that is you, i am that microsoft techie dude who used to always come in and complain about microsoft and lust over your store's then top of the line g4 500s:D

[mischief]

Damn close though. The Wookie had the bike. I was kinda Han Solo to his Chewbacca. Smaller (poundage wise) faster and more HW than SW oriented. The Wookie wound up going off to Ireland for a while......I've mentioned the guy he was working for in other threads as a source of Apple info. That fell through when said Boss had a psychotic episode in front of his Capitalists. Oops. We're both kinda cheezed at the guy 'cause Wookie's my best friend and missed my wedding 'cause he was in Ireland.

ComputerWare closed, sold off it's assets, laid off it's employees and the top 4 guys sold out to Elite. They're back up in 4 locations as "Computerware by Elite". Barf. I had just transitioned to CAD and was training the newbies for Lisa before leaving for good. The Wookie was less fortunate......he's still unemployed. Would you be interested in a Techie consortium?

The Gaming business was ours. We have been refining the concept for a year. At some point we'll need newer machines to write the code and time to write it.

[krossfyter]

you guys are something else.


dig it!

[me hate windows]

Originally posted by ptrauber
Well, I'm in on this little plan. As you all know by now, I work for CompUSA, and I can have a basically unlimited resource to those little books. How many do you need?

-Pete
I'll take some, what do I need to do?

[krossfyter]

count me in... i forgot about that.

i could use hellalot of them little apple booklets. i could pass them around to different peeps as well as laying them in best buy or circuit city...etc. etc.

im serious as cancer...to use an overly used phrase.

[krossfyter]

ensign....

your story.... we would like to hear it!:D

[irmongoose]

Originally posted by ptrauber
Well, I'm in on this little plan. As you all know by now, I work for CompUSA, and I can have a basically unlimited resource to those little books. How many do you need?

-Pete


Do you mind shipping internationally?



Hey krossfyter, your story reminds me of something...

Well, my dad owns a restaurant here in Tokyo, and about 20 years ago, when we just opened our business, we accepted 2 credit cards: Visa and Mastercard.

So one day, along come 6 American guys in suits, and they eat, and it all goes well. Then when they came to the cashier, they see only two credit card signs: visa and mastercard.

Then, they all swiftly take out their wallets, take our their American Espress cards, and start shouting to my dad.

"What is this? We have an American Express card! And we can't pay with this?'

my dad: "No, im sorry, but we do not currently accept American Express cards."

"HOW CAN YOU RUN A RESTAURANT WITHOUT ACCEPTING AN AMERICAN EXPRESS CARD? DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE USE AMERICAN EXPRESS?"

my dad: "im sorry, sir. you can pay by cash."

"CASH? Why would we pay by cash when we have an AMERICAN EXPRESS card?"



well, eventually they paid by cash and left. and you know what? the next day, my dad called up the American Express people, and got the American Express machine.


Later, my dad learned that those men worked for American Express.




irmongoose

[krossfyter]

hmmm

so your saying...

if we get enough people to go to these mac less stores and ask them if they have any macs and walk out because they dont then eventually they are going to have to sell macs?

well that would work if there were enough people...i guess.

doesnt apple have a problem with best buy or circuit city selling mac stuff thats why there is no more contract(circuit city) or one at all (best buy)?
so even if enough people did this...apple would never sell thier macs through these stores? am i right?

forgive me if i mis interpreted your story.

[irmongoose]

hmm, i didnt know anything about Apple having prblems with those stores (because I dont live in America!)

but, i was just sharing a story of mine... i was just saying how American Express maybe did these kinds of things to grow into such a big company.


well, if placing little panphlets in a strictly-windows environment works, why wouldnt this?




irmongooose

[krossfyter]

im not sure if either will work. im just giving the booklet tactic one a shot for now.
unitil i know the skinny on why these non mac stores dont have macs and why there is a lack of apple business with them... i wont try the other one.

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by mischief
Damn close though. The Wookie had the bike. I was kinda Han Solo to his Chewbacca. Smaller (poundage wise) faster and more HW than SW oriented. The Wookie wound up going off to Ireland for a while......I've mentioned the guy he was working for in other threads as a source of Apple info. That fell through when said Boss had a psychotic episode in front of his Capitalists. Oops. We're both kinda cheezed at the guy 'cause Wookie's my best friend and missed my wedding 'cause he was in Ireland.

ComputerWare closed, sold off it's assets, laid off it's employees and the top 4 guys sold out to Elite. They're back up in 4 locations as "Computerware by Elite". Barf. I had just transitioned to CAD and was training the newbies for Lisa before leaving for good. The Wookie was less fortunate......he's still unemployed. Would you be interested in a Techie consortium?

The Gaming business was ours. We have been refining the concept for a year. At some point we'll need newer machines to write the code and time to write it.

yeah, a consortium would be cool...my wife and i always go to santa cruz...i got trained there at sst networking (pc side though) santa cruz is as far into high tech ville that i usually like to travel...over the hill into the heart of the valley is really scary (hwy 17)

i remember the wookie and i didn't know that you were his partner in the gaming thing...he is the only person i remember outside of a guy that was a manager who seemed thin and about twenty something and was there sometimes...the other people at computereware i know i must have spoken to but i can't place faces and names...i think there was one lady that used to be in the back office (owner?) and she was middle aged like me, maybe 40 or a little older...i used to also go to the goodwill there and offshore music

[krossfyter]

ptrauber...you are needed!