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Apple Cutting Some Software and Peripherals From Retail Store Displays?

Benjamins said:
I don't see a lot of people like you in the Apple store.
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Thanks, since most of the people I see in the stores are either self-absorbed status seekers or email/facebook checkers too cheap to buy a cell phone with a data plan. The only reason I go into the overpriced Pit of Hell is for service on my computers.
 
I must say I'm bummed out. I've made a couple of spontaneous software purchases purusing through their software boxes/titles. Part of the fun going to the Apple store was looking at the software boxes and some of the third party peripherals/hardware.
 
I'd rather they kick out the loiterers that always hog the displayed computers and peripherals.

Next thing, you just walk into a clean, white space with only an Apple logo on the back wall and you're forced to describe the product your looking for by memory.
 
Macaroony said:
Next thing, you just walk into a clean, white space with only an Apple logo on the back wall and you're forced to describe the product your looking for by memory.
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Would be easier to do than finding a blue/black/orange shirt on the floor and begging them to hurry up and give you the wares.
 
Software, sure...

...but I have to wonder how this might impact Apple's typical policy of offering a $100 coupon towards a new printer with every Mac purchase.

And I also have to agree with those who feel that the in-store experience is not as enjoyable as it used to be. Every time I go into an Apple store, it seems like there is less stuff, and I have to look harder to find what I went there for.
 
Good. Who buys printers, scanners, and hard drives based on how they look? Just have a single display telling you everything they have in the back room and be done with it.
 
Already started in Seattle area...

We noticed this when we bought the new MBP the other weekend - printers are no longer on display anywhere in at least three of the stores around here (kinda a pain if trying to decide on the free printer). The table where they used to be is doing the personal setup now...
 
No sense in a Apple Store!

I have never been in a Apple store that has not been filled with kids, like another poster said, using photo booth.

I have stopped going to the Apple store.

I used to like to see what was new in software and bags, etc. I impulsed (I know, Steve said NO more) bought several items.

Now Apple will have 30000 square feet with Macs the kids can play with.

Wow, what a way to go!
 
seb-opp said:
Not sure if cutting down boxed software in store is a good thing just yet, it might bring back that old myth that there's barely any software for the mac, if the stores only sell macs and nothing to run on them. Last time I looked the mac app store is still full of iOS style basic apps with only one or two features, They need to get some more heavyweight titles in there or people may begin to think a Mac is just a glorified iPad.
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+1

that is how I learned about all the software for the mac. Then I looked more online. Granted with the Mac App Store - having boxed software at the store is not a necessity, but I think it will cut down the impulse buy (of which I can be guilty). Also, I am not that impressed with the mac app store on a grand scale. Don't get me wrong. I do like it, bought or downloaded lots of software and found the utilities I need. But Microsoft, Adobe, Autodesk, Roxio, and a few other heavy weights for business needs are not in the App Store. I still see store employees push MacOffice more than they push iWork, so with MS not being in the app store - you lose the sale.

Since I was looking for a specific title one time, I asked an employee where to get it. He said we had it here and in the back. Had it been on the shelf, I could have saved us both 10 min; buy grabbing the box and walking up to someone and said "I am ready to check out".

Yep - if they get rid of peripherals, accessories, and software - I will not go into an Apple store; unless I want to play with a device. Is Apple becoming another Gateway (open to many town and country stores; then poof - gone)?
 
Macaroony said:
Next thing, you just walk into a clean, white space with only an Apple logo on the back wall and you're forced to describe the product your looking for by memory.
Click to expand...


You're not just teasing are you? That's a minimalist's wet dream.
 
This is a terrible move. I hate going into the Apple store. I already own all the apple stuff. I go and checkout the other stuff while the wife is shopping in the mall. Now if they take the peripherals and accessories out, I'm literally going to be bored out of my mind.
 
CD/DVD distribution is coming an an end. It happened to music, it's slowly happening to movies, it is not happening to software.
 
The lack of game developer support for the Mac astounds me. I mean the platform has skyrocketed in the last 4-5 years and the game selection is no better than it was in my personal Mac gaming heyday—the mid to late 90's. It might even be worse now. The iOS platform makes up for it some but it's still perplexing.
 
mygoldens said:
I have never been in a Apple store that has not been filled with kids, like another poster said, using photo booth.

I have stopped going to the Apple store.

I used to like to see what was new in software and bags, etc. I impulsed (I know, Steve said NO more) bought several items.

Now Apple will have 30000 square feet with Macs the kids can play with.

Wow, what a way to go!
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No! Wow how smart!

From the time the kids know how to whine to get what they want (ipad), they will influence the parents and be the first dedicated Apple users and may never look back.

Glass half full!
 
Guess my local indy Apple retailer will be seeing more of me then, although I don't get my company's discount there sadly :/
 
Chris Blount said:
Another reason not to go to the Apple store. Every time they cut display items and increase service space, it gives me no reason to go there unless I'm buying a Macbook, iMac, iPhone or other hardware item. Sometimes its fun just to go in and browse. If the store it going to turn into one big customer service help desk, the thrill is gone.
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What thrill? You go to the APple store to browse printers and harddrives? You can almost always find them cheaper anywhere else, and they're a waste of space. If they believe they can find a better use of that real estate, then they should go for it.
 
johnnymg said:
This is an excellent move by Apple. Retail space is extremely expensive and not used productively when selling nik-nak junk. If you want that sort of crap go down to the MS store.

JohnG
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1)Ug...another rant on MS. Yawn.

2)Retail space HAS ALWAYS been and ALWAYS WILL BE expensive.

3)Apple stores, IMO, have never sold nik nak junk as you call it. I have seen some pretty nice speakers/iPhone radios, great software titles, and the usual Apple-manufactured accessories. You must be thinking of Best Buy or Circuit City...because, like, they are sooooo identical in esthetics to Apple Stores.


The software can go if they wish...but software boxes take up very little space (usually against the wall, 8 feet high by 10 feet wide by 6 inches thick and near the registers so it's not like they could fit in another table of Macbooks) so it seems odd that they would dump it...they can have a nice display of various titles yet only have a handful of quantity in the back room.

I'd actually be a bit turned off if all I saw in an Apple store was Apple non-accessory hardware. Lame. Sheeez...entice me with something to buy to outfit my new hardware. I've seen a few Apple stores in 2010 that had basically only Apple hardware and I was bored out of my mind...I was looking for something neat to add to one of my Apple products but alas zippo was there...so I bought nothing.
 
Slurpy2k8 said:
What thrill? You go to the APple store to browse printers and harddrives? You can almost always find them cheaper anywhere else, and they're a waste of space. If they believe they can find a better use of that real estate, then they should go for it.
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But is ANOTHER table full of laptops better for the consumer? Let alone another table with service folks? Give them variety. Show them MORE software that the Macs can run. I know the stuff is overpriced (EVERYthing in the Apple Store is overpriced...), but I just want to kill time while my wife is in Nordstrom or wherever. I ain't buying. And if all they have at the store are the same machines that I have at home, I don't see any reason to browse, either. Anyway, somethings - like speakers and iPod accesories - I want to see and hear before I buy, even if I buy online.

Maybe I'm a stoggy old elitist, but I sort of miss the days when Apple was a niche computer maker and I had to explain what my iPod was to even my tech savvy PC friends. Make the stores as uninviting as possible! Ban unaccompanied minors! Block social media sites! Get off my lawn!
 
Need a display model though.

This is cool as long as there is a display model. Sales of a product are always higher if people can touch and hold it.
 
ericinboston said:
1)
The software can go if they wish...but software boxes take up very little space (usually against the wall, 8 feet high by 10 feet wide by 6 inches thick and near the registers so it's not like they could fit in another table of Macbooks) so it seems odd that they would dump it..

I'd actually be a bit turned off if all I saw in an Apple store was Apple non-accessory hardware. Lame. Sheeez...entice me with something to buy to outfit my new hardware. I've seen a few Apple stores in 2010 that had basically only Apple hardware and I was bored out of my mind...I was looking for something neat to add to one of my Apple products but alas zippo was there...so I bought nothing.
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shervieux said:
+1
Granted with the Mac App Store - having boxed software at the store is not a necessity, but I think it will cut down the impulse buy (of which I can be guilty).
Click to expand...

Nobody is saying that Apple is getting rid of all accessories. This appears to be about printers, scanners and hard drives which are not your typical impulse buy. They take up a lot of room on the floor and sell less than other products in the stores so I'm not surprised to see them go.

Software can be an impulse buy but Apple simply exchanged the impulse buy in the Apple store to an impulse buy on your computer... at home. It's a trade up if you ask me. First: they're not paying rent to have a store on your computer. Second: people will be exposed to the app store at all times, rather than when they walk into a physical store. Smart move by Apple.

That free up space on the wall can be used for more high turnover product like accessories, laptop bags, cases, headphones, etc.
 
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