It looks and sounds worse than it is.
Of the many people I know who have switched to Macs over the past year, they all have said that they made that decision by engaging knowledgable staff at the Apple Store.
They admitted that although they had seen Macs in the larger computer stores [Fry's, MicroCenter] they had never inquired about them. Not only because of the distractions posed by all the other stuff in the store, but mainly because the employees, more often than not, are frickin' idiots in regards to most everything in the store. They're just paid name badges.
Sorry to be so harsh, but this view is shared by pretty much everyone I know and it's not limited to computer knowledge. I have, in 10 years met 2 people in the Mac section of a Microcenter that were worthy of being there. It's not worth it. I've actually been steered away from Macs because the generic MicroCenter employee in that section could not answer my questions which I've always known the answer to. Just testing them.
Just because these stores had Mac sections, doesn't mean that the part-time commission based teenager who happened to have been scheduled to work in the Mac section knows anything about Macs. I hate asking for help at these places for anything, let alone asking for some meaningful insight as to why I should buy a Mac over a Windows computer.
This is why Apple has started placing their own employees, or at least Apple certified employees, in CompUSA's Mac sections.
MISREPRESENTATION at these mammoth computer stores has hurt Apple more than their occasional sales have helped. I say, cut these idiots off.
I do hope that the smaller, and often very knowledgable individual resellers, do not become collateral damage though.
Keep only the people and outlets worthy of representing Apple and Macintosh computers in the loop. Knowledgable individual resellers, chains and franchises with Apple certified/Apple direct staff, keep building Apple Stores, and maintain the Apple Store online.