Avoiding queuing or Squatters?

[Theophil1971]

I'm wondering if Apple adjusted the way it sells popular new products to avoid massive queing outside stores on launch day. Or perhaps to address the problem of people lining up, buying new items with cash and sending them overseas to sell at a premium. That happened a lot with iPads and iPhones in the past, with people squatting in lines in front of stores, pockets full of cash, only to walk around the corner and hand their purchases over to other people who would ship them overseas to sell on the streets.
Perhaps the Watch and MacBook release today is designed to avoid that. Less in-store availablity. Customers are rewarded for online purchasing and having it shipped to a physical US address.

Maybe what's being perceived as a messy release has really just been engineered to address some long standing problems Apple has had.

 

[noobinator]

Whatever it is, is a mistake. Part of what makes Apple unique is that people line up on launch day. I understand why they would want to do away with this but it will hurt them long term.

Must be a nice problem to have though when you have to control who and how many of each you sell to.

Most business owners say "Buy my product and buy as many as you'd like, and I don't care what you do with it."

 

[Theophil1971]

I mean, I imagine that they WILL have Macabooks and Watches widely available for walkin, in store purchase at some point before too long. But maybe this release favors the faithful customers who actually value and use Apple products themselves, giving them first dibs at available stock.
Also, stock on MacBook may be limited initially if there were supply constraints or excessive demand. This rollout may appear messy compared to others, but it also may simply be engineered to carefully manage the reality of actual supply and demand for the product.

Just saying - maybe they actually know what they're doing, and people like us who don't know all the dynamics should be slower to condemn and complain.

I can see how this may be a deliberate strategy to avoid some real-world retail problems that are unique to Apple. This may be he new way, and we'll all just get used to it over the old way with people sleeping on sidewalks and squatters hawking products overseas for inflated prices.

 

[Hankster]

There were never long lines for MacBooks. The only product they have that creates massive events is the iPhone - that's it. I have bought three MBAs and never once was there a "line" at the store for the laptop. This is why the current ordeal is even more odd.

 

[Mrbobb]

They had done something, you can't buy more than 2. Once purchased, can you get back in line and do a second go? would anybody notice? I dunno. But Apple is never going to stop people queuing, that's big advertisement for the company.

 

[Queen6]

Just a botched launch, due to mismanagement of customer expectation. There has never been long line up`s for Mac`s. Seems to me this new "awesome" retail paradigm serves Apple far more than the customer;

No display models in the vast majority of stores
No models available for sale in stores
No preorder advisement to the customer
Staff told to push on line sales over bricks & mortar
3 days to six weeks wait for online sales

None of the above impresses me or many others for that matter...

Q-6

 

[newellj]

Just a botched launch, due to mismanagement of customer expectation. There has never been long line up`s for Mac`s. Seems to me this new "awesome" retail paradigm serves Apple far more than the customer;

No display models in the vast majority of stores
No models available for sale in stores
No preorder advisement to the customer
Staff told to push on line sales over bricks & mortar
3 days to six weeks wait for online sales

None of the above impresses me or many others for that matter...

Q-6

But you're missing the punchline. They're apparently going to start selling them in stores on the same day that people can first do store pickups of their Watches. Brilliant or what?

 

[dexterbell]

I'm wondering if Apple adjusted the way it sells popular new products to avoid massive queing outside stores on launch day. Or perhaps to address the problem of people lining up, buying new items with cash and sending them overseas to sell at a premium. That happened a lot with iPads and iPhones in the past, with people squatting in lines in front of stores, pockets full of cash, only to walk around the corner and hand their purchases over to other people who would ship them overseas to sell on the streets

Thats exactly why they did it and Im glad. Nothing worse then being in line for 8 hours only to find out the color, model and carrier you want are gone because the ********** in front of you were buying them up to send to China or put on eBay for $500 over retail. Wish they would have started doing this years ago.

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There were never long lines for MacBooks. The only product they have that creates massive events is the iPhone - that's it

The Watch would have been almost as bad and them doing this for the Watch and MacBook is obviously preparation and to see what they need to do better for when the iPhone comes out in 5 months.

 

[AdonisSMU]

I went to the Apple store and no one was here for the macbook. Squatters were never an issue for the MB. I'm not sure why Apple went through all that trouble to delay the MB launch.

 

[ct1211]

I'm wondering if Apple adjusted the way it sells popular new products to avoid massive queing outside stores on launch day. Or perhaps to address the problem of people lining up, buying new items with cash and sending them overseas to sell at a premium. That happened a lot with iPads and iPhones in the past, with people squatting in lines in front of stores, pockets full of cash, only to walk around the corner and hand their purchases over to other people who would ship them overseas to sell on the streets.
Perhaps the Watch and MacBook release today is designed to avoid that. Less in-store availablity. Customers are rewarded for online purchasing and having it shipped to a physical US address.

Maybe what's being perceived as a messy release has really just been engineered to address some long standing problems Apple has had.

Look at this another way. Apple at the end of the day "makes" nothing. There is no plant in California cranking out finished product. Everything Apple sells has to be sourced from other companies around the world. They design a product and work with all the different suppliers to bring the whole thing together. The watch has a whole new set of suppliers they have not worked with in the past. Suppliers for plastic, leather and metal bands. etc. I work for a company that sources from china. Just getting a little circuit board right can be a nightmare. Then there is the marketing - Apple has time and again done things people (especially critics like us) thing are just awful from a feature / value perspective. A small laptop with all our goodies missing at a very high price. Watches that should by all conventional wisdom sell for $400.00 selling for $1,000 to $10,000! Someone had to say, what if we take our $350 watch "complication" and drop it into a 18K gold case and sell it for $17,000? Why not? Gone in sixty seconds. The mere perception of a product shortage (real or imagined) is now enough to cause a buying frenzy. As for those who want the product to ship overseas or just to scalp? They will find a way to carry on. Apple has gotten very emboldened and you have to hand to them, they have learned how to keep people in camp. It seems there is a prevailing attitude on websites about Apple that somehow everything they do is hurting "us" there few real and loyal customers. We seem mad that Apple dare take over the world and sell "our" products to others designing product for the "mass'"

 

[Queen6]

But you're missing the punchline. They're apparently going to start selling them in stores on the same day that people can first do store pickups of their Watches. Brilliant or what?

Perfect I will be halfway to the Arctic by then, just as well I have zero interest in the watch Seriously what a load of nonsense...


Q-6