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Best Buy To Sell Mac mini In Stores?

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Apr 12, 2001
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According to two unconfirmed reports, electronics retailer Best Buy is preparing to sell the Mac mini in stores.

Training materials on both selling and servicing the Mac mini have been distributed to the sales & service employees, with an anticipated rollout within the next few weeks.

The Mac mini was first rumored to be sold in the brick-and-mortar Best Buy stores January 30; it is already available for purchase from BestBuy.com.

Apple has had previous sales runs with Best Buy, most recently a pilot program for mac sales in stores that reportedly ended in March of 2004.
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2005/03/29/best-buy-to-sell-mac-mini-in-stores/
it would be nice to start breaking into this large type of retail distribution chain that Best Buy has, hopefully this means more Apple accessories as well and maybe some software too
 
I know a lot of people aren't fans of BestBuy, but it is one of the country's largest retailers. Getting the MacMini in their stores exposes Apple and OS X to tons of additional customers. :)

The drawback of course is the uneducated and biased employees who won't know how to sell Macs. Sales people normally take the easy road and sell what they know best, and most of these 'kids' at Best Buy use PC's. :eek:
 
I remember when they sold Powermac 6400s there. Stupid sales people ccouldn't give a rat's a** about helping a prospective Mac buyer, and were ignorant about them anyway. Lets hope things are better this time around...
 
Most CAN'T sell PC's either....

OnaMacSince1989 said:
I know a lot of people aren't fans of BestBuy, but it is one of the country's largest retailers. Getting the MacMini in their stores exposes Apple and OS X to tons of additional customers. :)

The drawback of course is the uneducated and biased employees who won't know how to sell Macs. Sales people normally take the easy road and sell what they know best, and most of these 'kids' at Best Buy use PC's. :eek:
Click to expand...

Most of the low wage help in Best Buy don't know how to sell PC's either. I usually just walk in, get my stuff while ignoring the sales staff and then walk out. Even when I do need help there the "help" is helpless.
 
That is why they put an informed person like me in there to do the job. My training on the mac mini is complete and I can't say that I took anything away from that learning. Maybe I just know my Mac :D.

-TJ
 
Nice, now wait until Apple can increase production even more and start selling Mac mini at Wal-Mart, that will be something! :D
 
Sweet! My sister works at Best Buy. I'll let everyone know if she spots a Mac Mini.
 
swissmann said:
They just need to train the workers so they know what on earth they are talking about when it comes to Macs.
Click to expand...


NO KIDDING.

I'll make sure I give my sis the rundown so she can spank the other workers if they're uninformed :D
 
As an ex-blue shirt employee from the days of Mac Performas and the original iMac, I wouldn't expect many great things to come from this.

As much as it may sound like a great way to get the Mini out there, the way BB typically keeps any Apple products (cluttered area, no desktop protection, etc.) could end up providing a negative image of Apple to prospective switchers. Not to mention the common negative attitude of the blue shirts in the computer department.

I'd rather see a kiosk in a mall or grocery store than leaving the Mini in the hands of BB employees.
 
Well, I for one think this probably won't be a good thing. Like one of the posters up above, I just ignore the sales people - usually. I have a story however.

I did my best to sell my In-Laws on an apple Ibook, but alas I failed and they wanted to get a compaq "while I was there" so they could make the right decision. Now, we goto bestbuy, they show me the one they want, and since I don't know a thing about laptops I asked the bestbuy sales guy about the laptops.

He rushed me through it, he talked to me like I was an idiot, and then (lucky for me) passed me off to an HP sales rep who gladly answered my questions.

A couple of weeks later I went into a different Bestbuy in a different state (my home town ) and asked that guy more and different questions about laptops.

This guy was worse. I couldn't believe it and frankly, he should have just said, "I don't really know." I would have been better off.

My point is - apple should send 2 - 5 reps to each store to answer questions about the mac mini. It's the only way to keep the poor quality staff at bestbuy from making a mockery of the computer.
 
Why would they move inventory into BestBuy, presumably at a lower profit margin for Apple, when I have been waiting since the end of Jan. for my Mini through my local authorized Mac-only dealer, and Apple has been unable to ship because of component shortages???
 
Hey Steve, pay me with a fully loaded Mac Mini and a nice Apple shirt and I'll hang out at the local Best Buy four nights a week for a month answering questions about the Mac.
It'd do a lot more for Apple than just slapping 'em on the shelf and having the uninformed BB "Geek Squad" ignore or, even worse, sabotage the product.
 
B-52 Macer said:
Nice, now wait until Apple can increase production even more and start selling Mac mini at Wal-Mart, that will be something! :D
Click to expand...
Apple use to sell at Wal Mart back in the days of 25% marketshare. If Apple ever wants to go mainstream(again) it better find the WalMarts,Sears,Best Buys (again). Nothing beats walking into a local store and getting what you want now. Why Apple doesnt have a display of pods,macminis,software,iMacs and a few goodies in Retail stores today is a marketing flop by the think different crowd. No wonder 93% of the world today buy something else.
 
I went into best buy once to encounter an employee with a dual 2.5Ghz G5.

What apple should do is send a setup display explaining the advantages of the mac. Let the mac do the talking. They should also send one of their own screens, in order to avoid the mac mini being displayed with an awful CRT.
 
Where is the supply?

If they can't even get the mini into the Apple Store Soho (they don't have so much as a floor model), why would they even think about Best Buy?

The supply doesn't come anywhere close to catching up with demand right now. Fixing the supply problem should be job 1.

What is up with the supply anyway? Are there in fact componnent shortages or is Apple simply selling 10 times the number of minis they expected and they just can't keep up?

Ted
 
CanadaRAM said:
Those were also the days of 30% reseller margins. They will never get into Sears and Walmart with sub 3% margins. Never.
Click to expand...
True but who's fault is that? this stuff is being made in China so you know its Dirt Cheap. All those profits go into the top brass just like every other company these days. But you are right about those margins, i remember a reseller telling me years ago they got like 6%. why bother selling.
 
Superdrive said:
That is why they put an informed person like me in there to do the job. My training on the mac mini is complete and I can't say that I took anything away from that learning. Maybe I just know my Mac :D.

-TJ
Click to expand...

Perhaps you didn't get anything from the training, but did anyone else who went in less knowledgeable than you?
 
The missing element here is marketing. If Apple spent a boat load telling people why they should buy a mini, "and oh by the way you can buy it at Best Buy", then maybe this would work.

But in the past two years I think I've seen exactly one ad on TV for an Apple computer. (I admit, however, that I don't watch much TV!)

It shouldn't surprise people that some of the retail chains want to carry iPods -- you create the same sense of excitement for the mini and the retailers will stock and properly display the product.
 
Oh god people. :rolleyes: You make this out like you have to con a user into buying a Mac. If a Mac is all that and a bag of microchips it should sell on its own and shouldn’t need some car salesman to convince someone to purchase a Mac.
And as for the area its not like they are going to be tagging the monitor it has with anti-Mac slogans or leaving Cheetos bags laying around the freaking system.
They will keep the area clean but I wouldn't expect them to baby it. Treat it as they would all the other computers.
The fact that there are going to be minis there at all should be a major score for Apple. Stop being an elitist snob about what environment is around the system. My biggest concern isn't keeping the area clean but locking down the system. PC's have all kinds of packages that lock down the computer so tight you can't even run safe mode command prompt. These packages were designed to keep people from tinkering with the OS. I can easily see some immature, smuck Windows user come by and format the drive or something. These systems need to be configured to avoid tampering.
 
numediaman said:
The missing element here is marketing. If Apple spent a boat load telling people why they should buy a mini, "and oh by the way you can buy it at Best Buy", then maybe this would work.

But in the past two years I think I've seen exactly one ad on TV for an Apple computer. (I admit, however, that I don't watch much TV!)

It shouldn't surprise people that some of the retail chains want to carry iPods -- you create the same sense of excitement for the mini and the retailers will stock and properly display the product.
Click to expand...


They aren't going to tag Best Buy since the mini is going to be all over the place. Target, Best Buy, Walmart, etc. But I agree with ads. It looks as if they are meeting demands with a 4-7 DAY timeframe. I think its time Apple took this to the next level with some prime time ads during CSI, Dateline, Law&Order(Pick your version.), West Wing, etc.
 
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