My folks decided that they could afford to get me a 20gig iPod for Xmas this year - well, actually they decided they could afford the 10gig, but I had a spare £50 in my account 😉
Anyway, I tried to get one from the online store a few weeks ago, and the damn thing just would not accept any of my card numbers. Numerous attempts and chatting to a store rep (top bloke, very helpful and supportive, rang ME back several times to see how things were getting on) left me with over ten rejected orders. Grr.
However, I was determined, so gave up on the online route and decided to go for the high street retail stores. First call was John Lewis in Glasgow. Spent about 10 mins lusting over their 40gig display model, playing with it etc, then went to the counter to ask for a 20gig model. The guy behind the counter kinda laughed half heartedly and said "we WISH!". Seems that they ran out about a week earlier, and had been taking back orders since then. The guy's chat was that even IF Apple managed to get a delivery to them before the 25th, they would pretty much all go out to back order customers. In the last day of stock alone, they shifted 20 units in the morning, and had been taking the same number of orders pretty much daily.
Next stop was Virgin Megastore. These guys have some iPods for sale over the counter in some stores, but not in Glasgow. A quick chat with the counter staff told me that the Edinburgh store was also sold out of all but a few 40gig iPods. Dang.
I then headed for a small Apple vendor called Scotsys. I've dealt with these guys before, and they're pretty marketing focussed - any time I walk in all they do is try and sell me more stuff. Anyway, I walk in and ask for a 20gig iPod. Turns out THEY'VE been sold out for about a week too. The sales rep proudly claims that he "sold the last 20gig iPod in Scotland", and then goes on to try and sell me a 40gig model. "Could you be persuaded to buy a 40gig?" he asks. "Could you sell it for the price of a 20?" I respond before heading back into town...
So, finally, I head into Dixons - I had to get a present for my Mum from there, just a wee CD player. So I chat to the guy to see if they have these in stock, and almost as a throwaway say "Yeah, I saw you had some 40gig iPods behind the counter. Any 20gigs in stock?". His face lights up at the thought of his commission bonus, and he scurries off to say "I'll check - I think we found some this afternoon".
When he said "Found", he wasn't kidding. Turns out they had ordered some 40gigs, and a couple of the boxes were 20s by mistake. I snapped one up, and while I was paying for it the other one was sold too. The counter kid was actually a mac owner, so we chatted for a bit about the current selling trends. Seems that Dixons have been selling iPods retail like hotcakes - it was the only player that they had sold out of in the run up to Xmas, and that was only partly due to bad supply. If they had sold as many of any of the other players they stock, they'd have had the same problems.
"We've stopped putting them on display out of the boxes" the kid laughed, "we just have to box them back up after twenty minutes!"
Seriously, this is some GREAT news for Apple, and bear in mind that the UK is now loaded with iPods WITHOUT the iTMS yet. Imagine what's going to happen in Q1 2004 when Apple launches a mini iPod and iTMS Europe.
Remember, you don't create a market by creating supply, you create it by creating demand. That's exactly what Apple has done, and they've managed to clear stock in the UK with minimal advertising, minimal store presence, and minimal support.
Wait until Q2. iPod will be the ONLY player to be seen with - it's the Walkman all over again. I can't actually wait for people to refer to the "iPod" section of a store, or the "Rio iPod" or whatever. Sony was the overpriced also ran before the Walkman. Here we go again...
🙂
