Most Mac resellers totally don't get it.... screw 'em!
I know this may not be a popular opinion, but frankly, I think most people getting into the business of reselling Apple computers are utterly foolish and misguided.
It seems completely obvious that Apple wants to sell their own products and services *themselves*, and the ONLY reason they even give so much as a nod and a second glance at "authorized Apple resellers" is because doing so furthers their profits. (Hey, if you can get a bunch of stores to stock up on your products, it's easier to sell 5 or 10 at a time to each of them than to do all the work yourself of selling them 1 at a time to end users. Besides that, you can pick up a little extra money selling expensive training courses to people that want to work as technicians for these places.)
But look at the facts for a minute. Whenever a new product comes out that Apple knows is going to experience an initial surge in sales from "early adopters", the Apple stores get first pick. They look out for themselves first. It only makes sense.
Knowing full well that there's very LITTLE profit margin in reselling new Mac products, I'm amazed how many people still take a shot at becoming an independent Apple dealer. Yeah, I know.... they just love the machines and are confident they can provide a better level of customer service than Apple can. But does it *really* work? I'd say typically no, and in a few exceptional cases, yes - but not to a hugely profitable extent.
Here in St. Louis, we had a place simply called "The Mac Store", and I never heard almost anything good said about them. They were patronized at least partially out of people's guilt. "Gee, I really *want* to support the little guy and help keep another Mac store in town!" But customer service was lacking (you'd call and always get a recording ... almost never a live human answering), and on occasions when I went in asking for an item, it was never in stock anyway. The old standby of "We can order that in for you." doesn't cut it nowdays. I can order it myself, thanks - and without your markup on top of it!
Now, they're out of business, and there's a newcomer on the local scene called "Mac HQ". They have a much nicer store and location, and friendly enough people working there -- but I'd have to say the jury's still out on whether or not they'll succeed where "Mac Store" failed. For starters, I think any indepdent Mac store that wants to succeed *HAS* to find a niche. Offering the same products the Apple Stores offer should be secondary at best. They need to comb the Internet looking for interesting accessories and upgrades that could otherwise only be bought online, and get them in stock. Offer unique services! (Macintosh case mods, maybe? I put blue LED lights in the port-holes of my G4 tower in the past, and it was quite cool looking. I think some people would pay a few bucks to have such things done to their machines.) Sell the vintage Macs and cheap, used Mac software too. But the key here is CHEAP! I can regularly buy fully working and partially upgraded PowerMac 7300/7500/7600 systems on eBay for as little as $25 or so each. I don't want to go to a local store and see the same thing going for $199 or more! Make purchases of older Macs so inexpensive that people will grab one just "for the heck of it" - and profit later on their return trips to upgrade it with things like Sonnet upgrade boards and ATA-133 PCI controller cards. (And yes, keep a full line of those upgrade goodies in stock too!)
