Office Depot and Apple

[g3ski]

It almost sounds as if they saw the narrow-minded Mac user coming and decided to have some fun with him.

Playing games doesn't help. Why not calm down and let them do what they're supposed to do? Besides, Office Depot stores don't have that many people working for them--knowledgeable or otherwise.

That's what I was going to say. It's usually tough to find someone who knows where the paper is, letless knows the technicalities of any computer. I am sure that every Office Depot is different, but that has been my experience in The City.

Store within a store is great at some and okay at others. The store in Oakland has a dedicated salesperson(s) who is/are knowledgable and very helpful. Unfortunately the store seem to do whatever theycan to put stacks of boxes around the apple area, and while it doesn't violate the TOA with Apple, it sure does look more like a storage area, than a store within a store.

enough rambling from me.

 

[g3ski]

All Apple needs to do is hire their own employees and send one to every Depot. Then it definitely work out.

Eventhough Apple opened a store right down the street from CompUSA is SF, CompUSA still has a store within a store, and it's well maintained and staffed, usually loaded with people and it really feels like an important part of the store. I was impressed!

 

[tex210]

ooh... I just had an idea!

They could use iChat conference to answer people's questions, and not have a person physically in the store. I realize a connection would have to be always on.

 

[titaniumducky]

did anyone notice that they say they have ipod minis in stock??? i guess they are the only people in the world. i hope this is true.

Actually, minis are becoming more available (slowly). If you're lucky, you can get them at stores now.

 

[ClimbingTheLog]

Headless iMac!

Office Depot WILL be rolling out Macs to stores in a couple of months. But it is WAY too early to guess which models and when.

Oooh, that's juicy. "In a couple months" is when the iMac G5 is going to be out.

Office Depot is geared towards businesses. We've all been saying business needs a headless iMac. I'm putting two and two together, however optimistically.

I'm still trying to decipher Steve Jobs's cryptic fortune from WWDC, but I think he was saying "half-dome with 3 PCI Express slots".

 

[fossicker]

Small businesses

They should offer a special price on Microsoft Office and Quickbooks (assuming a lot of small businesses would be getting emacs and imacs rather than powermacs)

It would also be good if they put together a disc of freeware/shareware/preview applications of interest to small businesses, to dispel the myth that there's no software for the mac.

 

[Grokgod]

One special thing!

Has anyone noticed that if this is true and they are going to be selling LCD's
then this is finally a way to buy a LCD, take it home and test it for stuck pixels and return it if it has one of those nasty middle of the screen stuck greens or reds or dead pixels.

Am i the only person that sees this?

Any comments, Puhlease.

 

[Abu Reno]

Just because Office Depot carries Mac products doesn't mean when you enter the store you'll see a DUAL 2.5 and 30 inch. It's most likely ipods and imacs.

 

[ThomasJefferson]

This marriage will not last, it would be nice to see Macs in retail stores, but no one seems to be able to put up with Steve for too long.

 

[JJTiger1]

(my emphasis - peharri)

You think that's bad, down here the Apple Store doesn't sell screwdrivers and two-by-fours!

All of you got it right:
The Apple Store does not sell produce: fruits and vegetables.
Office Depot does not sell offices: a cube in the corner with windows.
Home Depot does not sell homes: a ranch in a cove, close to shopping.
=-=
It's up to the operator to put the top up and keep the rain out. Guess who got caught in a thunderstorm without the side panel-curtains?
=-=
JJ

 

[paulypants]

According to Apple there are NO plans in place at this time to carry Apple CPUs in Office Depot stores -- only on the web.

Listen to the Q3 Webcast...

 

[kingtj]

Macs and salespeople

Right.... This makes a lot of sense. I remember in the mid 90's, you always saw at least a few Macs at OfficeMax stores. I was wondering when these Office supply giants were going to bring the Mac back.

The real problem I run into with Apple retail partners is the lack of interest by sales staff in even helping with Mac purchases. The local CompUSA stores are like this practically every time I come in. They've got a number of people eager to help you if you want anything for a Windows PC, but the minute you mention the Mac - they refer you to the "Mac specialist", who is typically on break, out to lunch/dinner, or seems to have already "gone home for the day". The whole Mac section of the store seems to sit there, unmanned by a salesperson at all, more often than not.

To make things worse, the partners seem to have practically no room to bargain on pricing. These days, the "sticker price" isn't really what many people expect to pay. People print out advertising from Internet shops, sales running at other local outlets, and so on - and want to ask the manager if they can "price match" or "offer something comparable" to some mail-order shop's "we'll double your RAM for free with this purchase" type of deal, etc.

When I bought my first G5, practically everyone on the net or in a catalog was offering extras like "free extra 512MB RAM" with purchase. I asked my local CompUSA if they could throw in 512MB of extra RAM too - and they declined. I walked... Went to the actual Apple store in town, asked the same thing, and they were happy to work the deal out with me.

Score 1 for the Apple store, and 0 for CompUSA.

As a consumer, I don't want to hear a store whine about how "Apple doesn't give us any margin on these products." If that's really true, then go back to Apple and demand the same flexibility the guys like MacConnection seem to have! I don't ask for anything that I'm not already seeing in advertising someplace else.

If you really want to move in the business sector it would be great to move revision behind or refurb merchendise at lower prices. Also would be a great place to sell the eMac. You could use your business line of credit and see the difference at the store.
Also a key to partnered retail sucess is keeping the pipple faced jerk off selling the apples from bashing them while they sell them. Sure they like window's they have just downloaded every piece of software they need illegally. Not really an option in business.

 

[FutureX2001]

Just wanted to drop my .02 cents in.

I also work for Office Depot (Technology/Customer Service Specialist), in the San Gabriel Valley, CA area. The stores have not been informed of the Apple products move yet. In fact, I had to do my own research to find this out. I will admit, I am primarily- a PC user, mainly because I love to build computers myself, and parts are readily available for such a thing. I don't purchase over the counter computers (HP, Dell, Apple, etc). However, I don't think such products are bad, and encourage my customers to purchase them. I know a good amount of Apple basics, they're nothing to sneeze at and I will sell them to consumers just like I do PCs. In many areas an Apple can be a superior choice- depending on the customer. I'm guessing, that Apple will supply the training materials for our technology department- and that there will be Virtual training sessions through our "Train Track"/"Store Portal". Once we start receiving these prodcuts, you can bet that I will be right there learning the ins & outs of Macs. Anyone want to donate a G5 in the mean time, or a powerbook?? I'd take a Powerbook over a PC notebook any day....

 

[Mr_Ed]

The "business computing" side of it . . .

A couple of posts have mentioned the business computing side of this move. I think it has great potential if done correctly (training and sales techniques, as mentioned by many here) because around where I live, there are a number of OD stores and MANY businesses of all sizes get just about everything they need to run their businesses from OD. When I say "everything" I mean from pens and paper to computers, copiers, network hubs, etc. OD caters to businesses very nicely and delivers supplies right to their offices.

I noticed OD even has Xserve on its web site. This makes perfect sense to me. I can see a business going to OD for something like that and OD possibly being able to sell it (with the aforementioned caveats) where I don't see Circuit City/Best Buy and their like ever having the credibility (or desire) to sell such items to businesses. I think it's a great move and I hope Apple and OD work together to make it successful for business owners as well as home comsumers.