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 Previous page | This is when the cross-hairs began to be painted...
1, 2, 3
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Back to our story: Apple's whole net-worth being tied so closely to "the vision thing" means that if you're not in close-proxy to Steve Jobs and his legendary reality-distortion-field, you're not going to be around for very long. Not even an over-zealous Mac-enthusiast-come-retailer can accurately gauge Apple and it's flavor of the month sales strategy. You've got to be in the loop at all times. Even CompUSA - which has at least one Apple payrolled employee on the sales floor - suffers from time-delay, inventory trickle, and general confusion on what the hell just came out of the doors of Cuppertino sometimes with minimal fanfare (example and experiment: the new iMac updates - call your CompUSA and see if they've even heard of them).
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With Apple sometimes exhibiting the predictability of a "Quark" (-cough-), it's odd that the Apple stores took so long to get here. While Ron Johnson - previously of Target fame - was hired as senior vice president of Retail in January of 2000, the first stores didn't appear on the scene until more than a year later in May of 2001. Obviously - an image as important as Apple takes considerable time to craft and execute.
We're talking museum-like environments that include such customer necessities like glass staircases (see photo). Nice, but not exactly the kind of trappings that scream - low-cost-of-entry. Still - they look a hell of a lot better than the third-world trappings of your mom-and-pop PC store, and provide Apple a legging for all those design and pricing nods. No sense selling Guicci at Wal-Mart.
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What would it be like, falling down glass stairs?
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With expensive architecture the order of the day, I can only wonder why the last of the independent retailers are even bothering with a lawsuit - or why Apple hasn't just stopped shipments to them and rescinded the reseller program entirely. BusinessWeek is right on target to suggest Apple to drop the riff-raff. Apple can't have nut-jobs - like self-appointed "evangelist" Rodney O. Lain - representing their product and creeping out potential customers.
[Note 3: Perhaps "nut-job" is too strong a way to describe the passions from the fringes of Apple's user-base. I just thought I'd steer clear of more-apt descriptions like: "frightening manic-depressive and obsessive Apple-evangelist, answered lingering questions regarding his mental stability - via actions involving his own head and firearms discharge".]
Bottom-line - these are - "not" - the kind of people you want representing your computers, and this is - "not" - how you want your corporate interests represented in the marketplace. An openly fanatical user-base - one that takes appreciation to unhealthy levels - isn't worth acknowledgment, let alone support. Apple HQ is best served by cutting them off - particularly since they often infest the retail channel where image and presentation is key.
Best for Apple to have the enthusiasm managed within their own store-fronts - than take chances on "evangelists with guns". I say good riddance to bad retailers. And tough-luck to all who get caught in the middle. If you were Apple - with your own cadre of "evangelists" suing you (when they're not blowing their own brains out) - would you give them the time-of-day?
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The Doomsday Clock
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