23rd
Why Apple stores are killing the competition
Tonight was iPod shopping night with my mom. She wanted to stay in Greece to shop if we could, so that meant no Apple Store in Victor.
Our first stop was Best Buy. When we finally found the MP3 player section, I was disappointed right from the start. Every single iPod was tied down to the display, so you couldn’t pick it up and feel it in your hand. This of course is vital to the experience of comparing which player to buy. Not only was it tied, but one tie went directly across the screen, and another one went across the scroll wheel. Needless to say, it hampered the functionality of the player just a bit.
Disappointment #2: Once we worked our way around the zip ties, we found that none of the iPods had any music on them whatsoever. So we couldn’t test the main function of the device. Great.
Disappointment #3: Even if the iPods had music, there was no way to listen to them, as there were no headphones hooked up to any of them.
Feeling a bit dismayed, we headed over to Circuit City in hopes of a better experience. We found more of the same. There was actually one iPod there with some music (with no headphones), but what was startling was the fact that about 80% of all the players had no power, so no one could test them (including the nano, which my mom was interested in). When we asked a clerk about it, she just said, “Oh, some of them aren’t plugged in.” Thanks for the help!
Contrast these two horrible experiences with the Apple Store:
- All the iPods are available for anyone to pick up and play with
- All are loaded with music
- Headphones are available to actually listen to them, and great ones at that (Bose noise canceling)
In this case, the trip to Victor would’ve been worth it.
