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The Hot Store To Have (7/3/03)
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Curse this twenty-second attention span! And more to the point, curse anyone who tries to tell us anything important in greater-than-twenty-second chunks, which is an act so futile it ranks right up there with trying to eat an entire 1977 Chrysler Cordoba without ketchup. (But mmmmmm, fine Corinthian leather!)
See, faithful viewer David Poves pointed out a Pioneer Press article about Apple's retail push which we had read last week-- or, at least, we read part of it, before we got distracted by a dog with a puffy tail. (To be fair, it's a pretty long article. We're talking minutes, here.) Apparently we stopped reading it before we got to the good stuff, because we completely missed this quote from analyst Charles Wolf of Needham & Co. about how popular Apple's retail stores are becoming with mall owners: "Mall developers have begun to court Apple, offering the company preferred locations in their malls as well as sweetened deals."
"Sweetened deals"? What's that, like, free all-you-can-eat Cinnabons whenever Phil Schiller's in town? (Mmmmmmm, fine Corinthian leather!) Whatever. The point is that Apple's retail stores are now beloved among two demographics: Mac users, and mall developers. (Granted, even combined, that still makes for one pretty teensy niche, but every little bit helps, right?) Mac users love 'em because they provide the best Mac retail shopping experience bar none, by a factor of about eight gazillion-- e.g. to the best of our knowledge, no one has yet been set on fire by an Apple store employee for expressing a desire to buy a Mac, which was an all-too-frequent experience back in the Best Buy/Sears days. And now mall developers love the stores, too, because they bring in droves of Mac users.
So now that Apple's got a little clout with the mall owners, we expect that new Apple retail stores opening in, say, 2005 will have some extra little perks-- like a primo location right next to the Orange Julius stand, free Victoria's Secret loitering privileges for the staff, and maybe-- just maybe-- a store discount at Sunglass Hut. Dare to dream!
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SceneLink (4056)
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 7/3/03 episode: July 3, 2003: Certain recording artists are pooh-poohing the iTunes Music Store because it "contributes to the death of the album format." Meanwhile, Apple kicks it up a notch with multiple .Mac renewal bonuses and an extension of the $30-off promo, and apparently Apple retail stores pull in so much foot traffic that mall developers are just begging Apple to grace their property with its presence...
Other scenes from that episode: 4054: Artistic Vision Strikes Again (7/3/03) Oooo, talk about your artistic temperaments. For music-lovin' plebs like us, the iTunes Music Store represents a minor revolution in the way that we can discover, purchase, and enjoy music, but apparently to artistes the likes of Linkin Park and Metallica, the iTMS represents no less a destructive force than an insidious corruption of their unique and creative vision... 4055: Promos, Promos Everywhere (7/3/03) Wow, if we had even the slightest doubt that Apple is shifting into overdrive to try to bolster its .Mac subscriptions, we sure don't anymore. We've already mentioned the pyramidal "we'll pay you to sign up your friends and relatives" scheme, in which the act of persuading your loved ones to part with $99.95 nets you a cool $19.99...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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