Timing Product Releases, Retail Strength Key to Growth
| by Joe Leo, Columnist |
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Okay, so some people lined up just for the t-shirt. Is there anything wrong with that? Free is free. Then again, free is making a buck off someone else. (Like putting your shirt up for sale on eBay, to which we found a few posted within hours of the Leopard release).
What's wrong with the picture is the people who stood in line for hours when they could have walked half a block down the street to CompUSA who also had copies of Leopard available for sale at 6:00p. In fact, a CompUSA employee came down the line and passed out mini flyers advertising that Leopard was on sale for $30 off after rebate.
(We went into CompUSA after the Apple Store to track down the guy, and after finding him, asked how their sales went. "We had a bunch of people come by tonight. We had a rockin' time." As we left the store, two men came in, one talking on his non-iPhone cell phone about how people are lined up down the street and he just walked in to CompUSA with no lines).
(Best Buy, Apple's new partner in crime, also had Leopard in stock that night, with no lines).
Once inside the store, people were busy dashing into line to buy their copies of Leopard. Only 25 people at a time were being let in, and as people left, more would be let in to the maximum that the fire code would allow. Some took their free t-shirt and left, some stayed awhile to test drive Leopard, while some just shopped normally, as in one who came in for an iPod case.
Some others bought a brand new Mac to get Leopard for "free." Talk about, wow!
Those who bought new Macs that night didn't have to bother with purchasing Leopard as every Mac sold starting at 6:00p already had Leopard installed on it. (Makes you wonder how they accomplished that, pushing stock with Tiger on it, into the back room). And if for some reason it didn't come with it already, you could upgrade online for $9.95.
As the first hour ended, and this columnist's "all-access" pass expired, one couldn't help but observe how the masses were still pouring in. And they were still passing out the free T-shirts. Apple's website stated that the first 500 customers into the store that night would receive a free shirt. It's hard to believe that less than 500 had visited the store in that hour alone.
It seemed like a good 1,000 people had already visited the store and more were outside!
Standing inside Apple's flagship store in San Francisco put a whole new perspective on the whole picture. With all the people coming in that night, and it seemed the line would never end, Apple's biggest weapon is not the iPod (it is and it isn't), but? Its retail store.