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Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores

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Re: Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores

#141

Post by dkdk8283 »

sterwill wrote: post #89
xphilter wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but I kinda feel like the relaxed and comfortable atmosphere was more of an indication that the stores weren’t doing so hot. Every time I went to one is was because it was quieter and lower key than other stores. And I never actually wanted to buy things. Maybe that’s good(ish) marketing but probably doesn’t make good business sense.

That may be the case. I rarely go inside my local mall (Southpoint, Durham NC), but on sunny weekends the Apple store was often jam-packed with people. So busy that customers had a hard time getting through the door. Sales people talking non-stop and processing orders as fast as possible. There was a Microsoft store inside the main mall building, just a few minutes away. I walked by it a few times, but it was usually…

South point Apple has always been painful - I avoided it like the plague. I think it’s the only store in the area besides Charlotte.

Re: Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores

#142

Post by gojomo »

If past is prelude, they'll try again, within about a decade.

They first tried a retail store ~1999-2001, before even Apple, with at least one outlet being in San Francisco's downtown 'Metreon':

https://www.technologizer.com/2009/10/20/1999-microsoft-stor...

(By my recollection, it was somewhere within the 2nd-floor footprint of the Target that's there now... not far from the bowling alley/arcade.)

Re: Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores

#144

Post by hedora »

k12sosse wrote: post #129
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That happens in many stores. I call them "store groupies." Around here, vape stores have them in droves. I remember them hanging around Science-Fiction bookstores; often using the back rooms to have D&D games. I think that every one of them becomes a customer, eventually. Many of them become evangelists, which can sometimes be even more valuable.

and store employees call them "loiterers". A herd of human waste, with no money or no intent to purchase anything.

If this is a problem, then don’t pay the employees based on commissions, and train them to make such people feel welcome to ask questions, play with demo machines, etc.

Re: Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores

#145

Post by sleepybrett »

I'm not a huge fan of microsoft, but I think this is a huge mistake. I've been into the local MS store here in seattle (uvillage) on occasion to quickly grab hardware or software from time to time. While it is clearly a sad apple follow it always makes me feel a little better about MS as a company. It does something to humanize them. So yeah, do they make a ton of money for them? Of course not. Are they great for the brand, I'd argue yes.

Re: Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores

#146

Post by [deleted] »

AgloeDreams wrote: post #99
fortran77 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Surface, Hololens, and XBox aren't "interesting"? Stop it.

Xbox totally is...But I honestly don't think many (normal, not HN or tech) people associate the Xbox brand with Microsoft so strongly. Maybe somewhere down the stack of other things but many likely associate 'Windows' or 'Office'.. which of course is not interesting at all to the normal person. Plus the average person has no idea what Hololens is and the Surface brand is not actually strongly associated as well (at l…

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores

#147

Post by spideymans »

gipp wrote: post #93
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is purely anecdotal. Take it with a grain of salt. We have a "high-end" Simon mall, in a town near where I live. It's quite "upscale," with Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdales, etc. It has an Apple Store near the South entrance, and a Microsoft Store, near the center. The Apple Store is always packed. I haven't been there in a few months, so I have no idea what's going on with it at the moment, but it has always be…

Sure, but a large portion of the Apple store crowds has always been people just hanging around and goofing off on the laptops. IIRC it's policy in those places to always let people do that however long they want, even if there's clearly no intent to buy anything. I've always wondered what portion of those crowds are actually customers. EDIT: Yes, everyone, I understand the marketing and lifetime-value reasons for doi…

Those people goofing around on the computers are future customers.

Re: Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores

#148

Post by WWLink »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #66
josephpmay wrote: post #16

I think one point people are missing: Apple stores, even if they exist mainly to promote the brand, are MASSIVELY profitable. In fact, they are one of the most profitable store chains in the world. By contract, I believe that Microsoft was always running most of their stores at a loss. Even for a massive company like Microsoft, continuously running an unprofitable division is hard to maintain.

This is purely anecdotal. Take it with a grain of salt. We have a "high-end" Simon mall, in a town near where I live. It's quite "upscale," with Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdales, etc. It has an Apple Store near the South entrance, and a Microsoft Store, near the center. The Apple Store is always packed. I haven't been there in a few months, so I have no idea what's going on with it at the moment, but it has always be…

The Microsoft stores seemed to be a "ME TOO!" thing. I doubt MS ever opened a store in a mall that didn't have an apple store (or wasn't expected to have one).

Like I'm sure that's what the point was. Someone would go try some Macs out at the Apple store and walk past the Microsoft store on the way to their car. They'd go in, check out the goods (as a matter of comparison shopping), and possibly buy a PC instead.

In my experience though, post-iPhone, very few people go to Apple stores to buy computers. Sure, that's still probably a lot of people, but 99.99% of the people in the store seem to be there about an iPhone (half the time, an iphone that they broke and expect to be fixed under warranty lol).

MS was in the business of selling phones for a while. I wonder if their stores lost traffic because they don't do phones anymore.

Re: Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores

#149

Post by sleepybrett »

otterpro wrote: post #86

I've been to MS store only once last year to buy a laptop that was on sale. It was a good and pleasant buying experience and the staff was very friendly. However, I noticed that there weren't a lot of variety of hardware on sale. I wish they had more computer stuff, like GPU, mechanical keyboards, motherboards, etc.... Imagine if they were like mini Micro-center, I'd bet they would've been a lot more popular than App…

I feel like they can't really be sure that they can push that kind of 'partsy' inventory. USB stuff sure, but GPUs, MBs, ram etc... bitsy and complicated.

Re: Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores

#150

Post by mdip »

otterpro wrote: post #86

I've been to MS store only once last year to buy a laptop that was on sale. It was a good and pleasant buying experience and the staff was very friendly. However, I noticed that there weren't a lot of variety of hardware on sale. I wish they had more computer stuff, like GPU, mechanical keyboards, motherboards, etc.... Imagine if they were like mini Micro-center, I'd bet they would've been a lot more popular than App…

> mini Micro-center

There used to be variations of a lot of these all over the place. Some were exclusively software (Babbages), some had a mix (we had a local franchise called Computer Warehouse, often located in small strip-mall locations). I loved working at CompUSA (more like Microcenter; a little smaller than the Microcenter that is a half-mile from where I worked, also formerly two miles away from a Computer City).

Retail computer hardware is basically gone these days except for small, independent, shops. I'm so glad I live 20 minutes from a Micro Center. I used to live about as far from a Microsoft store, too. :)

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