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Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores

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Re: Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores

#161

Post by joveian »

nanna wrote: post #117

Whenever I go past the Oxford Circus store I think to myself, if only we had stores like this for Linux.

There are, at least here in Portland, Or (US). FreeGeek is a recycler and resells used equipment, usually with Ubuntu. They have made their store more like the Apple store over the years and reduced the number of random parts they sell (although they still have quite a few things). For Linux, any computer made in the past seven years or so that is well supported works great for a lot of people. They have a tech support window that will spend hours with people having trouble and classes in a different part of the building. The hardware itself is fairly expensive considering its age but for anyone who is likely to use the tech support it is likely one of the best deals available.

https://www.freegeek.org/

Re: Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores

#163

Post by chasd00 »

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.

Apple store sales per square foot beat even Tiffany's and it doesn't take much room to display diamonds.

https://chainstoreage.com/news/most-profitable-retailers-sal....

Re: Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores

#164

Post by nonrecursive »

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…

Good god the Southpoint Apple store is terrible. I went there once because I wanted to buy a new iPad and apple pencil so I could participate in a digital painting workshop the next day, and they wanted me to wait 45 minutes before they would help me. I said that I wasn't going to wait that long and hopefully wasn't an asshole about it (it's never cool to be a jerk to retail employees!) and they did manage to ring me up within about 5 minutes.

The experience was just so weirdly baffling and frustrating and I've since avoided the place. I realize this sounds like the height of American consumer entitlement but it was truly bizarre that the response to "Hi I would like to hand you more than $1,200" was "please wait 45 minutes."

Then there was also the confusion about who to actually to talk to in the first place if you wanted to buy something. Do I talk to the person at the door? Nope, because I don't have an appointment. I should just stand in a corner and hope someone finally talks to me. It was truly amazing that Apple could so thoroughly botch the experience of exchanging money for goods.

Re: Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores

#165

Post by partiallypro »

geerlingguy wrote: post #20

A lot of people mention that the MS stores were a 'brand image' or 'marketing' front, but if that's the case, I can see why they closed. The three or four I visited were very near an Apple Store, and while the Apple Store across the way was always bustling and had people standing around with their Apple devices even outside the store front (I guess waiting for Genius appointments)... the Microsoft stores were always…

To be fair, the Verizon store near me is ALWAYS packed because it has people waiting in line to have something fixed. Microsoft generally relies on OEMs to do repairs (for non-Microsoft devices.) I think that is a key difference. While Apple makes you wait 45 minutes for a repair, you are looking at something new and potentially buying it.

Re: Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores

#166

Post by simonh »

ptero wrote: post #155
simonh wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really see the connection. If the only traffic to the stores was a handful of people, how can this have any significant effect on customer good will? They can't be both empty and influential. It seems like the stores were a missed opportunity, but they always had the odds stacked against them. Whatever you can get in an MS store, you could get a much cheaper alternative running the same software at another el…

> It seems like the stores were a missed opportunity, but they always had the odds stacked against them. Odds were against Microsoft stores being profitable because Microsoft is now an underdog in consumer tech. If you want hardware (possibly with the exception of xbox; I just do not know, never had one), Microsoft is rarely the name that jumps to mind. But this is exactly why Microsoft should keep them (using some p…

But is it actually serving a purpose if not enough people are actually going into the stores, at the demos and playing with the toys?

I don't think this is abandoning consumer tech. Their ~90% domination is still a thing. They gained it without stores, and the stores weren't helping them maintain it.

There seems to be this cognitive lag where it seems like the stores should be a big deal, should be significant, giving them up should say something about Microsoft's position in the industry. A lot of commentary can't shake that perception. The reality though is it never was any of those things.

Re: Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores

#167

Post by partiallypro »

I'm going to miss this. I was at a conference in San Francisco, dropped my Surface. Shattering the screen. Luckily I could just walk to thew Microsoft Store and they replaced it. I would have been so screwed if that store wasn't there. I liked being able to go in and see the new Surface hardware before launches. Best Buy would usually not get display units until after launch. I've replaced an Xbox that had a bad HDMI unit...I'd had have to have waited a week to get a new unit, but instead I just went to the Microsoft Store and got it done immediately. I wish they would just scale them down instead of shutting it all down.

Re: Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores

#168

Post by gentleman11 »

Microsoft’s stores were very nice except that they had double the staff they needed and were using headsets to coordinate their sales efforts and pressure me into buying things... several of their main brands also had histories of installing spyware on their consumer devices which made me really uncomfortable and kept me from buying a couple of times (Lenovo, Dell, razer, another I forget)

Re: Microsoft to permanently close its retail stores

#170

Post by echelon »

0x8BADF00D wrote: post #55
jsnell wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh. I was going to say that it was absurd to suggest they were giving up on consumers, given just how heavy they've been investing in gaming for the last year. But writing that out made me realize they unceremoniously killed Mixer just three days ago.

It’s better to dump dead weight early than have it eat into your profits long term.

Not just profits, but opportunity cost as well.

Unfortunately a string of failed attempts to find the correct evolutionary gradient will leave customers with a sour taste. There's a lot to balance.

Running a company is hard.

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