Just after posting a quarterly loss, and just after I visited a Best Buy store to evaluate Apple’s product presentation, Gateway Inc. announced they’ll buy privately-held computer-maker eMachines Inc. for $266 million. News stories say that Gateway will sell its computers by phone and Web, and sell eMachines computers at retailers like Best Buy. However, the fate of Gateway’s retail stores apparently has not been decided, news reports say.
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Check Apple’s “Jobs” Web page for another retail-related opening, this time for an O&M Contract Manager [link expired] for the stores, based in Cupertino. The “O&M” apparently stands for Operations & Maintenance. The person must have knowledge of, “planning, scheduling, and budgeting of out-sourced building maintenance and custodial services for multiple leased facilities on a national basis.”
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Just after posting a quarterly loss, and just after I visited a Best Buy store to evaluate Apple’s product presentation, Gateway Inc. announced they’ll buy privately-held computer-maker eMachines Inc. for $266 million. News stories say that Gateway will sell its computers by phone and Web, and sell eMachines computers at retailers like Best Buy. However, the fate of Gateway’s retail stores apparently has not been decided, news reports say.
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The SouthPark (NC) retail store will open March 12th.
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After a tipster identified a local Best Buy store as part of Apple’s pilot reseller program, I visited the store to evaluate the presentation, equal treatment, maintenance and general marketing of Apple’s products, including desktops, laptops and iPods. My full report includes photos, so you can make your own judgement on whether Best Buy is an able partner in spreading the word about Macintosh.
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On Thursday Gateway Inc. reported a loss of $114 million for the fourth quarter of 2003, and that it sold 526,000 computers, or 27% fewer from the same period of 2002. For the entire year, the company lost $526 million on revenue of $3.4 billion. Gateway has been losing money for three years, and has been reinventing itself into a consumer electronics company instead of a computer manufacturer. Besides cutting staff the past two years, Gateway has closed 194 stores, and has just 190 open now. Gateway said retail store traffic was “flat” during the holiday selling quarter in which other retailers reported traffic increases. “We were disappointed that we didn’t generate the traffic we really needed to,” said co-founder Ted Waitt during a conference call. “Clearly, we’re analyzing every aspect of our retail business. We’re looking at each store from a profitability standpoint.” The company didn’t break out financial results for its retail operation.
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Unbelievable!! A Ginza (Tokyo) retail store grand opening T-shirt just sold for $105.53 on eBay! There were only nine bids, starting at $23.98, moving to $55, and then jumping $25 at a whack to the record winning bid. Check eBay for more reasonable prices on stateside T-shirts still on sale (Corte Madera, $25).
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The Magic 8 ball is telling me that “Spring 2004″ for the grand opening of the One Stockton (SF) retail store may actually be sooner than the astronomical Spring of March 20th. Store construction is proceeding without obvious problems, store employees have been hired, and training will reportedly begin “very soon.” All this information points to an early March grand opening for the store.
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The Arizona Republic newspaper has more details about LaEncantada: 600 were in line by the store’s grand opening, all 1,000 free T-shirts were given out by 11 a.m., there were 1,400 visitors by noon (when the staff stopped counting), and other retailers said it was a bigger event than the mall’s grand opening last Nov. 8th!
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iLife brochures are in the retail stores now– a four-panel, fold-out with a page each for iPhoto, GarageBand, iMovie + iDVD, and iTunes, and then a larger fold-out center section headlined “iLife ’04,” and showing how all the applications come together. Another page repeats the tag line Steve Jobs used when introducing iLife ’04: “Think of it as Microsoft Office for the rest of your life.”
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More news about the LaEncantada (Ariz.) grand opening: the store opening was delayed from early November by two separate water leak problems. During the 2+ months the store wasn’t open, the employees reportedly weren’t paid. I also hear that the manager’s “Welcome!” speech included a mention of the 20th anniversary of the Macintosh.
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I’ve updated information about the numbering of computers at Apple stores, for help in contacting them via iChatAV software.
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Congratulations to Apple Computer on the 20th anniversary of the Macintosh computer. Since that very first model, the Macintosh has provided me with many years of entertainment, information and empowerment. And the front page of CNN now has a “QuickVote” on Macintosh vs. PC–go nuts!
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Thanks to Alan, Ali and Patrick for the very first photos of the LaEncantada Apple store grand opening (1500+ hits!) in Tucson (Ariz.)! The first three persons in line (right) got there at midnight with camping chairs, which officially qualifies as an “overnighter!” They reportedly were tossed out by mall security twice. Note the new GarageBand display in the left front window of the store in the photo collection. By the way, the store manager is Christine Sanchez, and the 1,000 T-shirts reportedly ran out shortly after noon, indicating a huge crowd.
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