Microsoft to open retail stores?

585

Jordan Golson

04/14/08 02:40PM

Filed to: rumormonger

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The list of computer companies with failed retail initiatives includes a lot of big names: Sony, Dell, and Gateway, for starters. Only one company, Apple, has beaten the odds. Now Microsoft, which tried and failed with one retail store in San Francisco a decade ago, is rumored to be tiptoeing into the retail waters again. Fudzilla, a rumor site, claims Microsoft will open "many" retail shops dedicated to Microsoft products. The aim of the stores would be to show the "true Microsoft experience." What, random crashes of the cash register during checkout and multiple identity checks before being allowed into the store? This can't end well. A Microsoft spokesperson offered the standard noncomment, which may be wise; if the retail push is for real, I wouldn't want to try and pitch it to the press, either.

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Freethought Jordan Golson 04/14/08 03:48PM

This would be one of the worst ideas in the long, long line of bad ideas from Microsoft. Imagine if they opened a store, the first thing people would think would be, "Great! I can bring my 6-year old, busted-down, spyware-infected P.O.S. white box PC to the Microsoft Store and they will fix it for me!"

The store would be inundated with people seeking tech support for both the MS software as well as whatever brand of generic or branded hardware it is running on.

There is no upside to this: if they can pay to get it fixed at the store, then all MS has done is shift the revenue from Geek Squad or Firedog or whoever to themselves, further pissing off their retail "partners,"; if they don't accept such business, the customers will be even more angry than before.

The day they open their first store is the day I buy another 1,000 shares of AAPL. The mere fact that MS thinks they might need to do this, when their products are already sold in virtually every retail store in the country, shows how badly their business is falling.

[valleywag.com]

WagCurious Jordan Golson 04/14/08 05:39PM

I do and do and do for you people. This is why Microsoft might want a store...

[www.appleinsider.com]

What would you do to increase sales of your product versus a reinvigorated Apple?

Also, the Coex Mall in Seoul has had a Microsoft store for years.

categorically Jordan Golson 04/14/08 05:15PM

We were just talking about Microsoft stores this weekend over some Keystone Light.

The consensus was that they only thing holding Microsoft back is the lack of retail stores. Their message is getting bastardized by Best Buy and the like. The "wonderful" Vista experience needs to be brought to the people.

I of course said a "Blu-blocker type" ad campaign would be best, but the store idea won out in our little town hall meeting.

The Brain Jordan Golson 04/14/08 03:43PM

I bet I know where the story started.

Don't believe everything you read, kids. Microsoft already has tons of Microsoft stores; every big box electronics store in the country carries almost everything they make. What more could they want?