Re: User Groups and Apple Stores
Re: User Groups and Apple Stores
- Subject: Re: User Groups and Apple Stores
- From: Alex <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 23:42:40 -0700
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As Apple continues to open stores across the US, I am curious to find out
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which User Groups have benefited from this. Has your User Group had any
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special events at the store (store supported or informal)? What type of
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interaction has your group had with the staff and management?
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Aloha,
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Rick Ortiz
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President- Maui Apple User Society
I wish that I could report that we have a wonderful relationship here in the
Phoenix area and if you had asked the question right when the first store
opened, that is what I would have answered.
Before the first store in Chandler was opened two years ago, we had a lot of
great contact with the manager. He arranged for a pre opening tour for me
and a special opening night invite for AMUG members. He was interested in
holding classes together, coming to AMUG meetings, using some of our folks
as experts in the store. However, once the store was open, things changed.
They were no longer interested in classes or doing things together with us,
nor would they display our membership brochures despite asking for them.
We accepted that it wasn't going to be as rosy as we had hoped, but it
wasn't a total loss. They were gracious enough to send some of their
employees to put on demos at two of our monthly meetings including our Dec
'02 expo meeting. Their expertise was greatly appreciated by our members and
the patter a lot of fun. They were exciting meetings that I hoped would be
repeated.
Two months ago I invited them to come put on an iLife demo for us this
summer but was told that Apple's new policy is to not have store employees
go to user group meetings. While they did invite us to hold a meeting at the
store, they only have seating for about 25 and the other 50 to 75 that we
get would have to stand for the evening. We had tried a meeting there a year
ago and it was wonderful to be among all that great "stuff" but somehow the
staff didn't know we were coming despite being scheduled with them for
several months. The presentation became an adlib sales pitch and not the
topic we had arranged and advertised.
In comparison to the Phoenix store, this was still pretty good. They have
not even responded to several calls I made to them over the past year.
Sorry to be so long winded, and I hope that you all have had much better
responses and relationships with the stores near you. Don't get me wrong; I
think that it's great to have them in the area. Maybe our experience is just
because of this crazy desert heat. I'm an optimist and always hope that the
future will be much better.
Alex Podressoff
President - Arizona Macintosh Users Group
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