Re: User Groups and Apple Stores
Re: User Groups and Apple Stores
- Subject: Re: User Groups and Apple Stores
- From: Tim Allison <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 21:54:22 -0600
On Dec 6, 2004, at 7:50 PM, Lorene Romero wrote:
When I was in there they asked me for NCMUG brochures to put in the drawer
to give to customers. I did not approach them about it. They said people are
coming asking for the local user group and although they send them to our
website http://www.ncmug.org/ they wanted to be able to hand them something
about the club.
They asked if there was anything they could do? Such as a presentation at a
meeting (boy were they shocked when I mentioned our meetings were already
booked until June '05), AND apologized for not being allowed to offer
discounts. Again I did not approach them about this.
My UG, The Rest of Us, in Chicago has a very good relationship with our store, on the Magnificent Mile (a.k.a. Michigan Ave.) shopping district. The host our meetings in their 48-seat theater, provide tables (for sign-in and raffle prize display, etc.), coirdless/handsfree microphones and use of equipment (such as MIDI keyboards) during our meeting presentations. The theater coordinator (who is our primary liaison), does demos of new software, etc. almost as soon as they get it (and when we can fit it in). I'm not always knowledgeable enough about the subject matter (of GarageBand, etc.) to judge the quality (of the presentations), but they seem to satisfy most member interest.
I told them I understood that it was not them but Apple Policy. Keep in mind
folks that Apple does not provide User Groups with discounts, the best we
can do is shop from the MUG store with the discount code that is sent out
monthly via the User Group Bulletin.
Insofar as store discounts, they (the store on Michigan Ave.) provide our group a 5% discount on the evening of our meetings to members that present their membership card. This discount and the stipulation (of membership cards) was offered to us--we didn't ask. I wouldn't suggest that you go and ask or demand anything from any other store (I wouldn't want to get your (or our group) into trouble.
What struck me was their support and concern. They were floored when I told
them that our CompUSA has giving us rooms each month to run about 6 SIGs and
they offer NCMUG members a 15% "above cost" discount. This is much higher
then a 15% off discount. Our members save their annual membership dues time
and time again by shopping at CompUSA in Santa Rosa. Oh and this CompUSA
puts in an $800 a year ad in our newsletter. Now that is support.
Our local CompUSA also hosts some SIG meetings for us, but no one (in our group--or at CompUSA) have tried to foster the relationship into a discount possibility, which is probably done store-by-store as some suburban CompUSA stores have offered us discounts that others have considered minimal at best, and not worth the long drive to take advantage of. Since most of our members are in (or nearer to) the city proper, these discounts probably wouldn't interest members as much as a discount from the downtown (or a closer-in) location.
The moral of the story.... It is all about relationship building and
understand the Apple store have a strict NO DISCOUNT policy. When is the
last time you saw a Apple product "on sale"?
The moral of my story (and probably the reason Barbara--also an active TRoU member--wrote) is that the relationship we (as with probably any MUG) is extremely delicate. Among the restrictions we face, are that we cannot have presenters that compete directly with the Apple Store. This rules out Other World Computing, a somewhat local seller of Mac upgrades and peripherals, but (apparently) not companies like Adobe (since our Apple Store also hosts the Chicago After Effects UG, even though AE is somewhat of a direct competitor to Apple's own Motion). We also are not allowed to advertise discounts or special deals on products that are sold _by_ the Apple Store (i.e. last year, we were able to sell the Panther Special Issue of MacWorld, which the Apple Store didn't carry at the time (but now does)). The store doesn't care or object if we advertise these discounts on our ListServe or website, however. This sometimes causes a problem with some presenters (such as Adobe, which only offer UG discounts (to TRoU anyway) to those attending on the night of the presentation (only!). We also have the standard rules (such as no food--only covered drinks) in the store, and no interfering with Apple Sales people/geniuses and customers (yes, this can be a VERY touchy point for the store). The biggest problem though has probably been with photography. Our Apple store did not allow photography in the store, and this caused a problem as we likeed to put photos of our presenters/meetings, etc. on our website. On a similar vein, we wanted to start videotaping our meetings for inclusion on our website (because parking downtown is either next to impossible or very expensive). By writing to someone in Cupertino, I was (not sure exactly how) able to magically get permission to videotape (under very tight restrictions). Since that time, some members have claimed that we are now allowed to take photos in the store, but we are still trying to confirm/clarify this policy change as it would help our website, etc. significantly.
HTH,
/Tim Allison
Tim Allison
Former President
The Rest of Us
Chicagoland Macintosh User Group
P.O. Box 81679
Chicago, IL 60681-0679
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