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Circuit City to sell Macs

updated 04:55 pm EDT, Wed September 6, 2006

Circuit City to sell Macs


A small number of Circuit City retail stores in the eastern U.S. will begin selling a selection of Macs including iMacs, MacBooks, MacBook Pros, and Mac minis next week. The new pilot program is designed to test the waters of Mac sales in Circuit City outlets, which could expand to the retail giant's many other stores should it prove successful. Circuit City employees were sent to Apple's headquarters in Cupertino last week, according to AppleInsider, where they paired up with Apple Solution Consultants for a week of training to effectively market the Mac. "This is a pilot program that's just getting underway and we will evaluate how it is doing over the next several months," said Circuit City spokesman Jim Babb. The retailer will also stock specific Mac software titles and accessories, according to the report.


by MacNN Staff

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  1. CeeDion

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Apr 2001

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    09/06, 05:10pm | report spam | Reply |

    Circuit City

    They would better served sending their managers somewhere to learn how to effectively utilize more than one cash register at a time.

  1. ClevelandAdv

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    Joined: Jul 2004

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    09/06, 05:12pm | report spam | Reply |

    Redux

    It seems to me they used to carry iMacs a while back. If the PC-centric attidudes are still around it will not work again. "You don't wnat a Mac...it won't run Windows, ...er wait" "You don't wnat a Mac they are not as fast, ...er um" "You don't want a mac they are more expensive,..er well" "you should get a Mac!"

  1. scotty321

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    Joined: Nov 1999

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    09/06, 05:29pm | report spam | Reply |

    Blecch.

    Well, this is a stupid move and is going to fail. Maybe if the Circuit City employees were actually able to form complete sentences, and maybe if the employees weren't dependent on commissions from PC hardware companies... then maybe this would work. But it won't work. This is ridiculous.

  1. scotty321

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    Joined: Nov 1999

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    09/06, 05:30pm | report spam | Reply |

    Software

    And... how can they possibly make a convincing argument for selling Macs if they don't have any Mac software in their stores? Unreal.

  1. Chris Paveglio

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    Joined: Jul 2002

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    09/06, 05:30pm | report spam | Reply |

    short lived

    right about the first post! but didn't compUSA sort of fail their program after a while? What happened there? The sales "kids" need to be educated, or at least have a cash incentive to move Macs. They won't sell them on their own.

  1. FastAMX79

    Junior Member

    Joined: Sep 2000

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    09/06, 05:31pm | report spam | Reply |

    circuit city....

    sold macs before. i bought a Performa 550 from them.

    then they stopped.

    then they sold macs...then they stopped....

    either way, they are just like best buy. they can sell them, but the people who work there dont care about apple, and they tell their customers to not buy apple

  1. FastAMX79

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    Joined: Sep 2000

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    09/06, 05:44pm | report spam | Reply |

    scotty321

    what are you talking about? did you read the article?

    "The retailer will also stock specific Mac software titles and accessories, according to the report."

  1. gooser

    Senior User

    Joined: Jun 2006

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    09/06, 06:30pm | report spam | Reply |

    maybe not a bad thing

    over my few years i have bought 6 macs (5 new) but my first one was bought at circuit city. never happen though, that store went out of business. they had a mac expert in the store that day demonstrating macs.

  1. shawnce

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    09/06, 08:44pm | report spam | Reply |

    ceedion

    lol

    I cannot tell you how much time I have wasted at Circuit City trying to pay for something that I found myself after hunting around the store (don't even bother trying to find help...). F'ing idiots.

    I cannot believe these stores still exist with their generally horrible customer service and undereducated staff (not educated in what they sell).

  1. bdusen

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    Joined: Aug 2001

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    09/06, 08:46pm | report spam | Reply |

    could work

    "Maybe if the Circuit City employees were actually able to form complete sentences, and maybe if the employees weren't dependent on commissions from PC hardware companies... then maybe this would work. But it won't work. This is ridiculous."

    Actually, Circuit City employees no longer recieve any form of commission (as a former employee of their computer department I know this first hand). That ceased to be about 3-4 years ago. They also have to undergo relatively extensive training about various products before they're allowed on the sales floor. Whether or not they remember the training remains to be seen.

    Regardless, when I worked there just under two years ago in college, I saw one very important thing that would easily drive CC employees to sell Macs over PC's (or at the very least not discourage the sales). Their performance is ranked based on "dollars per hour," ie: the dollar amount of the transactions they sold that night divided by the hour they work. They don't get paid on that, no, but it does prevent them from getting fired (awful place to work, btw). Because Macs carry higher prices than regular desktop PC's, a CC sales associate could make his or her night by selling one $2,000 Mac versus having to sell 4 $500 PC's. And they'll actually want to encourage people to buy extra software and peripherals because their sales scores are based on up-sells as well.

    Now mind you there are most certainly some very anti-Mac idiots out there, but they're becoming less and less vocal as Macs become more and more compelling.

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