# Anyone been there ?



## Satcomer (Sep 5, 2010)

I was wondering today if the Microsoft Retail stores has ever been visited by anyone here or by someone you know. After the initial hype I was wondering how it is working out for the wannabes


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## Satcomer (Oct 5, 2010)

Well Microsoft is opening a store in the Mall of the americas right across the Apple store. You can see the video here.


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## Giaguara (Oct 10, 2010)

Ha  
Sure, when using just Scandinavian pine for the desks and genius bar thingies it _so_ totally doesn't try to look at all like an Apple store...
I might have a look at the one in Mall of America when visiting those parts of the country the next time (next year probably). How much space do they really think they need for selling the different flavor of Windows boxes? (Or Zunes or Windows mobiles..?)


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## pds (Oct 18, 2010)

According to the MS Store website, there are still only 4 of them and all at or west of the continental divide. Next time I'm in Mission Viejo, I might stop by.

Funny how the pics of the various stores have a high staff to customer ratio. -_^

**********
And the calendar of teaching events is mostly visits from Girl Scout troops.


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## reed (Oct 20, 2010)

Thanks for the MS new store "coming soon" tour Satcomer. I wouldn't go in for all the tea in China. What for? And yes, I have a few friends who would go in. Such is life.


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## Satcomer (Nov 27, 2010)

An Update! Microsoft opened another retail store in  Bellevue Square, Washington State And to get people to come Steve Balmer showed up and gave away 2000 Miley Cyrus concert tickets, you can read about it here and see an opening video here. 

IMHO this is retail strategy is going to loose money for Microsoft, but they won't care. They seem to have the "me too" bug placing all their stores right from Apple Stores. It feels like desperation having Balmer giving away concert tickets to come to a store opening.


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## pds (Nov 27, 2010)

yeah - and they were Miley Cyrus, how desperate is that? 

According to LA Times, customers have sussed out that the only reason to go is if there's a sale on the one thing you want. Otherwise you can find what you want anywhere. The lure of the Apple store is that you don't find the contents at Target or Walmart.


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## Giaguara (Nov 29, 2010)

Maybe they will get 1000 Miley Cyrus fans (or people with ebay account) to queue for the opening then.

Somehow I can't imagine Microsoft stores get the same experience in queueing for the stores as the Apple stores do (at least when they are new to a location). Like Regent St in London in 2004, being the first store in Europe, had the night before the opening a freezing temperature outside, and it had people camping in queue.. that line was 11 PM maybe 400 people, and the queue went around the block a few times by the time the store opening hours approached. For concert tickets? No, a _free t-shirt_ for the first 5000 (for normal size stores there are way less t-shirts than that). And the experience.


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## Satcomer (Mar 27, 2011)

Well they are at it again: Selena Gomez Free Concert Draws Crowd to Microsoft Store.  

Please will someone just take picture of one of these stores on a typical day? I am just curious.


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## reed (Mar 28, 2011)

Good idea Satcomer. I'm curious too. "For the birds....."


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## ranasta (Aug 18, 2011)

Just like MS to try and use the coattails of Apple. I guess they can't come up with new ideas themselves. Gee, I remember when DOS competed with GUIs way back when. I wonder how the world would be different had Apple won he lawsuit.


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## Satcomer (May 26, 2012)

Update I finally went to one. In NVA's Tyson Corner Mall that was pretty busy on a Saturday afternoon.

As you can see the Apple Store is a lot more busy. Plus by my observation When I was in the Apple Store I saw a lot more of Apple retail bags full and at the Microsoft Store no one had a Microsoft bag. Sure I was there only ten minutes but it was stark to my eye. At least I was greeted 4 different times by four different employes.  The techs at the MS Answer desk seemed to be not busy at all. 

At the Apple store it was a lot more busy and I spoke to only one employee. She seem more waiting for a one-to-one person. That was the difference between the two stores beside the MS Answer Desk and Genius Bar. I am not sure if that is a good thing though. I imagine at the MS Store they must push questions to the manufactures sites.


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## Giaguara (May 26, 2012)

Well, they opened close to where I live too like a month ago. And also this time they were handing out or shuffling some concert tickets to the first people in the store. For a t-shirt I might have gone to queue for the opening (for the sake of it), but for a concert ticket of something I don't care? No way. 
Also to my surprise here it's not located exactly opposite the Apple store like in Mall of America, but a few hundred yards further on the road, where Borders used to be.


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## Satcomer (Dec 6, 2012)

Update: Here in the U.S.A. After our Thanksgiving Holiday is the newer tradition of the Black Friday (the first official sales for the Christmas Holiday). Well a young man made a video called Black Friday Apple Store vs. Microsoft Store. It is an interesting comparison that is to me very stark. Plus all the people in the Microsoft Store seem to be XBOX customers.


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## Satcomer (Dec 26, 2012)

A current update on this thread is over at Parislemon Christmas Eve pictures. IMHO Microsoft really needs a rethink.


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## reed (Dec 27, 2012)

good to see we will not give in to "those people."


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## Giaguara (Dec 27, 2012)

Wait until the hipsters discover Microsoft. 
Maybe it's the new Apple some day... used only by 2 % of the people, giving the hipsters the rare edge they want. The Windows iPad, I mean Surface... you know, remember a decade ago or like that, when the Mac users were rare?


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## Satcomer (Jan 8, 2013)

Yea I remember that me. In some ways i kind of miss that time with a MUG membership & MacWorld New York/Boston conferences. Those were the days with this new MACOSX.com forum that cool people and a great mod named Bob that freely shared his mac knowledge with the rest of the posters freely!!! The small local user mac base kind of felt like family (you would surprised the many techs in the No Such Agency uses Mac and were in the local MUGs), good times! 

I just feel us old Mac users, refuges from MUGs, are all getting just little grayer now.  

Lastly Giaguara kind of thought of you being a little "hipster"  (just kidding).


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