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Been to MyMug.com forum area, read some of the topics related to ALL Apple shops here in KL. Mostly kena complain one. "Not Friendly lah.." "Cant use DEMO machine for PERSONAL things lah ..." " No stock for everything lah ... " Haih ..... susah man ..... The complain come from 1 of the blogger, which I dun think I want to say out at loud who is he, but I do hope that he can somehow read out this entry, be fair to every Apple Shop and be fair to all the Mac users or Mac users wannabe in Malaysia. I think the way you complain the shop and the way you tell the story will only reduce Mac users in Malaysia, which I dun wish that to happen. As Mac User too... I hope we do share the same idea and work best to help increasing the number of Mac Users in Malaysia.

Actually when we look at Apple Store/Shops in Malaysia, there are a few aspect that we need to look into. Here I might can give some usefull informations here for my readers ( suppose to fire them back in MyMug.org, but who cares man, the forumers have take it personal already.)

Statements:

1. There are no OFFICIAL Apple Store in Malaysia. All Apple Shop (see the differences ? Store and Shop ) in Malaysia are owned by Business man who have enuff money and guts to get an Apple Dealership and sell Apple in Malaysia. People who never involved in the business never know how bad/sad to own a Apple Shop in Malaysia. Official Apple Stores, there are DEMO of all the Mac machines and iPods, coz all the Demo units are straight from the store room. But Apple Shops in Malaysia, the store have to BUY the stock and OPEN the unit for display, which the DEMO unit cant be sold the customer, is consider a FOREVER demo unit. Well, you guys can say that :" Wah, so Kiam Siap meh? How much is a iPod wow ?" According to my rough calculation, we have to sell about 20 units of iPod Nano 2GB to cover just the cost of a iPod nano 2GB. How bout the salary for the staffs ? Rental of the shop ler ? Turnovers ler? .... If you think it's so easy to open a businness, do it yourself and prove that to every Apple Shop owner in Malaysia.

2. Each of the staffs working in ANY of the Apple Store, I believe, would try thier best to be Friendly and Helpfull to anyone that come in to the shop. UNLESS, for those kind of customers that I complain before in my blog. Sales are human too, some with better EQ and some might dun have any ( My EQ very bad). Try to ask things the proper way and with manners, I am sure no SalesPerson will kick thier customer out of the shop.

3. As a Mac user myself, sure I know things better than other sales person who are not using Mac, at least I am passionated. I do agree that Mac users can be really self-center sometimes, look down at any othere computers that are not Macs. But you must understand that, 95% of the world are using Windows Operating systems, what can we Mac users do ? Armed an army with Mac machines and bang other's head ah ? Be mature, okay ?

4. About us selling PCs in an Apple Shop. You think i like it meh ? I wish I never have to touch any PC/Windows ( Windows really sucks .... as personal opinion.) But when you think about it, there must be a reason why my boss want to sell Windows in the shop. You have no idea what's the ratio of Windows Buyers and Apple Buyers in my shop, or should I say, the income ration. For about 15 units of Windows sold, there's 1 Apple machine sold. That's only in my place, not including LowYat and Imbi and 1U and MidValley computer stores. Where me talk about business, we talk about money. I am a really HardCore Mac User too, I too really wish to work in a PURE Apple Store here, but if the shop cant maintain it's turnovers, I eat shit ah ?

5. Opening Apple Store in Malaysia. You should look at the way people line-up in Official Apple Stores, there are like mad. Not like here in Malaysia. Even when we have New Products lauched, it's still very hard to sell 5 units of Mac machinese in a day. You understand the situation now ? No matter how stubunt you are about a "Pure Mac Machine Store", but no business means eat shit, I thought everyone can understand this basic Businees Rule ? The first thing to do is to get as much of Mac Users here in Malaysia first, before Apple or any business man can consider opening a REAL Apple Shop here in Malaysia. For all Mac Users in Malaysia, you guys including me should be really glad and thankful for those Apple Shop oweners who are daredevil enuff to open a Apple Shop in Malaysia, so you guys and myself can get Mac machinese here. Just for your information, Malaysia's Machinese are cheaper than Singapore, UK, Japan, and most of the other countries, coz there are no Tax over computers in Malaysia. Be thankful people, really thankful...

5. Stock, why always no stock. Any dare to stock 50 units of MacBook or 20 units of MacBook Pro in the shop? 50 units of MacBook we are talking about RM219950. And 20 units of MacBook Pro we are talking about RM157980. Okay, there's 3 models for the MacBook, 3 for MacBook Pro, 2 for Mac Mini, 2 for iMac and 3 for PowerMac, not forgeting iPods and Apple Display. Make it simple, we just Keep 10 units for each...

MacBook 13" ComboDrive RM439921995
MacBook 13" SuperDrive Rm529926495
MacBook 13" Black RM599929995
Macbook Pro 2.16Ghz RM789939495
MacBook Pro 2.0Ghz RM989949495
iMac 17" RM539926995
iMac 20" RM659932995
PowerMac Dual 2.0Ghz RM859942995
PowerMac Dual 2.3Ghz Rm1059952995
PowerMac Quad 2.5Ghz 1429971495

Let say we stock 5 for each model... Total is RM394950, that's excluding Apple Display and iPods and iPod Accessory and shop rental and salary of the staffs... Think about how long does it takes to sell off all the units, think about the margins of the machines, think about much profit can be achive in a month...

Sometimes our stock will have to depends on the allocation of stock from the local supplier, the region supplier and the factory ofcoz. You think Apple will alocate more stock to countries that have more customer like Singapore or Hong kong or Taiwan, of to country like Malaysia that merly have 2% of Mac users over the country ? If you want to be the first buyer of new Mac, buy youself a ticket to Taiwan, sit there and wait at thier factory, before they ship the stock out.



(Pictures from Apple.com)

I too wish for some Apple Store like that in Malaysia. Anyone in Malaysia rich enuff to open 1, or even if Apple are stupid enuff to open 1 in KL. I don't think it would last more than 3 months, according to the number of Mac users in Malaysia.

End of Part 1....