MS Mall 1.0: Microsoft Finally Does Retail

from Brand Channel - Anthony Zumpano - October 23rd 2009

Hark, I'm-a-PC people! The Scottsdale, AZ Microsoft Store has opened! Behold the high-fiving employees wearing sweaters in an array of bold colors! Lust at the enormous screens displaying Xbox games like Halo and Guitar Hero! Endure (if you can) the in-store Ashley Tisdale concert!

Microsoft's long-overdue retail foray is well-timed with the release of Windows 7, which Slate calls "the best operating system on the market." The news will also steal some thunder from Apple, which is also enjoying a particularly good week.

If Scottsdale is beyond your acceptable driving range, Destructoid offers an opening-day tour of the Microsoft retail location, and declares it the closest thing to an Apple clone since Steve Jobs pulled the plug on the Mac OS licensing program -mbut notes that "the people who care about that already aren't likely to be shopping in a Microsoft Store to begin with." A second store is set to open next Thursday in Mission Viejo, California.

Comparing the two stores is a bit like comparing oranges and, well, you know, but what Microsoft has in its favor, at least for the young-people-with-disposable-income factor, is that Xbox, no matter how addictive an iPhone game might be. A plush gaming area features comfortable seating and a 94-inch monitor, and one can experience the brand's harmony by test-driving all-in-one PCs hooked up to Xboxes and Zunes (remember them?).

Anyone who roots for John Hodgman to finally smack Justin Long in an "I'm a Mac" commercial certainly had plenty to be excited about, but the blog Influx Insights called out Microsoft for its "clearly staged euphoria" on opening day.

If Microsoft went a little overboard in fanning its own hype, that's a shame, because if the brand were looking for a way to fire up the crowd, it could have looked no further than its own mercurial and occasionally unhinged CEO, Steve Ballmer.