Awesome Comments

What's Your Sign...Was It Good For You?

After Sex Comments by Astrological Sun Sign:

Aries: "Okay, let's do it again!"

Taurus: "I'm hungry--pass the pizza."

Gemini: "Have you seen the remote?"

Cancer: "When are we getting married?"

Leo: "Wasn't I fantastic?"

Virgo: "I need to wash the sheets."

Libra: "I liked it if you liked it."

Scorpio: "Perhaps I should untie you."

Sagittarius: "Don't call me--I'll call you."

Capricorn: "Do you have a business card?"

Aquarius: "Now let's try it with our clothes off!"

Pisces: "What did you say your name was again?"

Don't Discount Apple's Bid for a Blockbuster Holiday

Leander Kahney 11.28.07 | 12:00 AM

On Black Friday, wifey and I took the kids to San Francisco's Union Square to see the tree-lighting ceremony -- but we ended up in the nearby Apple Store buying yet another iPod.

I'd wanted to avoid the store -- all stores in fact -- but as we passed by, some excited shoppers who were leaving handed us sales fliers. "It's the only time Apple puts stuff on sale," one of the unpaid evangelists explained, imploring us to pick up a bargain. And so we ended up spending more than $200 on a gift iPod -- but, hey, we saved $30!

My little shopping parable is just one of many indicators that point toward Apple having the blockbuster of all holiday seasons. Consider:

• Black Friday kicks off holiday sales. While Best Buy offered $300 laptops, Apple knocked $100 off MacBooks and a laughable $15 off iPod shuffles. These discounts are barely savings at all, yet the Apple Store was heaving with bargain hunters. And where else do you find people leaving a store encouraging passers-by to go in?
• This year, Apple has its strongest lineup ever of laptops and iPods. It has five tiers of iPod -- from the $80 Shuffle to the $300 iPod Touch. Analyst Tim Bajarin, an industry veteran not easily bowled over, said no one can compete with such a lineup. Bajarin is predicting 30 million iPods will fly off store shelves this season, up from 14 million last year and 9 million in 2005.
• Steve Baker, a retail analyst at the NPD Group, thinks Apple's computers will be the big draw this year, not iPods. "The notebooks and the iMacs will be leading the pack this year," he said. "IPods will be strong, but we won't see the same growth as in previous years." Baker predicted the iPod might be a victim of the wider economic slowdown: Shoppers feeling the pinch might skip smaller gift items like the iPod. But those able to weather the downturn are still likely to splash out for new MacBooks.
• Apple's stores have a "gravitational pull" on shoppers. Nearly 30 percent of shoppers who pass within 25 feet of an Apple Store are drawn inside, according to a survey by analyst Gene Munster at investment bank Piper Jaffray. Munster is predicting 25 million iPods sold this season, a good number of them higher-priced models.
• Analysts are cautiously predicting a boffo shopping season overall, despite economic jitters. ShopperTrak, an automated video tracking system that monitors visitors to shops and malls (a service to which Apple subscribes) reports strong growth in Black Friday shoppers -- up 6 percent to 7 percent last weekend compared to 2006. The average annual increase is usually about 4 percent. "Undoubtedly a welcome sight for retailers," the company says.
• Apple's stores last year raked in nearly $1 billion in the holiday quarter and $90 million in profit -- a record that's likely to be broken this year. The stores are unbelievably profitable. They average $4,000 per square foot annually in sales, while the national average is a little over $300 per square foot. "They are way off the scale from other retailers," said Gary Allen, who runs ifoAppleStore, which closely tracks Apple's retail chain. Allen notes that Apple sells small, high-priced goods, "but they are still selling a lot of product for the retail space they have."
• As the holidays approach, Apple is extending store hours. Some will be opening at 5 a.m., and at least two (in Somerset, Michigan, and Village Pointe, Nebraska) will be open around the clock, according to ifoAppleStore. Already some locations are stacking boxes of iPods and computers below special tables to speed sales, which are now handled by salespeople toting handheld wireless terminals. Apple has ditched sales tills at many stores. Receipts are e-mailed.
• Apple can sell boatloads of goods without holding sales. In fact, Apple discounts its goods only one day a year: Black Friday. The policy makes Apple one of only a few manufacturers on the planet that doesn't routinely roll out price-slashing deals. Other goods that are never discounted include high-end Denon audio gear, certain pricey TVs from Sony, and Hewlett-Packard ink cartridges. These products tend to be high-end, in-demand items -- like hot videogame consoles -- or are sold by companies that own their own stores, like Apple, Bose and Coach.
• Apple eschews one of the computer industry's most-utilized tools: sales fliers inserted in the Sunday newspapers. It's one of the only computer companies that doesn't use the ads to promote weekly sales. "It's pretty unique," says Baker. "They can do the volumes they need to do without the added expense of this kind of advertising."

Apple breaks all the rules of retail, but you can bet Santa's little helpers will bring sacks of cash to Steve Jobs this Christmas.