The family was out and about on a nasty, rainy Saturday morning in Vermont when we stumbled upon the grand opening of Small Dog Electronics, an Apple store which relocated from Waitsfield, Vermont to a South Burlington store formerly occupied by a Rugged Bear clothing store. My wife and daughter went into a Dakin Farms store to buy preserves and assorted maple-flavored miscellany, but before I headed into Dakin's I wanted to check out the grand opening of an Apple Store.
I was stunned by what I saw. Honestly. This wasn't a large store, maybe 20 by 40 feet of floor space, but filled with macs of all types, ipods, accessories, a Hi-Def TV-looking device, and other assorted Apple products. I didn't care about the machines. Maybe another time I'll return to check those out. What stunned me was how the place was absolutely packed. There had to be over 50 people in this small store, with two or three people gathered around every device in the store, every desktop and laptop, and they were completely immersed in these computers.
I was thinking what if this was a Dell, Gateway, or Microsoft store holding a Grand Opening, who would care? What would draw people to the grand opening of one of these stores like they came to Small Dog today? I'm not criticizing Windows or saying Apple Rocks or anything, but I witnessed quite a phenomenon at a small Apple store in Vermont this morning.