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usurp
High Monarch of MacDebate
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Kuwait
 
2005-01-24, 06:25

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During my lunch hour I decided to go back to the Apple Store and take a better look now that the shock and awe had settled down.

I also wanted to try and see if the building door might be open today so i can go up to the first floor to where the apple offices should be at.

When I go there I tried to open the buildings door and it opened. I was surprised because i thought the building was going to get demolished.

So i went into the building and got into an extremely tiny and claustrophobic elevator up to the first floor. When I stepped out I found 2 signs with the old apple logo on them. VERY COOL.





So I walked into the office and it was empty. But everywhere I seemed to lay my eyes there was something that was branded with the old apple colors. The large sticker on the main office entrance door, the old think different 70x100 poster, the apple badges on all the doors, the old directors chair with the apple logo, even the mousepads.





I walked into the back room and I spotted 2 guys there. I started talking to them and it turned out one of them was the guy i had spoken to earlier in the morning. This guy turned out to be cool. very old school, and very nice. We started talking about the banners, he told me he would have to check since a person once offered a ridiculous amount of money for the Directors chair and the owner refused to sell. That wasnt very assuring. When he asked me which banner i wanted and I told him 4 of the 5 (2 are duplicates) he seemed a bit shocked.. also not a good sign.

We continued talking about Apple when i started asking him questions about the store. Believe it or not, the store has been closed for only a year! I found that hard to believe. 1 year?? i told him the place looked like it was stuck in the 90s. He then started telling me about how things became the way they were.

Basically they were the first Apple Retailer to open in Kuwait back in the early 80s. Apple caters to a minority group. In the States, a minority group could still include millions of people. In Kuwait with a population of around 3 million, a minority group becomes a handful of people. Business was never good and it was never a money maker. Then when you think nothing worst could happen, 2 other Apple retailers opened in Kuwait and started to cater to this small group of mac users. This just fucked things up as you can imagine. 3 retailers in such a small market is not very feasible. Last year the owner decided to close the shop and just keep the office open. And today thats all that remains.

Its a very sad story. I know the 2 other apple retailers really well and they also aren't doing very good. But atleast the old school guys from the workshops are still in contact with each other. They are a very friendly group of Mac addicts. On my way out the guy gave me a brand new old school mouse pad, a very nice parting gift. He will keep me posted on the banners, i hope it does work out.


portable: MacBook 2.4Ghz, 2GB RAM, 250GB HD | personal: PowerMac G5 dual 2.3ghz, 6GB RAM, 6TB HD | work: MacBook Pro 2.5ghz, 2GB RAM, 160GB HD | car: Alpine iDA-W407 with black iPod 80GB | pocket: iPhone 3GS with Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro's
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