Apple Inc (AAPL)

[Bootz]

La Cantera Store Report

A few things to keep in mind first.

La Cantera is the fourth busiest non-flagship store in the country.

The mall in which it's situated does something like 60% of its business on weekends.

In a recent study, San Antonio came in second as the most recession-proof city in the country. I believe Oklahoma City was first.

Given the above, then, it's no surprise that the La Cantera store was busy at 3 pm on a hot Saturday afternoon.

Apart from the crowd the first thing I noticed was that the staff is now wearing color-coded shirts. I didn't spend a lot of time trying to break this down but, roughly, the tech and Genius Bar people wore black and sales staff turquoise. The smallest number of colored shirts was some kind of orange (tangerine?). I'm sure Steve was up all night with color charts on this one.

The iWife asked some questions about the MB Air and the clerk she was talking to asked her if she'd like her own sales representative (or words to that effect) to see a demo and answer any questions she might have for up to an hour. Off hand, I can't think of any other store that offers you your own sales person for an hour.

Long story short, she walked out with a new MB Air. The sales guy did suggest she get Apple Care and I seconded that motion, the Air being new machinery and all. Got a free printer and $30 off her next year of .Mac.

While the iWife and Sales Guy were engaged I kept a casual eye on the check out counter and saw the following walk out:

A single purchase of three iPhones.

Three iMac 20s in separate sales.

A MBP.

A MBP and 23" Cinema Display.

The demographics of the crowd were completely across the board -- black, white, brown, kids, teenagers, middle-aged, old, male/female. (The buyer of the three iPhones was a middle-aged woman.)

Business as usual in other words.