Apple retail in Basel, Switzerland

[eric j]

Hi,

When I first started getting interested in Apple computers some 19 years ago, there was only one - but good - outlet in Basel, a city of some 190,000 souls. It was at the back of the railstation rather away from the main shopping area.

Retail outlets for Apple here are gradually growing in number, and to be found in the main shopping centre.

Even the main post office began to offer a few Apple laptops.

In the last few months the original Apple vendor has opened a second outlet in the centre. A prominent department store displays a range up to the Quad. On a recent visit to a country-wide discounter in Basel owned by the Coop, the first thing that greeted my eyes on reaching the top of the elevator leading to ther computer floor wa a prominent iMac display. (I did not check prices, but I doubt they are offering discounts on Apple stuff).

The word is getting round folks.

eric j

[gunug]

Sounds good Eric but I guess you could always go to the Apple Store in 2nd Life:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovL4pZod_gw


I'd be careful about tech advice given at the genius bar!  

[Gregg]

QUOTE(eric j @ Mar 9 2007, 03:44 PM) [snapback]121462[/snapback]

Even the main post office began to offer a few Apple laptops.

That's interesting. At our post office, we can get tax forms and passports, and postage stamps.

[gunug]

Isn't the British Post Office an internet provider; this is from the closet in the back of my head!

[Highmac]

I was going to use Fast Reply... but this could take some time...

First phone services in the UK were provided by the Post Office; a brief history from wikipedia. Then British Telecom (BT) was floated on the stock market but was allowed to keep its monopoly. Now the market has been opened up under something called unbundling so that other operators can actually use BT landlines to provide services including broadband. One of those operators is the Post Office - as a competitor to BT - which now offers phone services to the public. You pay the Post Office but still use your BT landline and keep your phone number.

And you wonder why some Brits are so screwed up

PS: The Wikipedia page has links to organisations mentioned here.

[gunug]

I can't think that our Post Office would do a very good job either!  We'd probably all suffer from periodic rate hikes and it would probably get pretty serious if the guy in the bucket truck "went postal!"  

[Paddy]

And we don't suffer from periodic rate hikes NOW???

The whole deregulation/privatization thing has worked very well for the service providers, but I have yet to be convinced it's been anything but higher prices and headaches for the consumer. Electricity in Massachusetts was deregulated and after 7 years we were all supposed to be using something other than Mass Electric or whatever they're now calling it (National Grid, methinks). Haha. Until a couple of months ago, nobody wanted anything to do with the residential market - plenty of suppliers popped up in the lucrative industrial market, but nary a one for the residential market. Now we have one. Offering a discount that would amount to about $5 a month for us, if I remember the math correctly. That's on a $200+ electric bill. Big savings there, guys.

Cable? Still only have one choice there too...not cheap either. Residential phone? Funny thing - they all charge exactly the same amount when you match service levels...unless you go with VOIP and all the headaches my friends and neighbors have endured with that. The three I know who tried it in the last year or so all went back to POTS.

In Canada, the postal service has farmed out many of the post offices to retail locations - mostly drug stores and the like. Postal workers don't deliver packages - you have to find the retail location near you where it has been dropped. No delivery on Saturday. Don't take outgoing mail (in the city, anyway) from your mailbox. When I hear Americans complain about the excellent postal service here I have to laugh.

So far I haven't heard of any post offices in Apple stores though. (See...there was a way to bring this topic back around to where it started!!! )

[Gregg]

....yeah, and the "break-up" of the monopoly is becoming a thing of the past, as the "baby bells" consolidate. That worked.