Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Fun, fun, fun on a Tuesday night!


I am now officially a soccer mom, which apparently means my life is over, or at least my measurable level of coolness is in sharp decline. The proof? I have nothing better to do on a Tuesday night than blog about work.

BTW, the Red-Headed Wonder shown above is Dave, my 7-soon-to-be-8 YO son. He's shown wearing his new AYSO season's jersey for team "White Lightning". Now, pardon me, but where I come from (Hampshire, Illinois, population >2000) White Lightning is another term for moonshine (for pop-culture reference, go to iTunes and download "White Lightning" by George Jones). I know this because in my youth every now and then my father would bring home a peanut butter jar full of the stuff from an appreciative customer who was cookin' it up in a still out back of the barn. The stuff was so wicked the fumes of it corroded the metal lid on the jar.

Ahhh, life in the country...

Anyhow...found out something interesting today. After a month of this Roland finally figured out we had a blog and took exception to the photo I posted of him. "That's why I never go out with you people! Pictures like this end up on-line!" Come on. It wasn't unflattering - just candid.

Work stuff: I was asked a question twice today, so I thought I'd write about the subject here, since it's obviously on folks' minds. The question was, "Will there be a better deal on Macs for Back to School?" My answer: yes and no. Look - this is how I buy from Apple most of the year: I call up Richard, my inside man, and tell him, "I need X number of units; can you gimme a break?" Richard e-mails me an offer, and then with these bulk orders I can offer y'all some pretty great deals. But at BTS Apple does a corporate-wide program, which is usually along the lines of "Buy a Mac and an iPod and we'll give you a rebate for the iPod". That's a killer deal if you need or want an iPod. The down-side is that once Apple starts that BTS offer, they turn off the discount spigot. Last year they announced it the first week of June. Probably will do the same this year.

So here's what it all means - I can only sell computers cheap as long as I bought them cheap. My PLAN is to - as much as I can - buy like mad between the middle to end of May and bring in enough computers to carry us through Back to School. That way I can give you a discount on the computer AND you can get the iPod rebate, too. The obstacles - first, sometimes it's hard to predict what model will be the big seller and buy accordingly (opinions about the next hot model? Please comment on this post - any and all help is appreciated!), which means I could run out. The result would be I have to buy more - and sell them - at a higher price. Second, space is really, really limited. My storage space has been cut dramatically, even as our sales have just exploded. It's a serious problem, where to put all the stuff once I buy it.

Sigh. Well, maybe that youth I misspent playing Tetris endlessly will come in handy when all my computers arrive. Wish me luck!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Don't worry, Christine, you continue to be uber-cool! Your blog is great, and I've really enjoyed all the entries.

Regarding the "hot" Macs, I think the just-updated iMacs are a great value, even though not eligible for much of an Apple discount because they're new. With speculation on sites like MacRumors about a major MacBook redesign as early as June (August-September is my personal guess), I'd be leery about stocking up on current laptop models unless Apple provides a substantial discount.

Your readers may find the info at http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/ helpful in deciding the timing of their Apple purchases.

Take care, and thanks for your fun and informative blog!

Christine Akins said...

Hey, Michael-
Yeah, I heard there would be a rev in the MacBooks, too; namely that they'd be putting them in an aluminum casing like the Pros because the manufacturing is more enviro-friendly. Green's my favorite color and all, but I love my INCREDIBLY DURABLE plastic black MacBook. I'm going to the West Coast Campus Reseller's meeting at the Mothership in a few weeks, so we'll see if there's any rumors then. Otherwise I'm betting the rev will come more early October, because Apple rarely revs something mid-BTS, they close their fiscal year at the end of Sept, and they start to drive demand for Christmas about then.
I agree the iMacs are awesome, but they take up SO MUCH SPACE...sigh...
Muchos mahalos for the input!