Vanishing New York:
CEO of Tekserve Jerry Gepner got in touch to fill us in on the details. He writes:
“I want to state clearly that Tekserve has no plans to close, but we will morph with the times.”
“We are indeed winding down our retail store operation. This is not due simply to major vendors squeezing margins for their resellers and channel partners, but more down to the changing face of retail in general. Over the past several years, consumer buying habits and options have changed, particularly with respect to consumer electronics. The small specialty retailer is rapidly becoming a thing of the past, and Tekserve is no different in that respect.”
First spotted in a tweet by Arik Hesseldahl, this story, while not unexpected, still makes me sad. Tekserve is one of the few remaining cool, old school, Mac retail stores. They had a fabulous vibe, true nerds behind the counter, a great location and wonderful staff and ownership. While they will stick around, their retail location will be missed.
Well, Apple has zero respect or need for third party Apple resellers. Zero. And they are purposely squeezing them out.
Ach, no. This is awful. I wanted them to be the source of my next Mac.
nuts. I get tons of stuff from them. There have been many times when I needed a last minute maxed out computer. Apple is close by, but they would never stock the top end macs – always special order. TekServe almost always had at least something close, and were good about bringing ram and hard drive prices down to reality. I’d walk in at 10 am, and have a machine up and rendering by 11. Always really nice staff, and right around the corner from me. Definitely going to miss them.
There is an update from Tekserve attached to the bottom of the article which says they will still be in business. Talk of lack of respect is a bit over the top re: their notes on the retail business in general. Speaking of them in the past tense is also premature since they write they will be relocating and refocusing their business, but they will still “be the best place for New Yorkers to buy a Mac, get their Macs fixed, get expert advice about Apple products and for small businesses – the very best place to get an Apple business solution that works right out of the box.”
Sounds like they are making a good business decision to me.
Well, they say they are closing their retail location. Not sure how that can be considered as still the “best place for New Yorkers to buy a Mac” when they won’t have a retail location.
And I’ve seen this corporate speak from any number of vendors. In particular over the years since Apple started opening their own stores, many old school Apple resellers have used these exact same terms to describe how they are “refocusing” their business. The refocusing rarely if ever works and they quietly shut down 6 months later.
There’s still demand for authorized repair work.
If they can get an affordable new space, they can conceivably stay viable.
Don’t get me wrong – I love Tekserve – their setting, their people, their owners. I’d taught classes there and had hoped to do it again. Great place.
And I absolutely HATE the way Apple has treated these kinds of resellers over the years, essentially intentionally driving many of them out of business.
But I’ve seen this story before and it never ends well for the reseller.
Fingers crossed.