Foiled!

I went out to see if I could find one of those new MacBook Pro’s in person and see what it felt like – if the new keyboard was significantly different and exactly what it was like to use a trackpad without a specific physical button.

Well, the U Village Apple Store is completely shut down right now. They’re reopening on October 25th when they complete their renovations. They’ve been “renovating” for a while now – the interior has been this sort of unduly cramped space for ages. You could go in and get something, but it was almost useless as a “I want to just browse through the goods” sort of thing.

Even closed, the Apple store had a fellow sitting out on the bench across from the closed store, prominently wearing an Apple ID badge that you see on their employees. He immediately spotted me and struck up a conversation, asking what I needed. He suggested that I could see the new Macbook Pro’s at the Mac Store or maybe Best Buy. I’ve sworn off ever going to the Mac Store again (after multiple repeats of incredibly horrific service prior to the Apple stores existing in Seattle). So.. I headed to Best Buy up at Northgate.

Unfortunately, Best Buy wasn’t much of a help either. They had out the new Macbook Air (sweet!), but only the older models of Macbooks and Macbook Pros. I asked the sales dudes (who repeatedly asked if I needed anything – pretty much standard BestBuy), but their answer was “Yeah, we got em. We’ll have them out after we sell off these remaining macbooks.”

Thanks guys, but I’m not buying an older generation Macbook just so that I can look at and feel a new Macbook Pro to see if I want to buy one. I was polite, not snarky – although I did tell them I wasn’t buying one just to see the new model. I’d be annoyed at Best Buy, but frankly that was right in line with my expectations – so why bother.

Maybe I’ll get back to the Apple Store in UVillage next Saturday. I can see the new Macbook Pros and what they’ve done with the remodel at the same time…