Microsoft Opens Its First Boston Store
BOSTON (CBS)- The city's first Microsoft store has opened at the Prudential Center, and store manager Ty Hapworth says it has been busy since the front glass wall was rolled away.
It is Microsoft's 23rd store nationally, and the 2nd in New England. The company opened a store in Danbury, CT, a few years ago.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Anthony Silva Reports
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Hapworth says while the Microsoft store is smaller than the Apple store across the street, it will feature more products from more companies. Hapworth says he and his colleagues talk a lot about choice, value and service.
But all the choice might make it harder to make the sale. Retail analyst Jeff Green tells me that having more options increases the number of Microsoft competitors, beyond Apple. Green says Best Buy, for example, sells many of the same products that Microsoft does.
Green says one similarity between the Microsoft store and the Apple store is that customers can play with the products. He says like an Apple store, a Microsoft store is "high touch."
Green says Microsoft stores have been racking up impressive sales. He says Microsoft stores average about $1500 per square foot, per year. They still have a ways to go to catch Apple, though, which has the highest sales per square foot of any company in the world, at about $6,000 per square foot, per year.
