I hope one of them comes near me.  I’ve never been to one. :D

There’s one here in the Houston Galleria :drool:

from the website:
Stores will be located exclusively in areas frequented by the affluent, with Sony picking such spots based on national and market surveys.

And the first one was Costa Mesa CA.  Going there next week to visit mum, we’ll see if this is pure crap like it sounds… :mrgreen:

just went to the one in costa mesa.  store was very interesting… i enjoyed the one at the metreon a lot better

I never found the stores that great, too overpriced, i’d never buy something there. Cool to test out items, but I have plenty of stores that sell sony products to find things.

Erik

Sounds like a winning strategy to me. Worked really well for Gateway.

We have alot of them in Canada and they are over priced but atleast you know where to go if you can’t find it any where else

Thats mainly what I like about it.  I can test out new products and ask Sony reps some questions.  I’m sure they will give better answers than the wacknuts over at Best Buy and (Short)Circuit City.  Drachen has a point about the Gateway massacre.  Most people will use the stores for playing and info purposes.  I hope Sony is doing this for PR reasons.  Since they are targeting affluent areas, they might make a few bucks.  Only time will tell.

“more stores are scheduled to open within the year in such places as Las Vegas and Orlando. “

WOOHOO!! 

I’m sure they will give better answers than the wacknuts .........

well, take it from someone who goes to the flagship store in manhattan all the time:  most of the sales help are order takers only, so don’t expect too much. 

i wanted to demo the TR5 to see if the processor speed mattered, but they hadn’t even heard of it!!

Gateway’s main issues were price. Even if you bought it in the store you still had to pay shipping. Sometimes Gateway Store couldn’t match Gateway.com price and the killer item was tax. Take those three into account and there was no way for the stores to survive.

Erik

The store concept sounds good in theory.  Gateway could have done things differently.  I hope Sony can pull it off as it represents an enormous amount of overhead.

[quote author=“Anonymous”][“It’s a completely new concept,” said Komiyama, president of Sony’s US subsidiary.]

*cough* Gateway, Apple *cough*. this is a terrible idea business wise but ok consumer wise. ive always found these kind of stores extremely limited and boring. the only reason i visit them is to test drive a laptop or 2, and no way in hell i’d actually buy it from them.

it’s funny people say they look forward to it because they can ask the Sony reps questions. they will just as clueless as everyone else, you’ll have better luck researching online. there is usually 1 or 2 extreme geek employee’s that actually are actually in the “know”, goodluck talking to them as their usually in the office doing actual work (instead of out front taking PC orders). most of the employee’s will just be teens or college students who put in applications, not “real” represenitives, only “real” reps you’ll see are the 1’s who visit every now and then.

I completely agree with you, guest poster.  Sony has to be aware that this could be a vain effort.  The best benefit to Sony will most likely be Public Relations.

In reference to the extreme geek employees…...I usually have my way of finding out who they are real quick.  Empty-headed nose pickers are such a waste of my time.

Sony Style is just a name.  Just having a store near you is cool enough.  I guess you always want what you cannot have.  I’m sure after I have been to a Sony store a handful of times it will be blazea swazea.

People I know who live within minutes of major theme parks don’t go too often.  I guess it is just one of those things. :wink:

Haha that’s right. Sony Stores are quite cool to pay a visit to check out those devices that have been catching your eyes in magazines. However, the goods at SonyStyle stores are always grossly over-priced. I like to treat a SonyStyle store like an expo (or Best Buy for that matter), where I can try the devices out before I actually buy them online or at a cheaper store.

Sony Style stores don’t carry the latest gadgets either. In a place like Hong Kong where the gadgets are only 1-2 days behind Tokyo, SonyStyle stores aren’t really in a position to compete with local stores. Of course, there are always those people who like to go to ‘official’ stores to buy ‘official’ goods with the same trademark Sony stinkin’ warranty. 

[quote author=“qua77ro”]I like to treat a SonyStyle store like an expo (or Best Buy for that matter), where I can try the devices out before I actually buy them online or at a cheaper store.

I agree.  That is why they will probably end up no better than Gateway.  I still say the only real benefit that can come from the stores is Public Relations.  At least Sony is doing something to reach the consumer in a tangible way.  Personally, I’d rather just see them give us the same features in their laptops as Japanese consumers get. :?