Apple
Line dancers take over the Microsoft Store
By Jim DalrympleNovember 17, 2009, 11:39 am PT
We all know that Microsoft blatantly copied the Apple retail store strategy, but Microsoft wasn’t content with stealing something that worked, they felt the need to add to it.
So what did the brain trust in Redmond come up with? Line dancing. That’s it, let’s take a perfectly workable retail strategy and throw in line dancing. That has to be a winning combination.
This video is from the Microsoft Store in Mission Viejo, Calif. I agree with the first poster on the video that said, “it went from surprise to uncomfortable and finally awkward.”
When they started dancing, people were leaving the store. I thought that poor kid was going to start crying as his father made a hasty exit before the Microsoft line dancers attacked.
Seriously, you can have fun at work, but don’t make your employees look like idiots. It’s bad enough that you make them lie to the customers and tell them Windows 7 is safe, but now you make them dance too.
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Line dancers take over the Microsoft Store
By Jim DalrympleNovember 17, 2009, 11:39 am PT
We all know that Microsoft blatantly copied the Apple retail store strategy, but Microsoft wasn’t content with stealing something that worked, they felt the need to add to it.
So what did the brain trust in Redmond come up with? Line dancing. That’s it, let’s take a perfectly workable retail strategy and throw in line dancing. That has to be a winning combination.
This video is from the Microsoft Store in Mission Viejo, Calif. I agree with the first poster on the video that said, “it went from surprise to uncomfortable and finally awkward.”
When they started dancing, people were leaving the store. I thought that poor kid was going to start crying as his father made a hasty exit before the Microsoft line dancers attacked.
Seriously, you can have fun at work, but don’t make your employees look like idiots. It’s bad enough that you make them lie to the customers and tell them Windows 7 is safe, but now you make them dance too.
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Discussion 23 comments so far
23 Responses to “Line dancers take over the Microsoft Store”
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And here I thought line dancing was best suited to country music. BEPs must issue a C&D order post haste!!!!
Oh my God. Sorry, OMG just was NOT good enough.
“yes, mrs Smith, I would love to sell you a new laptop, but you’re going to have to wait until I am done dancing. Oh, right, Mrs. Smith. Please don’t mind the sweat stains”.
wtf.
wow… I’m not sure what else to say, except that was about 4:30 longer than necessary. Actually, it wasn’t necessary at all!
I guess MS stores need a “safe mode” too!
I hear Dell is thinking of opening up retail stores now. But unlike Microsoft, they’re going to be different than Apple.
They’re going to put up the stores on the seedier side of town, and hire strippers from biker bars. Music, of course, will be from Ozzie, who hasn’t walked (let alone danced) in a line in decades.
I wonder if there is a “3 Finger Salute” to reboot this nonsense. I sure as hell can think of one finger I’d use if any of those idiots came dancing up next to me!
I mean, how can anyone take these jerks from Redmond seriously?
“It’s not going to be anything like the Apple Store. Trust me!”
Well, good luck with that, Microsoft.
That’s M$ innovation for you.
Microsoft: please leave your self-respect at the door, and a salesman will be right with you.
everyone needs to go watch it again. seriously. check out the chick in the white shirt with the hobo bag at about 2:00 and tell me that it doesn’t look like she totally dropped something in her bag before she starts dancing with them.
Can we all please virally re-post this video to all corners of the Internet? This video is probably one of the BEST ads that will bolster sales at the Apple Retail Stores.
At least they put the girl with the nice rack up front. It was worth watching for 45 seconds.
I bet those Apple Store employees that defected to MS are thrilled with their move.
I hope those Apple Store employees that defected to MS are the ones that will be coaxed by Microsoft Management to perform these embarrassingly stupid line dances and macarenas twice a week.
And if they refuse, the should get fired for insubordination.
Wow…. that just might have been the most pathetic display I’ve ever seen.
Sadly, I can see what they are trying to do – portray an image of fun and cool… but they just don’t even come close to pulling it off. I’m not sure whether to feel more sorry for the employees forced to take part in that nonsense or for the customers that just happened to have been shopping at the time. Microsoft’s store image has Zune written all over it. (Zune is synonymous with failure, right?).
Wow, looks like the script for the next Get a Mac commercial just wrote itself. Can’t you picture it? John Hodgman spontaneously, and uncontrollably, breaks into a line dance… and the Mac guy just walks off screen shaking his head. Too funny. Welcome to the Ballmer School of Dance!
*cringe*
If you aren’t good at something, hire someone who is and let them make you look great.
Corporations can produce cool viral videos:
http://thefuntheory.com/
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DrFY3H-u8w
The kids from the TV show Glee could have made this Microsoft Store “event” compelling, or even funny… this is just painfully sad.
I thought this was a computer retail store, not a Johnny Rocket’s burger joint or someone’s wedding reception.
Also… is it just me, or do the multi-colored T-shirts make them look like rejected extras from the original Star Trek series?…
The video was probably shot with an iPhone.
Looks liek the Wiggles have really put on some weight
What do you think they do if they find out its your birthday? Streamers, balloons, a “fun” birthday song, and Microsoft Bob?
Next time just leave the camera on the chick w/ the rack.
Ew. Very awkward and way too long. I would have been out the door within seconds.
But let’s be realistic. I got the impression from the article that the customers in the video were going to be made uncomfortable and start making hasty exits in droves.
In fact, I only saw a few people actually leave the store. Far more seemed to not only be enjoying themselves, but actually joined in on the dancing.
I know this is a Mac-lover’s blog, but c’mon. Don’t start making crap up and turning it into an anti-Microsoft propaganda campaign.