And as crazy as it seems to open stores in a terrible economy, at least the real estate will be cheap. Also, Microsoft is being proactive, getting off the sidelines and creating a big event; it's not relying on retail partners anymore, most of which are going out of business anyway. Who's left, Best Buy?
At the very least, it's nice to see Microsoft taking some risks. Of course the company needs to dump a lot of marketing money into these store for them to catch on (and one wonders if Microsoft has that money or is willing to spend it). If they cut corners, customers will notice and stay away.
But if Microsoft markets hard but plays it cool, letting the customers come to them, then maybe, just maybe, people will forget about the evil empire and think of the Microsoft Store as simply a place where they can go buy cool stuff.
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