What happened at Carbon Computing?

[AylmerQc]

Anyone know why they closed?
Wondering if the new location had something to do with it. I never could find parking whenever I tried to shop there..

[Dan Millar]

It wasn't a new location, it was the first and only location Carbon has had in this city, and I think we all knew from the start it was a bad location (hindsight is so accurate!). It is hard enough to be an Apple-only reseller when Apple starts opening their own stores in the same city, but to compound the problem by choosing such a crap location almost ensured failure. This is the second time an outside retailer has tried to open a store in Ottawa without success - remember B.Mac? - and could have been avoided if either one of them had used some native intelligence before opening, I believe, though it probably couldn't have saved B.Mac from the arrogance of its owners. Carbon is still viable in Toronto and Waterloo. B.Mac, on the other hand, swiftly shut down all their locations not long after closing the Ottawa store.

The Mac Group is the only Apple-only reseller still operating in this city, God bless them, and they really need your/our support if they are to continue. It is a real struggle to come up against Apple's retail stores and survive, let alone come out ahead. Apple stores have some weaknesses, and retailers need to differentiate themselves to take advantage of those weaknesses if they want to survive. Carbon does that to some extent, but they shot themselves in the foot with the location. The Mac Group also has a weak location (Sorry Brian), but has the advantage of a long history in the city, so that weakness is somewhat mitigated, but I still think they could do better if they strategized their approach to attack the weaknesses in Apple's retail operation - and they do have weaknesses - and moved to a better location! Easy to say when I'm not the one taking the risk, though. I wish them all the luck inthe world, because I believe Apple can be taken on several fronts.

Well, that's my opinion, completely unadorned by any hard facts. If someone has another opinion, I'd love to hear it!

Happy Mac'ing!

Dan

[AylmerQc]

CC were on Wellington for a number of years,Hintonburg, I believe it's called, then last year moved to the Richmond rd/Churchill location,with the lack of parking.
Anyhow, we did regular stops and a fair amount of buying at the Wellington st. store (Macbook,external drives,ect.) The Richmond street location I managed to find parking once,the other times I had to drive away without any luck finding parking.
I liked the place,often had a table with clearance items at a good price.
As for the Mac Group, I'll have to start going there as well and tell my kids to do so also.
Good advice Dan,thanks for reminding us...