Two indie Mac dealerships nearby
For most of my Mac-related purchases I end up giving my local merchant business, an independent reseller in Falmouth, right next door, called Cape Mac. They have a second location in Harwich, which is a fair distance away, but between the two locations they do an effective job of covering much of Cape Cod.
Yesterday we visited a new shopping development in Wareham -- right over the Bourne bridge from us, in the same town as my in-laws, about 30 minutes distant. It's a nice open air lifestyle mall type location with a number of large anchors like Target, Lowe's and (soon) JC Penney. There are a number of small boutique stores, including a Mac reseller called The Mac Express. They used to be called Main Street Mac, located in nearby Buzzard's Bay.
The location opened in June, and the owner decided to invoke Apple's own retail stores as much as possible. The walls are white and the tables and floors are wood -- the presentation is austere but perfect for the Macs, with black cabinetry for accessories. The staff even wears baseball jerseys with Apple logos on them. In short, if you were a casual observer, you might think that it was a real Apple store. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but it seems to be working out okay for them so far.
The one big benefit of the Mac Express over Cape Mac is that they keep Sunday hours. This has long been a thorn in my side of Cape Mac -- they choose, rightly or wrongly, to stay closed on Sundays, as some Cape businesses do -- a conceit of living in this sleepy community that I have, frankly, never understood, especially for a business that is, presumably, retail-based.
Anyway, The Mac Express's location is good -- really, better than Cape Mac's in some ways. While it has no visibility from the main road that services the shopping plaza, unfortunately, it's steps away from a Qdoba Mexican Grill, right across the parking lot from a GameStop and around the corner from a huge Borders bookstore on one side and a Best Buy on the other. As I told Bonnie, it's a pretty dangerous spot for me -- too many distractions, way too many places to spend money. Thank goodness there isn't an ice cream shop nearby or I might be doomed.
Hopefully these two independent dealers can service this region, since Apple doesn't appear ready to. Their closest retail store is an hour north, in Hingham, Mass -- a long haul up Route 3.