January... The dilemma of the Apple Mac.

I’m sitting in Starbucks, with a cup of luke warm tea, watching the world go by, deciding that this has not been my best ever visit to the world famous coffee house emporium.  There are a few suits huddled over an empty table in the corner, but the majority of visitors are shoppers and taking a presumptions stereotypical gamble, I bet the rest of the blue haired rabble with pants clearly visible and trousers half way around their posteriors, who just happen to be reading ‘The Guardian’, are students.  I’m trying to write this by hand, which apart from being remissible of my own student days, is proving quite a challenge, as my hand doesn’t seem to work as fast as my thought process, or as smoothly as I would like due to the cramp penetrating through my index finger, but that’s another story and hardly worth the type space.

As I’m sitting here, I can’t help think that even though the shops are advertising huge discounts, 40-50% in some places, the shopping centre is somewhat deserted for the time of year.  I’ve just visited the Mac Shop, with a few bit of plastic burning holes in my very shallow pockets, I’ve been drooling over the white and black slickness, that is completely representative of the apple brand, and I’m trying, quite mindfully, to decide whether to be sensible with the little bit of money I have and pay off a few bills, or take the plunge and buy what will probably, no undoubtedly be the best tool, the best addition to my life, since my significant other became significant.

Perhaps everyone like me is being a little cautious with their cash and are thinking the same.  Have I actually got it, do I want to spend it, should I really spend it on other things?  The answer?  Well I expect its dependant on self restraint.  But it also lies in the hands of the shop assistant.  Last time and to be truthful the first time I have visited the Exeter shopping centre, it was to look at Apple Mac’s, slightly obsessive, especially as it was just a few days before Christmas, but very necessary.  If I had been greeted with the same interest, enthusiasm, respect and knowledge this morning, I would now be sitting in Starbucks several hundred pounds worse off.  As it is, I find myself wondering if a Mac is really a necessity. 

Traders and retailers alike are already reporting under trading over the festive period, and I’m eagerly awaiting results on the January Sales this year, but I wonder what Apple would say to discover that perhaps it is their staff rather than their product, which ultimately lets them down, and how many other shoppers are getting wise to the fact that they are important and do command a high level of service and care. 

So I go back to musing, drifting around Starbucks, nursing the cold tea, wishing for a little bit of consistency in the world, at the same time, feeling rather glad that I’ve still got a little bit of cash in reserve for dog food.