Microsoft Store

Microsoft Store VS Apple Store

Here's the Microsoft Store:

Photo by Matthew Yglesias

This is not a trick of the camera. There were zero shoppers in the store. At noon. On a Sunday in December at peak retail shopping season.

And here's the Apple Store:

Photo by Matthew Yglesias

It is crowded.

Of course Microsoft operated for many years as a fantastic company without any retail stores at all, so it's not as if the failure to build successful stores is the problem per se. The real issue is that there's nothing wrong with the store. It's a great place to shop. Much better than the Apple Store, really, because the Apple Store is crowded, and it's a little hard to get an employee's attention. At the Microsoft Store you get a very pleasant physical environment and a helpful staff. It's just that nobody wants to buy their stuff.

It's still a very profitable company thanks to its enormous strengths in the enterprise market. But enterprises are made of people. If nobody wants to buy Microsoft's stuff, that will trickle up into the enterprise.

Matthew Yglesias is Slate's business and economics correspondent. He is the author of The Rent Is Too Damn High.