One of the most frequent questions I get is “where do I go to look at/take a trial run/buy a Mac?” It’s a good question, as you can’t just go to your local Superstore and find a Mac to tinker with. If you’re thinking of upgrading your Mac, or are thinking of shedding the shackles of Windows, you really should get some “hands-on” time with the real “Mac”-coy, so to speak. Would you buy a car you hadn’t test-driven? Once you decide on the Mac model you want, there are several smart buying options. Let’s explore.

Although there is no Apple retail store in Maine (one can always hope), there are authorized resellers. I have personally visited two: Reliable Computers (reliablecomputers.net) in Rockland, Belfast, and Bangor, and Gorham-Micro (gorham-micro.com) in Saco. Call them first to see if the model you’re interested in is in stock.

If you’re looking for a particularly hot item (iMac G5, iPod), you may need to visit an Apple retail store. There’s one in Salem, N.H. at Rockingham Park Mall, and one in Peabody, MA, at Northshore Mall. They both take around two hours driving to get to, so you could make a half-day of it and get some other shopping done as well at two real malls. Although I am not a tax expert, you can avoid (at least for some time period) sales tax with a purchase in N.H.

Apple closely controls the pricing of their products. No reseller can undercut Apple by more than $5. Catalog-based resellers, since they can’t compete on price, try to earn your business with “free” extras. For example, right now at MacMall (macmall.com, and I don’t mention them with any kind of endorsement), with a computer purchase, you can get (some require a mail-in rebate) free shipping, a free printer, free memory, free headphones, free earbuds, free TV tuner, free software, a free wireless base station, and a $50 rebate. Remember that mail-in rebates can take up to six weeks (at least) to fulfill, so you won’t be getting some of those extra items to place under the tree. There are several online catalog resellers to choose from, and they all offer the same kinds of incentives.

Oh, and they can change their specials at a moments notice, so you won’t know what’s really available unless you call. Happy shopping!

© 2004 Peter F. Zimowski