One Red Hot Country Mama!

Today is a different blog since I am doing it on my brand new 13" white MacBook and I am sitting at my kitchen table because I set up my wireless network today. I bought these things as a graduation present – ascending from my corporate life to my entrepreneurial life (my last office day is tomorrow).

So, here is a quick run-down of my shopping experiences.

Mac Store: Yesterday I walked into the Mac Store downtown Toronto (in Eaton’s Center) and talked to the first salesperson available. I told her exactly what I wanted (I did my research and I never go into these situations clueless), pointing at one of the many MacBooks available on display. She tried to upsell me a bit but after I said a firm no she cued up my order and I was ready to go. I grabbed a copy of Microsoft Office for Mac and a cute carrying case – 30 minutes from entering the store, I was on my way back to my car.

BestBuy: I went to BestBuy in one of those big box malls (on the Queensway) to pick up my wireless router tonight. I looked around for a while, and finally saw a big pile of the routers in the middle of the hall. I looked at the back of the box which depicted a bunch of different equipment. I walked around for a while trying to get the attention of one of the BestBuy guys until finally someone had time. I told him what equipment I had, and asked him if I needed anything else on the box image.

"Are you setting up the network yourself?" He asked and I said yeah. He scratched his head and started to speak slowly.

"Well, I don’t want to scare you or anything, but it isn’t easy. It’s not exactly hard, but it’s not easy either… you know? But, just so you know, there is a 14-day return policy and you can always call the Geek Squad if you can’t install it yourself".

I told him I was pretty good at instructions but he didn’t seem convinced. Yuck! So I was both insulted and my time
was wasted.  He likely had some preconceptions about me because of my gender and my looks. Well, what does he know. I installed it in 30 minutes, naming the network after my cat while talking on the phone to my friend about feminism. So there.

I’m not joining the Mac Cult any time soon, but if treating people with respect is part of the formula, I will make fun of them a little less from now on .