Search Salon

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Recently in Salon Technology

Clueless in Tokyo
Avatar chat, porn and microwave cooking -- if the Net in Japan isn't good for much else, no wonder it's not a hit.
By David Lazarus
[06/28/99]

Silicon Follies
Silicon Follies
Chapter 30: Kiki's Salon des refusees -- no "cyber-talk," please!
By Thomas Scoville
[06/26/99]

The programmers and the ABCDEFG problem
A start-up company's online game project falls victim to a key coder's vacation schedule.
By Po Bronson
[06/25/99]

Books
Searching for silicon soul
"The Nudist on the Late Shift" and "The Silicon Boys" sift the valley's culture for something more than wealth and greed.
By Andrew Leonard
[06/25/99]

Space noise
Astronomers listening for distant stars and extraterrestrials are getting an earful of satellite buzz. What happened to heavenly quiet time?
By Frank Houston
[06/24/99]

Complete archives for Technology

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -

The Microsoft world is all about sushi-ginger stationery. It's synonymous with miniature Japanese rock gardens, aroma therapy kits and velvet pillows stuffed with buckwheat hulls. And this most unusual microcosm of Microsoft isn't afraid to stray from Washington to be at one with its people. Or so a visit to the new MicrosoftSF flagship store in San Francisco would lead you to believe.

The MicrosoftSF store opened two weeks ago, part of Sony's splashy new Metreon megamall-amusementplex in San Francisco, as the first (and possibly last) consumer incarnation of Microsoftiness. Ensconced on the second story of Sony's modernist monstrosity -- adjacent to the Airtight Garage arcade, one floor below the IMAX theatre and two floors below the "Where the Wild Things Are" funhouse -- MicrosoftSF takes its cue from the superstore concept already popularized by Nike and Disney. It also closely mimics the Sony Style store, one floor below.

But MicrosoftSF is more than just a fetishistic display of software -- though that's what you might expect from the entrance, where shrink-wrapped boxes of Microsoft Office2000 lay, lovingly spot-lit, in glass display cases. MicrosoftSF is a kind of Pottery Barn for the computer crowd, but instead of martini glasses and leather armchairs there are super-sized coffee mugs and aluminum desk sets.

Retailing is increasingly turning into pre-packaged lifestyle vending; Microsoft is simply inscribing its mark on the computer-as-lifestyle territory.

Click here to check out the latest Technology books at BARNES & NOBLE

It was Lily Kanter, the store's business manager, who developed the concept for MicrosoftSF after seeing the music kiosks in Sony's New York superstore, which let customers play with merchandise before buying. "I thought, wouldn't it be great if you could do the same with software, because it sits there in a box and no one knows what its functionality is until they load it on their computer," enthuses Kanter. "Let's get the software out of the box and showcase it in a lifestyle environment around working, living, learning and playing!"

The result is a spacious retail store, with whitewashed walls and bleached-wood and glass accents. It is split up into topical areas like "small business," "successful living," "road warrior" and "playing with Windows." Each section features not only the Microsoft software most suited to the topic, but assorted related accouterments.

In the "creative publishing" area, for example, MicrosoftSF has an enormous wedding planning display. Towering over copies of Microsoft Home Publishing Suite '99, is a mannequin wearing a silver micro-mini wedding dress and bridal veil, brandishing a silver spray-painted bouquet and a glass wedding cake etched with chip designs. Here, you can buy not only floral wedding invitations that fit your home printer, but the "Bride's Little Book of Bouquets and Flowers," pastel Shantung jewelry satchels and a glass cake plate. You'll also find that sushi-ginger stationery, essentially salmon-colored paper for thank you notes.

Over in "successful living," MicrosoftSF is pushing arty household items: boxes of Family Lawyer 99 share shelf-space with silk, beanbag wrist rests, etched glass vases and mugs emblazoned with the dictionary definition of "passionate." The "small business" area pushes a cedar "Now and Zen" desk clock, incense sticks and that miniature Japanese rock garden.

Is Microsoft hoping to soften its limping public image by associating itself with all things New Agey and positive? Could the ruse work?

Next page | Yes, there's a "Microsoft identity handbook"