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Besides the knickknacks, there are assorted displays of Windows CE-based personal digital assistants, Sony laptops, one lonely iMac on a shelf of Mac-friendly software -- even a baby grand piano with a computer hidden inside. The most popular section of the store is the games area, where you can sit, arcade-style, and play popular Microsoft games (not surprisingly, this area is packed with kids fighting over the six available seats).

Then there's the "playing with Windows" logoware, which includes everything from refrigerator magnets to MicrosoftSF t-shirts, squeeze balls and baseball caps emblazoned with the "Go" slogan, plus stationery imprinted with Windows icons. Interestingly enough, these items were conceived by Sony -- which actually runs the store and has had an equal role in building it -- but the goods all adhere to "Microsoft brand guidelines." A "Microsoft identity handbook" defines the exact style of the pixelated font and the primary colors of the Windows logo, says Kanter.

Personally, I'm baffled as to who would intentionally ante up for Microsoft-branded gear -- as opposed to getting it free at a conference -- but according to store employees, the stuff is quite popular with the foreign tourists. (There are places, apparently, where the company's businesses practices and the antitrust suit have not soiled the Microsoft image.)

All these feel-good lifestyle trinkets catch the eye, but more than half of the store's shelf-space is dedicated to pushing Microsoft's core goods. Each display table boasts trim Sony VAIO computers displaying software -- touch screen demos and workstations where you can goof around with a variety of programs. Many weren't working when I visited, as the store was suffering from startup glitches. Discreet signs ask visitors to refrain from using the computers for more than 10 minutes. It seems it had taken no time for the computer-deprived to begin monopolizing the machines, checking e-mail and writing lengthy essays. A number of empty stations bear witness to the computers' tendency to crash when overused.

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Hovering around this whole fun house are the MicrosoftSF employees -- these are actually Sony folks, so don't blame them for your buggy software -- dressed in virginal white from head to toe and politely enthusiastic about answering all your questions. As for the customers, they seemed to be a mix of tourists diligently scouring the complex, conference wonks wandering over from the nearby Moscone Center and a few locals passing through en route to the Metreon food court.

Unfortunately, the Microsoft store lacks the kind of whiz-bang fun needed to compete with the other exploratory Metreon stores: namely, the Sony Style store, but also the Playstation and Discovery Channel stores in the complex.

Demos of Office2000 and stylish aluminum coffee mugs, nifty as they might be, just can't compare to the fancy HDTV television sets, DVD players, game machines, video cameras and other gadgetry that lie on the shelves downstairs.

Certainly, Sony Style managed to attract more people during my visits, although that may be because the store seems to serve as a repository for bored men, who stand three deep around the numerous oversized televisions. Sony seems to have realized the potential testosterone bounty here, as each of the TVs was playing a different action movie ("Terminator 2," "Anaconda," "Batman & Robin"). Sony Style also boasts a Starbucks and a music store within the Style store. Irresistible, no?

Though MicrosoftSF lacks the gimmicks needed to one-up its paternal neighbor, it still glimmers with the potential to spread its tentacles, Pottery Barn-like, through the world. No other lifestyle store has targeted the devotee of the digital age; certainly, this is a hip population whose time has come and whose pocketbooks are deep.

Perhaps MicrosoftSF could start selling rugs and couches discreetly patterned with the Windows icon. Like Pottery Barn and Banana Republic, MicrosoftSF could put together a shopping soundtrack that doubles as easy listening for your computer lifestyle (including, of course, the "Start Me Up" theme courtesy of the Rolling Stones). If superstores can brand yuppie living rooms, why can't Microsoft do the same with geek offices, even geek households?

Thankfully, perhaps, there are no immediate plans to expand the Microsoft store concept into other cities around the world. As Kanter puts it, the MicrosoftSF location was "very synergistic, San Francisco being a high-tech locale and the Metreon being next to Moscone. I don't know where else in the world it would make sense for us to do another one."

I guess you couldn't sell that stuff in Redmond.
salon.com | June 29, 1999

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