May 30, 1999: Apple Users Get Paid to Fix Floor Models

There had been a longstanding problem for Macs in the retail environment known as Sears and that problem was neglect. With the vast majority of Sears associates being Windows literate if they were computer literate at all, the daily comings and goings of customers who poked and prodded the Macs left the machines in a sad state for anyone who wanted a real demo.

For some time Mac users had been voluntarily going into stores and setting the Macs back to the state they were supposed to be sold in, but the effort was hit and miss. Apple's promotion company, MarketSource, tried to make the prospect of finding a working Mac a sure thing to help the presentation of Macs by hiring Mac enthusiasts.

The deal worked as follows: A Mac enthusiast would get paid to drop by Sears once a week and stock up the advertising materials, demo the products to sales associates and consumers, install demos and fix up the floor units. For this service the Mac helpers could receive up 19 dollars. Not much, but it beats donating plasma. The short-lived program was announced this month in 1999.