Guilded Lilies: Tech

Imagine my surprise on Saturday when I opened the mailbox to find not only the most anticipated piece of fiction ever written, but the newest edition of Wired magazine sporting none other than Martha Stewart on the cover! The walk from the mailbox to my apartment went like this: Harry Potter in my right hand, Wired magazine in my left - Harry, Martha; right hand, left hand; Martha, Harry; left hand, right hand. Which would I open first? It was almost more than I could stand.

Well, as hard as it is even for me to believe, it was Wired magazine that I ripped into first. I turned immediately to the interview and read this great tidbit:

"I live in an old house with no closets and no built-ins. I hate big cupboards. So, where do you put your stereos and all that stuff? The solution is easy: Put an iPod in each room, like in a drawer. Add wireless speakers and the sound system disappears into the room. It's so simple, and you don't have to buy all that crap. You know how many years of crap I had?"

Besides giving an awesome bit of advice, Martha said "crap". Twice. And "like". She is now officially cool, and it is finally okay for me to express my love for all that is Martha Stewart. For years I have been taking abuse from my closest friends (the ones I dared tell) for my secret admiration of Martha (can you be a feminist and still want to have toile curtains?). Now that she has earned herself the ultimate in geek-cred (to add to the street-cred she picked up in the hoosegow) I can confess aloud that I knew her before she discovered the Blackberry.

And have you ever beheld any greater object of geek beauty than that Wii cake? Instructions for making your own are included, of course. I am all ready for a full year of Martha meets Wired magazine, and from now on will dream of the day that she publishes Martha Stewart Living 2.0. At least it will give me something else besides transferware dishes to think about for a while.

Best Buy, that bright, noisy, yawning expanse of technology in a big box, has begun to do some test marketing with new store formats. One of these retail boutiques, Studio D in Naperville, Illinois, is targeted directly at female buyers of technology. At first glance this seems like a step in the right direction; finally, someone is marketing technology to women. But wait; let's see how they are doing it first. . .

Studio D is pioneering the art of marketing tech gadgets to women with this fresh concept:

"Host your own event! Studio D can help you design a great party, meeting or get-together and provide all the necessary support and technology."

A technology Tupperware Party! Where did they think of that? Additionally unoriginal is the store atmosphere straight out of Martha Stewart Living or Oprah's Magazine - even their own press release uses the phrase "The Art of Digital Living" - which sounds very Martha to me. Looking beyond the co-opted design of the store, they offer the same sort of tech items found at Best Buy, but in a sales environment designed to attract more women buyers. They go about this business by hiring more women sales staff and offering workshops to help educate their customers about the tech products they sell.

The educational offerings for the month of February - which average $40 per session - include instruction in how to make Valentine's Day cards, use your digital camera, digital scrap-booking, and how to run your digital camcorder. There is a two session Photoshop Elements class, but primarily the learning opportunities revolve around teaching women how to operate the equipment they buy at Studio D. Basically they have figured out how to get you to pay them $40 more to learn how to operate your digital camera (and like doing it).

I find the whole concept behind Studio D a bit disturbing, almost Stepford-like. If Best Buy is actually interested in helping women to span the digital divide by offering educational programs about tech products, then why not teach them something a little more substantial than greeting card design? If a good consumer is an informed consumer, then why don't they provide even basic training for the sales staff in their big box stores, workers capable of answering customer's questions?

Marketing experiments like Studio D seem to overstate and totally miss the obvious simultaneously. If Best Buy wasn't like Best Buy anymore, lots of people would prefer to shop there, not just women of a certain age. It's a hellish place to shop in my experience. Who wouldn't want to be able to ask a salesperson there a question and get more than just a bored shrug for an answer? Nothing (except maybe the Wal-Mart marketing mentality of the big box store that has seized this country) is preventing Best Buy from hiring more women as sales staff, or making sure their workers understand how to operate the tech they sell.

So, Best Buy, instead of going retro with Tupperware Parties, how about a little old-fashioned service?