The iBrotha

The Rodney O. Lain Archive

It's Not Steve Jobs, But He'll Do

I met Apple Retail VP Ron Johnson today . . . in McDonald's

Rodney O. Lain

This 2001 article was published on iBrotha, Rodney's own website that no longer exists. It is copyright 2001 by Rodney O. Lain. Links have been retained when possible, but many go to the Internet Wayback Machine.

"There you are!"

"Do I know you?"

"No, but there you are!"

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

(SOMEWHERE IN MINNESOTA) - I couldn't find one damned place in town today that accepted personal checks.

On my way to visit a customer today, I stopped by McDonald's in Eagan (southeastern suburb of St. Pau). After placing my order in the drive through, I read the sign that said "No checks."

I cursed to myself and drove off. I went on to visit my customer in Minneapolis. In Minneaplis, I stopped at Wendy's. "No checks."

I went ahead and visited my client. Afterwards, I'm driving down Highway 100 in St. Louis Park (suburb west of Minneapolis), I stopped in the McDonald's near Micro Center. Whadaya know? They take checks.

Standing there, waiting for my order, I see a familiar face.

"Ron Johnson!" I shout. "How ya doin', brother?"

It was Ron Johnson, Apple's Senior VP of Retail.

Not missing a beat, Ron steps over and warmly shakes my hand. I figured he couldn't place my face, so I help him out, telling him, "things are still looking good at the Mall, eh? [there is an Apple Store at the Mall of America]. I just went in the store last night."

We talked a few seconds and the server told me my order was ready. I got my bag of burgers, and as I turned to leave, Ron asked me, "You said that you went to the store last night?"

"Yeah," I said. " I couldn't believe the traffic. Is it true that the MOA has more traffic than Disneyworld?"

We talked some more. I exchanged pleasantries with him, asking how long he is in town, does he get to come home much, etc. I noticed that he was with his little boy, so I decided to leave him alone. i wanted to do an impromptu interview, but I didn't have the heart. I wanted to tell him that I'll be working at the store next year, but I decided otherwise.

I decided that I like Ron. He's a really likable guy. I expected an Apple exec to exude power and authority. Pleasant surprise. I'm not complaining.

However, when I'm headed back down the highway that I remember that I forgot to ask him why the Apple stores don't carry logo'd merchandise.

Dammit.

Fini

Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Opinions expressed are those of their authors and may not reflect the opinion of Cobweb Publishing. Advice is presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all.
  Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2016 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Low End Mac, LowEndMac, and lowendmac.com are trademarks of Cobweb Publishing Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iPad, iPhone, iMac, iPod, MacBook, Mac Pro, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.
  Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Email may be published at our discretion unless marked "not for publication"; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it, and we don't share the information we have with others. For more details, see our Terms of Use.

Follow Low End Mac on Twitter
Join Low End Mac on Facebook

Page not found | Low End Mac

Well this is somewhat embarrassing, isn’t it?

It seems we can’t find what you’re looking for. Perhaps searching, or one of the links below, can help.

Recent Posts

Most Used Categories

Archives

Try looking in the monthly archives. :)

Tags

802.11g 802.11n 68030 68040 Apple April Fools clamshell iBook Classic Mac OS FireWire FireWire 400 G3 humor iBook iMac iMac G3 Intel iOS iPad iPhone LaserWriter Linux Mac MacBook Air Mac clones Mac mini Mac OS 9 macOS Sierra Mac OS X Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Microsoft OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard OS X 10.7 Lion OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion OS X 10.9 Mavericks OS X 10.10 Yosemite OS X 10.11 El Capitan Performa PowerBook PowerPC Rodney O. Lain SCSI Thunderbolt USB 1.1 USB 2.0
Page not found | Low End Mac

Well this is somewhat embarrassing, isn’t it?

It seems we can’t find what you’re looking for. Perhaps searching, or one of the links below, can help.

Recent Posts

Most Used Categories

Archives

Try looking in the monthly archives. :)

Tags

802.11g 802.11n 68030 68040 Apple April Fools clamshell iBook Classic Mac OS FireWire FireWire 400 G3 humor iBook iMac iMac G3 Intel iOS iPad iPhone LaserWriter Linux Mac MacBook Air Mac clones Mac mini Mac OS 9 macOS Sierra Mac OS X Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Microsoft OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard OS X 10.7 Lion OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion OS X 10.9 Mavericks OS X 10.10 Yosemite OS X 10.11 El Capitan Performa PowerBook PowerPC Rodney O. Lain SCSI Thunderbolt USB 1.1 USB 2.0

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
Cult of Mac
Shrine of Apple
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
The Vintage Mac Museum
Deal Brothers
DealMac
Mac2Sell
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End Mac FAQ

Affiliates

Amazon.com
The iTunes Store
PC Connection Express
Macgo Blu-ray Player
Parallels Desktop for Mac
eBay

Low End Mac's Amazon.com store

Advertise

All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact Page not found | Low End Mac

Well this is somewhat embarrassing, isn’t it?

It seems we can’t find what you’re looking for. Perhaps searching, or one of the links below, can help.

Recent Posts

Most Used Categories

Archives

Try looking in the monthly archives. :)

Tags

802.11g 802.11n 68030 68040 Apple April Fools clamshell iBook Classic Mac OS FireWire FireWire 400 G3 humor iBook iMac iMac G3 Intel iOS iPad iPhone LaserWriter Linux Mac MacBook Air Mac clones Mac mini Mac OS 9 macOS Sierra Mac OS X Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Microsoft OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard OS X 10.7 Lion OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion OS X 10.9 Mavericks OS X 10.10 Yosemite OS X 10.11 El Capitan Performa PowerBook PowerPC Rodney O. Lain SCSI Thunderbolt USB 1.1 USB 2.0
at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link