Hewlett-Packard (HP) recently celebrated the opening of its flagship HP Store in Canal Walk – Cape Town’s popular and centrally located megamall. The store is the sixth of its kind in South Africa, with the others being in Cresta, Sandton (the first of its kind), and Eastgate in Johannesburg, Menlyn in Pretoria, and Gateway in Durban.
The HP Store will offer the full range of computer hardware from HP, as well as a premium service including various financing options, free computer set up, and data transfers in-store or at home. It will also offer advice on all HP products, to help consumers make the right purchases within their budgetary and specification requirements.
Unfazed by the negativity at the moment around investing in ‘brick and mortar’ retail stores, Michael van Lier, Southern Africa District and Channel Sales Manager for HP South Africa, maintains that such stores remain an important backbone for technology retailers – provided they are simply not, well…boring. “‘Engaging’ is the one word we want to use to describe our approach”, van Lier explained.
On hand to demonstrate to this correspondent just how exciting the store experience can be, were Kalvin Kodzwa – the HP Store Manager – and Trusted Advisors Nopinki Khophe and Mziwakhe Golodo, with their eye-pleasing instrument of choice being the Omen X 35 inch gaming display – a crisp extra large gaming screen curved for your immersive pleasure and set up to perfectly realise the HP Omen Desktop gaming PC’s power.
With a lot of enthusiasm and expertise between them, it is safe to say you will be in great hands with the HP Store’s staff should you decide to pay them a visit for some ‘good Omen’ time. When asked if their ‘Trusted Advisor’ label included handing out advice that wasn’t to do with computers, such as relationship advice, the staff said “not quite”, but were then playful enough to say “go for it anyway”. Go have some fun with them.
