On the Front Lines With an Independent Apple Dealer

The 41-year-old began his career selling Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) products as a target market representative at a now-defunct Computerland in Columbus, Ga., in 1987. Four years later, he branched out to focus on independent Apple support services.

In 1994, Taghon and wife Kimberly founded Graphicom, selling and servicing Apple products for businesses.

Taghon took the business to the next level in April, when he and his brother Chris opened an Apple retail store in Columbus.

Taghon sat down with the Ledger-Enquirer to talk about retail challenges, Apple's popularity, and new technology he hopes to one day see.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Question: Graphicom's target market has been mostly businesses, correct?

Answer: To this point, prior to opening the retail store, that's all we did -- businesses. We had office space up off of Whitesville Road. I did a good bit of traveling doing installations, troubleshooting, networking, that kind of thing. A lot of our customers were out of state. We did a lot of work with members of the Alabama Press Association. We have a good deal in Georgia -- newspapers north of Atlanta, Gwinnett County, Conyers.

We still maintain that base of business customers. The Mac got so popular that we said, "You know, we've got to do something. Somebody's got to do something."

Q: What made you decide to go retail?

A: We talked about it at least three or four years prior to doing it ... and always backed away from it. [We said,] "Do we really want to do that? The hours are different. The whole business model is a lot different in retail than in business to business."

But we were talking to people and they were going, "Yeah, I was in Atlanta and I went to the Apple store and bought a Mac." More and more people. They were becoming more and more popular, [and] we saw a void in Columbus for that product. We could have had a store all along if we had chosen to. It just got to the point where so many people had an interest. We really couldn't afford not to.

Q: What challenges have you run into with a retail store?

A: It's a lot different. Of course, the hours -- we never worked Saturdays. Now it's six days a week. For us, we're trying to be careful about a lot of things, like, how much inventory do you carry initially? What is that? You can fill up a store with stuff that nobody wants. We try to pay special attention to what people are asking about and carry things that we know people will want to walk in and buy.

Advertising's a struggle. You can go broke advertising. It seems like there's 100 different ways and 100 different people coming to see you all the time with some kind of advertising. But you've got to be real selective. So far, we've laid back on advertising a little bit because staffing becomes an issue.

We know, at some point, we're going to grow to the point where we're going to need more staff here. For now, [it's just my brother and me.] And at times that gets crazy. The tax-free weekend -- it was ridiculous. We actually had Mac buffs, our friends, who know a good bit about the product who were here with us. At times, all four of us were busy with people.

Q: What do you think makes Apple so popular?

A: It's always been a very recognizable brand -- and it's always been a relatively popular, or hip brand, I guess. The iPod, though, kind of skyrocketed the brand. It owns the MP3 market. What started happening through that, and through the Apple stores, is people owned iPods and they liked them so much, they worked so well, that they said, "You know what, I'm going to check out their computers and see what they're all about." The vast majority of people, once they get in front of them, are very, very happy with them.

Q: From the time you started selling Apple products in 1987 until now, what technology has really impressed you or surprised you with it's popularity?

A: Well, it hasn't always been [popular]. There was a time when we were very niche to that graphic design market, [the] page layout publishing market. [Macs] weren't always as popular. They were always perceived as more expensive -- and probably in the early days, legitimately so. There were times people were asking, "Is Apple going to stay in business?" before Steve Jobs came back.

But they were always known as -- especially in the early days -- being much easier to use. That kind of progressed until now, where it's not so much easier to use as they just work. People don't want to deal with the viruses. They don't want to deal with the crashes and things that seem to go along with Windows.

Apple has always done a wonderful job with its industrial design. They've always been great-looking machines, which is why you see them on TV and in the movies so much.

The iPod technology definitely skyrocketed them as a brand. A lot of technology that will probably be more important than that, you're seeing in the iPhone. With the touch-screen stuff they're doing, you'll very likely see that going over into other products -- the multi-touch technology.

Q: What new technology -- Apple or not -- would you one day like to see?

A: I'd like to see very accurate voice recognition. I think in a lot of things, computers and cell phones for example, if you could get away from having to touch it to control it, that opens up a whole world of possibilities.

I also think you'll probably see holographic type displays. I know Apple's been working on some 3D type displays without the glasses. I think you'll see some pretty neat stuff in the next five, 10 years.

Larry Taghon Bio

• Age: 41
• Title: President
• Company: Graphicom
• Education: Grace Christian School
• Family: Wife Kimberly, daughter Emma (11)
• Previous jobs/experience: Apple target market representative, Computerland (1987-1991) independent Apple specialist (1991-1994); owner, Graphicom (1994-present)