After It Murders Best Buy, Here's How Apple Should Spend Its Cash

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- This past Saturday, I decided to hit one of the New York City Apple (AAPL) Stores I had never been in. SoHo. Prince and Greene. One of the best neighborhoods in urban America.

I needed something anyway. An external microphone to use for TheBeach Meets TheStreet.

The way things went down disturbed me. I can't simply cast this off as the status quo . . . as something that existed under Steve Jobs, therefore we shouldn't squawk as it continues on Tim Cook's watch.

I asked an Apple Store employee for help. Pickings were slim in the external mic department. Or, as an employee said to me, "We don't have shit here" (pardon the French, but those were his exact words . . . verbatim). After showing me the lone option, he suggested I just take the five-minute walk to Best Buy (BBY) where he figured I would find better selection.

Frankly, I don't want to relive that soul-sucking experience so I will just let my Tweets from Saturday tell the story:

That about sums it up. Best Buy had nothing. And, even if it did, good luck finding it with the unmotivated, uninspired retail staffers at what should be one of Best Buy's most important stores in the world.

So, I leave Best Buy empty-handed (though I think if I had robbed the place, they would have just let me walk out the door and head down Broadway unabated). And I make my way back to the Apple Store.

Here's where things get even more disturbing.

I take the one external mic in stock to an employee, asking if I can see it out of its box. He shows me the item on display. I confirm it requires a Lightning adaptor. Then, I ask if people like the product. He says reviews are positive. Instead of closing me, the Apple Store staffer responds to my indecisive mumbling about what other options might exist by telling me to search for "external mic for iPhone 5" on Amazon.com (AMZN).

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