Microsoft Store in Seattle’s U-Village is Impressive

OK, you know I work for the company, but that doesn’t mean I’m always rah-rah, especially given my under-stated Britishness.

But Ashley, Maggie and I made a lunchtime trip down to Seattle’s University Village shopping mall to take a look at the new store that opened yesterday.

Firstly it’s big and you can’t miss it! Love the logo!

The colourful staff were enthusiastic, but not overly annoying. They were knowledgeable and  if they weren’t sure about my more obtuse questions, they went away and asked.

You’ll find all manner of desktop, laptop and tablet computers for sale, as well as Windows Phones, Kinect for Xbox 360s to to play with, software, printers, and all manner of mice and peripherals.

It’s my 40th birthday today, and I was not going to buy myself anything this year as I’m about to take 2 months of paternity leave. But we spotted a deal where we can recycle our 2 years old Dell laptop and get at least a $150 credit. That plus the 15% discount Microsoft is giving employees ins tore for the rest of the  month means we can get this little beauty for a song! [Update: We got the Toshiba, but you can’t use more than one promo at a time, so we actually got a 20% discount!]

We nipped next door for a delish mocha at Fran’s when we were finished.

I Tweeted the photos and the Microsoft Store social media team picked it up and wished me happy birthday.

There are some days I’m proud to work at Microsoft, and there are some days I’m REALLY proud. This is a REALLY one.

Nice job guys!