- Tekserve
Tekserve, also known as "The Old Reliable Mac Shop," is
New York City 's oldest, most eccentric, and, according to many, best Macintosh repair shopFact|date=June 2007. Over the last twenty years, the business has grown from a small back-office repair shop to become Apple's largest independently owned single location repair, retail center, and Apple specialist.Tekserve was founded in 1987 by David Lerner, Dick Demenus and Mike Edl. All three worked at
WBAI in the 1970s, and set up shop together late in the decade under the punning moniker Current Designs Corporation. Their business was electronic engineering and industrial design; they manufactured, for instance, the indestructible music listening stations to be found at the Lincoln Center branch of theNew York Public Library , and early models of the audio listening tours now found in many art museums. Demenus says, "We bought the very first Mac that came out in 1984 for $3,000, and we fell in love with it. We’ve been loyal ever since." As electrical engineers, they were uniquely qualified to fix their Macs when they started to malfunction.Over the years, Tekserve has occupied four locations on the same side of the same block in Chelsea: a loft at 115 West 23rd Street; another loft at 163 West 23rd Street (the "Traffic Building"); a larger space on the fourth floor of 155 West 23rd Street, and later expansions to the third floor. In June 2002, the company moved to its present storefront location at 119 West 23rd Street.
The first three locations were notable for their eccentric decor, including an antique ten-cent Coke machine and a porch swing. The Coke machine remains at the 119 West 23rd Street location, but the porch swing was retired due to the newest space's substantially higher ceilings. "Tekkies" are hoping for its return.
In April 2006, Tekserve produced a short video which included footage of hundreds of
iPod s knocked over like dominoes. While some have referred to this as "$60,000 of iPods," in fact many of the iPods used in the shooting were old and non-functional.External links
* [http://www.tekserve.com Tekserve]
* [http://www.tekserve.com/about/press/observer.html The NY Observer] contextualizes Tekserve with the Apple Store
* [http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2005/03/09/is_apple_serving_tekserve.php Gothamist] echoes the sentiment
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