Madison's original "MacShop" for Mac service & repair since 2005
Questions? Call: (608) 270-4444
Past, Present & Future
100% Locally-owned. Serving our community and building relationships one person at a time.
Where it all started...
Established in 2000 and located on Madison’s West side, Jonathan Neese and Sara Boerema founded “MacSupport Solutions, LLC”, (aka “The MacSquad”) a locally-owned business that offered Macintosh on-site support & carry-in service.
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The "MacShop" is born...
In 2004, Madison was not well represented by a local Apple shop and there seemed to be a great need from the Mac community at large. Realizing this, these two entrepreneurs from Generation X, inspired by the corporate culture created by Apple founder, Steve Jobs, envisioned a locally-owned Apple shop that supported the entire Mac community. Enlisting a third partner, Dave Weston (formerly of “Mac Madison”/”Mac Medics” located on Madison’s West side for over 7 years, and before that “Mac Galaxy” a place all long-time Mac users remember), who shared the same passion, they formed what they like to call “The Dream Team.” Dave and Jonathan’s history with the Macintosh platform goes back to the early days when beige was the norm.
With the help of family and friends, the vision became a reality and “The MacShop” opened for business in July of 2005 on Madison’s West side at 6033 Odana Road after several tough months of searching for the best location. A central location was at the top of the list, and many possible locations were explored on State Street, Monroe Street, Lakeside Street, University Avenue, and Williamson Street, but several reasons, mostly availability, kept those plans from materializing.
As Madison’s only locally owned and operated community-based Apple retail location, focusing on sales, service, training and on-site support, “The MacShop” offered a unique atmosphere with an outstanding customer service experience. A shop favorite is the “Official Mascot”, “iFish” (how else would you name something in the era of the “i”?), who had a noticeable outgoing personality.
Later that fall, they opened an exciting new concept store next to “The MacShop” due to the overwhelming popularity of the iPod portable music player - “The PodShop”. As the Midwest’s only iPod specialty boutique featuring the largest selection of products available at that time, the shop was hugely popular, reaching out to a large cross-section of customers, Mac & PC alike. It was a very exciting time as few retailers had any products available to accessorize the iPod and fewer still had the ability to sell the iPod. All along the way they made sure that fun was not far behind!
Everyone liked to have some fun, dressing up for Halloween!
Taste of Madison - "Official Spork Sponsor"
Thousands of Madison residents were first introduced to the MacShop/PodShop at the Taste of Madison, Labor Day weekend 2006. As you can see from the photos, they produced an awe inspiring show with their very own PodShop dancers, the stars of the show! The huge crowds were amazing, and the MacShop/PodShop would have been voted “best of show”, as told by the event coordinators, but were disqualified due to the fact they were not a food vendor! Many thanks to everyone who helped to make it a great success and much fun: the MacShop/PodShop crew & friends, the dancers, DJ’s including “Nick Nice”, and Full Compass for the wonderful sound system.
Brat Fest - "Official Brat iShuttle Sponsor"
After the huge success from Taste of Madison, they joined in the fun at Brat Fest 2007, the world’s largest brat fest with the PodShop dancers featured as the main event once again to entertain, interact and inspire. Many thanks to everyone who helped to make it a great success and much fun: the MacShop/PodShop crew & friends; the dancers; DJ’s including “Nick Nice”; “Doc the Rube” and his amazing balloon creations; and our friends at MC Audio for the fantastic sound system and support.
Success, Changes, Moving Forward!
The MacShop and The PodShop continued a very successful run on Madison’s West side, which apparently did not go unnoticed, having generated over $1.25 million in sales the previous year... In early 2007 the “PodShop” name had to be eliminated due to “contractual obligations” and in July of 2007, customer confusion began when customers thought locally-owned “The MacShop” had moved to West Towne Mall... In reality an Apple corporate-owned store had recently opened its doors and what was once a great, memorable name for the locally-owned shop, was now creating confusion for loyal “MacShop” customers.
Looking back to the original vision of an easily accessible, centrally located shop that better embraced the local community, became a top priority for “The MacShop”, which moved to a new location at 804 Williamson Street in October of 2008. The beautiful new location, formerly “MOCO Market”, was built “green” from day one with many wonderful, carefully thought out components thanks to the owners great desire to build a forward looking, ecologically responsible space. The facility features sustainably grown bamboo flooring and woodwork, eco-friendly VOC free paint, abundant natural lighting accented with energy-efficient LED lighting, just to name a few.
With the move, also came a difficult name change again based on “contractual obligations”... so what came next? Rebranding as “Madison Area Computers” (aka “M•A•C”) was creative and inspired, but short lived, as they found out it also did meet “contractual obligations”...Asking their customers for help, the “Name our Shop” promotion began in fall of 2010 with thousands of new name suggestions being submitted over a 60 day period. The name “WILLY Tech Shop” was selected and became what customers know best!
Proudly entering their 6th year in business in 2011 as “WILLY Tech Shop”, a new name that better reflected the connection with the local community. This change included their vision of implementing environmentally responsible practices that benefit the community socially and economically: All electronic parts and eWaste that comes through the shop is recycled responsibly with a local company, "File 13" and Certified Refurbished Macintosh computers, are available for purchase! Now 100% locally owned, this completed a major transition that enabled positive changes in all facets of the business to support our loyal customers, the most important asset for any small business.
More to come...
More to come...
Questions? Call: (608) 270-4444
All rights reserved. © WILLY Tech Shop All registered trademarks herein are the property of their respective holders.
WILLY Tech Shop - Madison's Original MacShop - Mac Service Specialist - Computer Sales, Service, Support, Repair, Training, On-Site Support, Accessories, Recycling - Madison, WI
Madison Wisconsin's locally owned, Apple technology specialist. The best Sales, Service, Support, Repair, Training and On-Site Support solutions. Out of warranty Apple Macintosh computer service.
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