Tesla recently moved into the location where the Izod Lacoste shop used to be in Broadway Plaza, Walnut Creek, California. It’s a relatively small space, but centrally located and very visible in the plaza, as it’s situated close to the street, and right across from the large fountain and sitting area:

Planters and other botanical touches make this a pleasant place to meetup with people, stop with a coffee, or just take a kid to look at the fountain.

Tesla has created an attractive shop front, with red-and-white signage and flags.

I think the font used for the company name is meant to be futuristic; it reminds me a bit of something you’d see in Tomorrowland at Disneyland. (That’s a compliment.)

In fact, like Disneyland, the whole shop floor is “themed”. I did not take photos inside, however, you can just peak in and see the white, minimalist shelving with t-shirts and other Tesla-branded items for sale against the wall; over it hangs a huge color photo of a Tesla at speed on the roadway.

I screwed up some courage and walked in; I am not in the market for a Tesla but I had some curiosity and wanted to take a look.

I saw a little girl being given what I believed to be a brochure; as she was led away by her guardian, I smiled at the salesperson and said I was after the same thing the little girl had, meaning a brochure with details. What I did not realize was that Tesla produce kids’ games and crayons, and hand these out to kids to keep them happy whilst their parents check out the showroom cars!

I thought the Tesla starfish thing was a bunch of pens, and a highlighter; it is NOT. Those are crayons!

The sales guy could not have been nicer; I didn’t catch a whiff of condensation from him the whole time we talked, and he did not try to give me a pre-canned speech. He pretty much listened to my comments and responded to them, I was very impressed by this.

He also laughed at all of my jokes, even the ones that weren’t that good.

That’s what I call great sales technique.

I asked him about his very faint accent and he informed me he was from France! Voulez-vous… this car is way out of my price range but thank you for treating me well!

I believe I looked at the Model S, which is a sedan— Forbes has a very good slideshow (and there’s always the Tesla website of course).

I had a Starbuck coffee with me but the sales guy, to my surprise, said, “Would you like to sit in it?” WOULD I???

Made a joke about spilling the coffee in the cabin and set it aside — and then got into the driver’s side and MY GOD THIS IS A GREAT SMELLING CAR. It had black leather seats and a big, I mean huge, iPad-like display in the middle. I asked him if you didn’t want that, could you have a regular, old-fashioned car dashboard, and he said no, this is the only one we have. Good enough, I’ll have to get used to it, then.

I gripped the wheel while we were talking — I wanted to pretend I was driving, with ‘vroom-vroom’ noises and everything, but I had to act like an adult while he was talking to me, alas. Wheel is small, padded, and black with some steering-mounted controls. I didn’t take much more notice of anything beyond the tablet-type display and the steering wheel and the seat and my gosh it’s a cool car innit?

After that I asked to peek into the front cargo area and the back. He explained that if you want two additional seats facing backwards you could opt for that — like “rumble-seats” except not exposed, I guess.

I told him I was intimated by the showroom and he said something to the effect that they wanted people to feel they could wander in and have a look. He was exceedingly courteous and nice, probably one of the nicest car salespersons I’ve ever met.

So! If you’re in Walnut Creek and want to look at a beautiful electric motor, drop into this showroom, they’ll let plebs like myself sit in their showroom cars, so they’re alright in my book.

~ Fin ~