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Apple Stores Demonstrate That Retail Still Lives
WheezyJoe writes "Maybe OS X Leopard has its problems, but the New York Times seems to think Apple has designed the ideal techie retail store. A policy that encourages lingering, with dozens of fully functioning computers, iPods and iPhones for visitors to try, even for hours on end (one patron wrote a manuscript entirely at the store) has 'given some stores, especially those in urban neighborhoods, the feel of a community center ... Meanwhile, the Sony flagship store on West 56th Street, a few blocks from Apple's Fifth Avenue store, has the hush of a mausoleum. And being inside the long and narrow blue-toned Nokia store on 57th Street feels a bit like being inside an aquarium. The high-end Samsung Experience showroom, its nuevo tech music on full blast one recent morning, was nearly empty.'"
the New York Times seems to think Apple has designed the ideal techie retail store.
These people have never been to a Fry's. If you've never been to one, picture this: they sell porn and energy drinks within 20 feet of each other.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Just plain retail. Selling stuff which is not worth hacking.
My local Big W store, on the other hand, has these self service checkouts. You scan the products yourself and put them on some kind of weight verification thing, then spend five or 10 minutes doing a credit card transaction. While my wife was trying to get that to work I took a look at another terminal where the POS application had apparently crashed, leaving an interesting windows desktop with a working touch screen mouse. The staff didn't appreciate my attempted repair though, in fact there were so many people keeping an eye on that broken terminal they could have run a whole line of manual checkouts.
Anyway if a real apple store opens here in Melbourne I might take a look but I can't see myself buying anything there.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
"...given some stores, especially those in urban neighborhoods, the feel of a community center ..."
It's true. It's a great place to hang out. I know lots of guys that met their boyfriends at the Apple Store.
But to me, it's like walking into a very feminine beauty parlor, or a lingerie department as a man. It's very alien and uncomfortable
Dear Sir,
I wish to complain on the stronglest possible terms about the previous entry about aliens wearing womens' clothes. Some of my best friends are aliens, and only a FEW of them are transvestites.
Yours faithfully,
Brigadier Sir Charles Arthur Strong, Mrs.
P.S. Lingerie is actually VERY comfortable.
Isobella Jade was down on her luck, living on a friend's couch and struggling to make it as a fashion model when she had the idea of writing a book...
Ms. Jade spent hours at a stretch standing in a discreet corner of the store, typing. Within a few months, she had written nearly 300 pages.
Hmmm, I wonder how many guys struggling to make it as say, I dunno... a farmer, they let use their computers everyday for months?
Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some idea balls to remove from a manatee tank.
Can you smell the smug wafting out of an Apple store like you can smell the nerd wafting out of the video game store?
What doesn't kill you only delays the inevitable
Similar to the upcoming US election results
You might consider it a non sequitur... but then you'd also be wrong. Settle for lame segue?
If you think the meme is "You're new here, aren't you?" then...
You must be new here.