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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.'"
I think Apple stores perfectly demonstrate one of the main reasons Apple has such a tiny marketshare. It stinks of arrogance. Take the "Genius Bar"... God, Steve Jobs himself must've come up with that. I don't know about your Apple stores, but the ones that I've seen typically have these vaguely-vagrant looking people. They are anything but geniuses. They're basically Best Buy employees with shaved heads and torn clothes, shot up with Apple's trademark "better than thou" attitude.
One of the things that holds Apple back is that many people simply don't want to join a cult, and the whole Apple store experience is like having to take some initiation. They should call it to the Kool-Aid Bar.
Now, I will grant that if you strip away all the crap, they are very nice stores. 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. Similarly, to Apple followers I'm sure they like it, but for normal people, it's a very alien experience, and I want to get out of all those places as soon as possible.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
It sounds more impressive than it is. It's just "All work and no play makes Mac a dull toy," typed over and over and over again. Fanboi.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Yeah! sure... I sent a communication to Apple several months ago asking to become an official store/reseller in Colombia and they just didn't answer at all. Good politics. I wanted to invest around 3.5 million dollars in an Apple store, now I'm selling other PC systems.
So talking about this is a nonsense. I think Apple should fire its market executives and start to become more friendly and responsive with request like mine.
With my Dell, I had a technical problem with it, and the repairman came to me. Took a day to ship the parts, and the next day the repairman was in my house. I could give two craps about how convenient having a "genius bar" is, It's not as convenient as having the work done in my own home. Mind you, this was the week before Christmas, too.
by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
So they got a shortcut? Great, it points to a file on the old machine...
Hype.
Wow ... they were out of stock of something and waiting for new models to arrive. Bulldoze the damn place down!