Apple Thoughts: What is it About the Apple Store?

Little Touches
Look at the newer Apple stores. You'll notice something missing and it'll be very obvious almost immediately. There are no cash registers. As you walk the store, people have Windows CE handhelds (not a word from you CE heads out there!) that can ring you out on the spot. In stores that do have actual cash registers, you'll most likely be pulled off the line if it's too long by someone holding one of these handhelds. Many of the stores offer free WiFi. The store in SoHo (Manhattan) has a theater where free trainings and demos happen on a daily basis. All stores have a Genius Bar, and while the quality of the Genius Bar employees does vary, it's always helpful to have someone that can answer your questions with some degree of authority. They'll even have a personal shopper ready for you, by appointment, to help you pick out the Mac that will best fit your needs.

In the end, Apple has done for retail what they did for computers. They looked at what was out there, figured out what was and wasn't working, and decided to focus on the most important thing in the store: the customers. For the most part, Apple has eliminated many of the annoyances of retail stores that we've come to hate and while they aren't perfect, it's obvious where their focus lies: you.

When you walk into Best Buy, everything is calculated. The items in the front of the store are the ones they want you to buy. Greeters are at the door, not to make you feel welcome, but to make it feel like you aren't entering the store "alone." Salespeople pounce on you and will sell you anything you need, anything you don't need, and anything they can get into your shopping cart without even a second thought. When you do finally get to actually buy something, you have to contend with the pressure of "do you want a service agreement?" for twenty minutes as they try to convince you that item you just picked up is a total piece of crap and if you don't get the warranty, you've wasted your money and will pay for it in the long run. All this pressure from people who, according to them, don't work on commission.

Photo credit: Apple.com

Apple focuses on your experience, but also on their products. They feel as if they don't need to "sell" you an iMac in a traditional sense. You rarely get a "pitch" in an Apple Store; just an answer to a question or an explanation of the features. Even after you choose a computer or an iPod / iPhone and they start asking you about Apple Care, a simple no puts a halt to it. There are no "rewards club" cards, no magazine subscriptions, and no rebates (or at least no shady ones like you used to find at CompUSA).

When you take into account how many annoyances Apple has eliminated from their retail experience, it's no wonder they're reaping the financial benefits of fine-tuning their business to their customers' needs.

Vincent Ferrari is an Apple fan, videoblogger, blogger, writer, and all-around geek from the Bronx. He works in the IT Department of a cellular phone company that shall not be named, and lives in a very comfortable apartment with his lovely wife, two lovely cats, three Macs, two iPhones, and God-knows-how-many iPods of varying age.