I went to an Apple Store for the first time... [Archive]

Richard1028

Jul 23, 2009, 11:15 AM

rebecca.x

Jul 23, 2009, 11:19 AM

Being 350 miles from the nearest one, I finally had an opportunity to visit one last week in a Mall.

Wow, most all the mall stores were dead except for the Apple Store. There must've been 75+ people in this thing. I thought this was really odd since Apple doesn't have that many products to display (with respect to other merchants). It wasn't anything to do with the new iphones either... most customers were drooling over the macbooks.

Are these stores always this busy?

It's hard to believe the macs only have a 10% market penetration.

My local one is often busy too, but not as busy as youve described and not the busiest shop in the area. I guess it depends what time of day you visit. I last visited at lunch time, so it was full of businessmen playing on the macbooks on their lunch hour and eyeing up their next iphone accessory purchase.

celticpride678

Jul 23, 2009, 11:21 AM

touchdownjesus4

Jul 23, 2009, 11:41 AM

The apple store nearest me always has 30-40+ people in it. You have to make an appointment if you want to get anything done because you would be waiting for a few hours before an employee could get to you if you tried to just walk in.

andalusia

Jul 23, 2009, 11:50 AM

My local store, Manchester Arndale, is usually quite packed although there are mostly a couple laptops available. They seem to be the most popular with the majority of the Apple computers being Macbooks.

sananda

Jul 23, 2009, 11:55 AM

Regent Street store is just full of tourists using the place as a free internet cafe.

MarkCooz

Jul 23, 2009, 12:23 PM

Actually it also depends on how big the apple store is...
(How much merch they have) (Big store = MORE AND MORE MERCH)

well the nearest one that's near me is like 5 miles away it's in fair oaks mall VA
store is big, there's about 8 iMac's 12 Macbook (Pro's, White and Air) 2 Apple Cinema Display 1 Apple T.V 6 iPod Nano 4 iPod Touch and about 8 iPhones 3G and 3G S.

I Love :apple: store.

Plus their accessories are awesome. Huge selections.

I might need to upgrade my HDD to like 320 or 500gb 160gb isn't enough for me. being a video editor and graphics designer. woah not enough.
*Do they sell harddrives the apple store?* or just online retailers.

andalusia

Jul 23, 2009, 01:01 PM

Plus their accessories are awesome. Huge selections.

Just really expensive :(

aprofetto

Jul 23, 2009, 01:34 PM

I love going into the Apple store and just walking around looking at random things... that being said, my fiance thinks I'm pathetic. :o

boston44

Jul 23, 2009, 01:41 PM

I love going into the Apple store and just walking around looking at random things... that being said, my fiance thinks I'm pathetic. :o

HIGH FIVE! :cool:

aprofetto

Jul 23, 2009, 01:49 PM

HIGH FIVE! :cool:

lol... I knew people on here would agree with me.

Detektiv-Pinky

Jul 23, 2009, 02:07 PM

I love going into the Apple store and just walking around looking at random things... that being said, my fiance thinks I'm pathetic. :o

That sounds like a solid relationship you two are establishing :D

aprofetto

Jul 23, 2009, 02:09 PM

That sounds like a solid relationship you two are establishing :D

lol, she doesn't mind, she just thinks I'm a bit coo-coo.

Dinalli

Jul 23, 2009, 02:32 PM

Regent Street store is just full of tourists using the place as a free internet cafe.

Spent a day in london a few weeks back.

Battery took a kicking using the gps round london.

Nice people in the Regent store allowed me to top up my charge while i was there.

My local store in sheffield, has changed in the last few years, you could go into and use the genius pretty much at will, these days you most definetly have to make an appointment now.

Adam0306

Jul 23, 2009, 02:32 PM

store is big, there's about 8 iMac's 12 Macbook (Pro's, White and Air) 2 Apple Cinema Display 1 Apple T.V 6 iPod Nano 4 iPod Touch and about 8 iPhones 3G and 3G S.

Well I actually have 2 stores in the same city (not exactly Corporate stores but Third party Apple specialty stores). These are slam packed and they are actually about this size at both of them. It is usually about 20 at anytime at either one of them. I love going there to drool at everything.

iLog.Genius

Jul 23, 2009, 03:03 PM

Yup. Apple Store is always going to be packed (at least here in Toronto/GTA) Eaton Center, Sherway, Yorkdale, Fairview and soon Square One (5 Apple Store's in the GTA, crazy...). Always packed with people just looking. It's almost like it's an attraction that you have to see!

old-wiz

Jul 23, 2009, 03:07 PM

I love going into the Apple store and just walking around looking at random things... that being said, my fiance thinks I'm pathetic. :o

My wife says the same thing. She just tells me not to drool too much and to limit myself to one new macbook per year

rgarjr

Jul 23, 2009, 03:34 PM

Yeah things are jammed packed pretty much anytime of day, any day. There's just some many people in there that you would think they are giving stuff free.

I'm not really sure if mostly all these people are buying stuff or just playing around with the stuff. I always see a ton of teenage girls in there playing around with the photobooth app.

crackbookpro

Jul 23, 2009, 04:35 PM

The store in Cherry Hill, NJ is always packed, but the one in the King of Prussia Mall, is like a 'happy hour' party(but...with no alcohol;)) of 100 people everytime(no matter the day)... Everyone is happy and oogling over Apple's products.

...can't blame 'em, Apple makes damn good products ;)

CrackBookPro:cool:

crackbookpro

Jul 23, 2009, 04:38 PM

...thought we were in a down economy :p

...guess not :rolleyes:

TsuaSai

Jul 23, 2009, 05:01 PM

...thought we were in a down economy :p

...guess not :rolleyes:

Most people are probably just going into more debt so that isn't really helping the economy...

MacMini2009

Jul 23, 2009, 05:03 PM

Most people are probably just going into more debt so that isn't really helping the economy...

But they are contributing and putting money into the economy.

BanjoBanker

Jul 23, 2009, 05:17 PM

Well I actually have 2 stores in the same city (not exactly Corporate stores but Third party Apple specialty stores). These are slam packed and they are actually about this size at both of them. It is usually about 20 at anytime at either one of them. I love going there to drool at everything.

What part of AL would that be? I am in the B'ham area and I know of one 3rd party store and of course The Apple store at the Summit, where the staff greets me by name! I know there were several 3rd party retailers in Huntsville a couple of years back.

matthewscott661

Jul 23, 2009, 05:24 PM

Of all the Apple stores I've been to, they were all just like this. There's always a ton of people there, and it's sometimes hard to even get in the door!

I am always surprised too about how much people know about the products they are viewing. Whenever I'm at a place like BestBuy or something, there are just a bunch of computer-illiterate people or people looking for a digital camera.

But when I was at the Apple store last, I was waiting for the genius and had my MacBook over my the new 13" MBPs, and nearly everyone who walked past me mentioned it, and asked me questions about how I thought it compared to the new models, and gave me their own comparisons as well. It was like being in a whole other world.

Richard1028

Jul 23, 2009, 06:57 PM

Of all the Apple stores I've been to, they were all just like this. There's always a ton of people there, and it's sometimes hard to even get in the door!That's exactly how my Apple store was - crowded. Off to the side I think there was a class going on with about 10 people and what looked like an apple employee. Plenty of other employees too.

Again, there really wasn't much merchandise here... it was all the same - just multiple display tables with the same macs sitting on them.

This whole thing was just eerie compared to the other Mall merchants.

crackbookpro

Jul 23, 2009, 07:02 PM

Most people are probably just going into more debt so that isn't really helping the economy...

buddy, they are helping our economy(if they are also paying bills, mortgages & taxes as we all should) ;)

consumer spending is very very good :)

...but nonetheless, it was just a lil joke :cool:

Drewsky87

Jul 24, 2009, 12:03 AM

All of the Apple stores in my area are ALWAYS packed. It doesn't matter what time you go in. I was there (Annapolis, MD) right before it opened when I was buying my macbook a few months back and it was still crowded with the 'personal shopping appointments' or whatever they are. The worst part is out of the 50-75 people that are always in there, maybe 5 of them are actually buying things but all the employees are still busy helping them. So when you're there to buy something it's the biggest pain in the a** to get an employee to actually ring you up because god forbid they have a cash register with a line in the store.

rgarjr

Jul 24, 2009, 12:14 AM

What puzzles me is that there's a few hundred stores and pretty much all of them are jam packed like that, especially during the weekend. A lot of people also just go to mess around with the computers and surf the web.

Adam0306

Aug 27, 2009, 04:26 PM

What part of AL would that be? I am in the B'ham area and I know of one 3rd party store and of course The Apple store at the Summit, where the staff greets me by name! I know there were several 3rd party retailers in Huntsville a couple of years back.

Prattville, there are two that I know of, but I just the other day went to my first Apple Store (the one at The Summit).

conor ordan

Aug 27, 2009, 06:46 PM

My local Apple Store (Manchester City Centre, UK) is crazy full on a weekend, it is not even that big but there has to be maybe 90-110 people in there on a Saturday/Sunday/Bank Holiday. But I was probably the only person in there who owned an Apple product that wasn't an iPod. They were all going on their Facebooks on the beautiful 24 inch iMacs and taking cliche photos on photo booth. There is just something about the huge amount of white that draws people like moths.

cellocello

Aug 27, 2009, 08:57 PM

Downtown Toronto Eaton Center Apple Store is always crazy.

DJBenny

Aug 27, 2009, 10:56 PM

YES. My Apple Store in the mall is crazy every single minute of the day. My entire family says the same thing, how are they so unpopular. Whether it is the Genius Bar, buying something or just looking, it is busy from when they open at 10:00 AM to when they close at 9:00 PM. Go figure:p

I see you're from MA, I'm not sure if you're talking about the natick or cambridge mall one but, yes, celticpride is right. Both those stores are usually nuts when I go in them. Especially around now, damn near every student wants a macbook or something.

mayanka89

Aug 27, 2009, 11:04 PM

You have to consider there a very few Apple stores compared to all the Best Buys, Office Depots, Office Maxes, etc. that sell PCs.

Plus, there aren't many computer stores in the malls, so people just go in to see the tech.

The Sony store in a mall near me is also considerably packed, just because of the nice displays of laptops.