Grand Central is primarily a commuter station, however. Thousands of people commuting to and from Connecticut and upstate New York pass through it.
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Apple Opening Store-Within-A-Store Inside London's Harrods Department Store?
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Grand Central is primarily a commuter station, however. Thousands of people commuting to and from Connecticut and upstate New York pass through it.
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It's actually probably a cultural thing. Broadly speaking, a British Shopper will avoid talking to staff unless absolutely necessary, and even then...it's usually out of sheer desperation. We actually get equally, if not more annoyed by the US attitude to Customer Service. It comes across as false & contrite to our delicate egos.
I'm sure the staff in Harrods would have been perfectly civil & helpful to you if you'd asked for their assistance. They just adhere to the old maxim of "Less is More" so don't be expecting them to invade your day like they would on your side of the pond. It's just not very "British" (don't ask me to explain the rationale behind it...I don't know why we're so adverse to outside help).
I frequently visit the US for work & if I have to do any shopping...I have to constantly suppress the urge to punch anybody who speaks to me as part of their idea of "Customer Service" in the face...
Repeatedly.
It's actually probably a cultural thing. Broadly speaking, a British Shopper will avoid talking to staff unless absolutely necessary, and even then...it's usually out of sheer desperation. We actually get equally, if not more annoyed by the US attitude to Customer Service. It comes across as false & contrite to our delicate egos.
I'm sure the staff in Harrods would have been perfectly civil & helpful to you if you'd asked for their assistance. They just adhere to the old maxim of "Less is More" so don't be expecting them to invade your day like they would on your side of the pond. It's just not very "British" (don't ask me to explain the rationale behind it...I don't know why we're so adverse to outside help).
I frequently visit the US for work & if I have to do any shopping...I have to constantly suppress the urge to punch anybody who speaks to me as part of their idea of "Customer Service" in the face...
Repeatedly.
Theres one that I go to sometimes which is this one
But then theres this 'In-store' one that I go to
But then theres this 'In-store' one that I go to
Then you should come to Paris and visit Lafayette Gourmet.
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Selfridge's and John Lewis both are located within 100 feet of Apple Store Regent's Street
Its generally just the ones where they have a 'megastore'. Our local PC world doesnt have one, but we've got a PCWorld/Currys megastore in one and they have one there.
As a tourist, I visited both over Christmas and I have to say, both are epic places to eat/buy food
Certainly nothing like it in Hong Kong where I live.Happy days
This story resonates strongly with me as my first experience of Apple, as a schoolboy, was in a distant corner of the TV department at Harrods which was set-aside for a few Apple IIs and a demonstrator. This temporary display must have been there in 1977, or possibly 1976. I was so impressed with what I saw that I visited on several further occasions until the poor demonstrator knew me by name and I knew all that a child could learn without actually having proper access to the miracle machine.
Happy Days
This story resonates strongly with me as my first experience of Apple, as a schoolboy, was in a distant corner of the TV department at Harrods which was set-aside for a few Apple IIs and a demonstrator. This temporary display must have been there in 1977, or possibly 1976. I was so impressed with what I saw that I visited on several further occasions until the poor demonstrator knew me by name and I knew all that a child could learn without actually having proper access to the miracle machine.
Happy Days
Over the course of a generation Harrods has gone from being the retailer of choice for upper-middle class home-counties Brits to a vulgar, garish and over-priced trap for affluent (and largely clueless) tourists. Former owner Muhammed al-Fayed's symbolic "burning" of the Royal Warrants back in 2000 (he believed that the British Royal Family was responsible for killing his son Dodi) symbolized many things, but it merely served as a reminder to most people who actually live in London how irrelevant both those institutions had become.
Apple obviously feels it has not yet approached the saturation point in its retail footprint, and maybe there are some Harrods customers who'll feel better picking up their iPads and MacBook Airs far from the maddening crowds at Regent Street or Covent Garden. I wish them well, but I certainly won't be tempted to fight the crowds at Knightsbridge Tube Station just to check it out. Last time I was in Harrods (about ten years ago) I was more than a little amused to note that they'd instituted a £1 fee to use the toilets.
Apple obviously feels it has not yet approached the saturation point in its retail footprint, and maybe there are some Harrods customers who'll feel better picking up their iPads and MacBook Airs far from the maddening crowds at Regent Street or Covent Garden. I wish them well, but I certainly won't be tempted to fight the crowds at Knightsbridge Tube Station just to check it out. Last time I was in Harrods (about ten years ago) I was more than a little amused to note that they'd instituted a £1 fee to use the toilets.
Oh yes. Harrods is a tourist trap... and pretty tacky in places. Fortnum's is proper-good, high end stuff.
Middle class money shops at Selfridges and John Lewis though - and both sell Macs (actually, not too sure about Selfridges since Micro Anvika left).
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I think you have feet and some other unit of measure confused.
John Lewis is at least 500 metres away and Selridges is halfway to Marble Arch.
kyjaotkb said:
I think you have feet and some other unit of measure confused.
John Lewis is at least 500 metres away and Selridges is halfway to Marble Arch.
The 'store-within-a-store concept' has been around in department stores in the UK for years, it's called a concession.
This will be a fantastic addition to Harrods! I'm surprised it's not already there! Will Apple be charging the usual Harrods needless markups too?
What I find in the US is that when you want to be left alone, you can't get rid of the sales droids. And when you actually want help, it can take several minutes to find someone.
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Not being from that side of the pond, I actually don't know what Fortnum's is.
Also, might not Macy's be a contender for best known department store?
http://www.fortnumandmason.com/c-3-...lly-store-london-luxury-department-store.aspx
Check out the pictures... it's a great place to visit.
Maybe inside the US. Harrods is probably better known internationally. Macy's is a bit more downmarket.
My local Currys / PC World Megastore has an Apple department run by Apple employed staff. The Best Buy store over the road had the same set up until they announced it's closure and now the Apple staff from there have been transferred to Currys.
Pa Cake was once ejected from Harrods for wearing shorts.
This fact has absolutely nothing to do with the article, I grant you.
This fact has absolutely nothing to do with the article, I grant you.
There is one in north Greenwich too and used to be in the Thurrock Best Buy. They have people in apple shirts, and are so called 'Mac Specialists' that, as suggested earlier, either spend their entire time on iChat or recommend you away from the Macs.
Are they reps or are they actually processing sales too? When I worked at John Lewis, we had Apple reps in at times, along with Toshiba and HP. They were just there to promote their company's products, and if they got a sale one of the John Lewis team had to process it.
They work for Apple and the store within the store is run and stocked by Apple. As far as I know, sales are processed through the main tills in the store.
The Apple section inside Best Buy was cleared and dismantled the day after Carphone Warehouse announced they planned to close the stores and all stock returned to Apple, even though the store carried on trading for another couple of months.