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Apple Retail Roundup: Palo Alto Store, Hurricane Sandy Preparations, Shenzhen Store

Apple Store Palo Alto

I visited it on Saturday. As pretty as it looks, it is a HUGE step down from the previous one: It is cramped, way too many tables and too little space to walk around. But all this could be bearable if it weren't for the noise:

It is deafeningly noisy in there, standing in the middle of a busy train station is nothing compared to what you have to endure there. Communication is near-impossible, like in a busy night club. I wished they had handed out ear plugs to their customers.

It used to be a pleasant atmosphere at the old store, a place to go, browse what's offered, spend time - but now, it is just highly stressful to even enter: Go in, get what you want, and flee as quickly as you can to preserve your hearing.

I am wondering what the employees will say about this as they can't just leave when it gets too much.

I hope they find a way to fix this!



Jetson said:
The photo of the Palo Alto store is beautiful.

I remember when there were no Apple stores, and Apple products were relegated to the backshelves in electronics stores.

Microsoft/Windows fanboys would deride us Apple computer owners.

Nowadays Apple stores are so busy you can hardly move around in one while shopping.

He who laughs last, laughs best.
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Jetson said:
I remember when there were no Apple stores, and Apple products were relegated to the backshelves in electronics stores.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I live in a major city and I remember back in the 80's and 90's we had an Apple-only store. It was called Archon and it was a huge downtown tore with nothing but apple products. It was quite a nice place well set up, everything on display and not all that different from a modern apple store.

On the other hand it was always empty when I visited and the prices (apple MSRP) were so insanely high they were a bit of a joke in the city and in hindsight I don't know how they lasted so long.

My other apple store memory is the cheap little PC retailers that would sell clone apple motherboards where you had to hand-solder all the components yourself. Now those were fun days (except the time I needed to get a copy of the original apple IIe rom and the stores didn't sell it).

Oh, and even back then, I put my clone apple motherboards in PC clone cases.
 
And on the Microsoft front...

MS opened 30 kiosk stores on Friday around the US and Canada. They will sell the Surface and Win8. Based on this YouTube video from a kiosk in Vancouver, there were drawings for free Xbox consoles and only a small number of people in attendance to win them.

I'm going to check out the local MS kiosk store later this week.
 
ascylto said:
ifoAppleStore has also pointed out that the company has taken precautionary measures to protect its inventory ...

So, Apple have got rid of Browett!
Click to expand...

Browett's probably looking at that store, bemoaning all that wasted space where more 'product' could be crammed into, thinking there's room for another floor where they could pack in even more stock. And all that glass at the front, that's just begging to be covered in "SALE! NOW ON!" posters.
 
Jetson said:
The photo of the Palo Alto store is beautiful.

I remember when there were no Apple stores, and Apple products were relegated to the backshelves in electronics stores.

Microsoft/Windows fanboys would deride us Apple computer owners.

Nowadays Apple stores are so busy you can hardly move around in one while shopping.

He who laughs last, laughs best.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I love the look of it all. The huge single panes of glass are amazing.

I think it truly escapes Apple's critics that they're artists; that aesthetics matter, even when the item is not being used. At least for me, it is one of the main draws to their products: every single thing they do is treated as an art piece. It is sad that so many miss out on such joys due to their personal bitterness.
 
MyMacintosh said:
are you fishing for a response? What does Microsoft/Windows have to do with this article? Lets see how you spin this to relevance...
Click to expand...

Where is the down vote button? Seriously. His post is about how far apple has come. The article is about the opening of 2 Apple stores with a little tie in about the hurricane preparation of Apple stores on the east coast. Who cares how he "spins it." Apple HAS come far. Even in consumer perception. In my early computing days, I was a total PC fanboy and bashed Apple computers. But but since the iPhone drew me in to Apple in 2007, I took notice of the products Apple offer and quality that goes into them... hardware and software wise. The same is true in what you quoted. Apple has gone from being a 3 foot display in the corner of CompUSA (remember that place?!?) to having stores with insane traffic that make more money per square foot than any other retailer. His comments were VERY relevant to the article!

Get off of your high horse!
 
Last edited:
tape

tape doesn't do anything (except leave residue and make you look silly).

-architect
-floridian
 
Tape on the windows

Do they really think the tape on the windows is going to help?

Never mind....others already have mentioned how silly it is.
 
1080p said:
Where is the down vote button? Seriously. His post is about how far apple has come. The article is about the opening of 2 Apple stores with a little tie in about the hurricane preparation of Apple stores on the east coast. Who cares how he "spins it." Apple HAS come far. Even in consumer perception. In my early computing days, I was a total PC fanboy and bashed Apple computers. But but since the iPhone drew me in to Apple in 2007, I took notice of the products Apple offer and quality that goes into them... hardware and software wise. The same is true in what you quoted. Apple has gone from being a 3 foot display in the corner of CompUSA (remember that place?!?) to having stores with insane traffic that make more money per square foot than any other retailer. His comments were VERY relevant to the article!

Get off of your high horse!
Click to expand...

Good to know. Yet I am not a "fanboy" as you stated you were. I simply dont see what the mention of microsoft/windows had to do with the article at all. Its obvious to me he was trolling for responses.
 
bdavis89 said:
You can tell they've never been through a hurricane. Hope everyone stays safe.

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Helps keep the pieces of glass together if/when it breaks, instead of having shattered glass fly everywhere.
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Unbelievable... Please stop.. just..Stop.


This is completely false. Tape does *nothing*.


There are real things that can be done, though very few at last minute..

1. Hurricane Windows - Windows constructed specifically to withstand impacts from debris flying through the air in a hurricane.

2. Hurricane shutters - Installed over the windows and deployed when a storm approaches. The shutters take the impact instead of the glass.

3. Impact resistant films - Used in security and wind driven debris protection. Films professionally installed on the interior glass to prevent the glass from shattering. Unlike tape, actually useful.

4. Plywood - Really the only option Apple would have at this point, and with the large amounts of glass, and limited framing, unlikely to be an easy to deploy solution. Much like hurricane shutters, the plywood takes the impact, rather than the window glass.


It's very possible that Apple has impact resistant glass or window films installed at many locations not just for protection against wind driven debris, but smash and grab protection as well. I'd like to think so, I'd like to think *someone* at Apple has a some common sense, but who knows for sure.


I'm really not that worried about Apple, the stores, or the products. I'm more worried about the bad example they're giving by using tape at all. There will be stupid people that think, "well, if Apple thinks tape will work, it must work", rather than doing something useful.

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rmwebs said:
if they had any sense the glass would already have a plastic coating - pretty much every retail shop (at least in the uk) or office with large windows has a completely unnoticeable clear plastic coating, so that if the glass shatters, it stays in one piece. It also makes it a lot harder to do a quick snatch and grab.
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+1,000,000
 
MacRumors said:
The city is also a hub for the counterfeiting industry and is the main point of entry for scalped products coming across the border from Hong Kong.
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:rolleyes:

In Vietnam they made POWs apologize for blacks trapped in American ghettos... You just can't resist those cheap political jabs, can you MR?

I hope China broadcasts every irrelevant "problem" big and small in the U.S., presumably owing to race and capitalism.
 
baller1308 said:
It doesn't really do anything. If anything they recommend not doing it, since if it shatters the pieces are more likely to be larger which can cause more harm.
Click to expand...

Should we all get together for a class action lawsuit and sue apple for putting our lives at risk? :D
 
MyMacintosh said:
are you fishing for a response? What does Microsoft/Windows have to do with this article? Lets see how you spin this to relevance...
Click to expand...

Go back to the dark corners of the internet that you came from. The article focuses on three main points. One of those happens to be the new store design. All he was doing was saying how much he likes the new store design and remembering back to a time when us mac geeks had no "home."

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rmwebs said:
It's to stop OAP's walking into the glass, thinking it's a doorway.

























:p
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lol don't forget about that lawsuit of the woman suing apple for like a billion dollars claiming she broke her noise from walking into the glass.
 
adildacoolset said:
Yeah, wrapping the products I plastic will definitely protect them from torrential rains, extreme winds, and flooding :rolleyes:

But anyways, all the best. And as for he sentence above, I didn't really mean it.

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This, is where unibody is put to the test.
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It's not like they are offering them to the hurricane, jeez! "Oh here, test our laptops against gale winds! like that would need to be a problem anyway!" :|
 
as someone who grew up in New Orleans and has experienced many storms...I don't know why people think TAPE will prevent damage during hurricane force winds...you gotta board up your glass window panes or they're toast
 
baller1308 said:
It doesn't really do anything. If anything they recommend not doing it, since if it shatters the pieces are more likely to be larger which can cause more harm.
Click to expand...

I consider myself an expert at surviving hurricanes and riding them out..tape on a window is a FAIL...one small projectile hurled at that glass and it's over

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hchung said:
It lets you know which windows are broken.
That's all.
Seriously.
Click to expand...

actually the tape was an old contigency that suggested if broken it will fall into large pieces as opposed to small shards of glass...I promise it does not work...I saw the roof blow off of a house that had not been properly borded...the air pressure from one broken window can suck the roof right off
 
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