Some of Apples retail stores are amazing... In terms of architecture of the original buildings... and new designs.
Though I think in general, they need to do more at their stores on the insides.... the last few I was in are regular Apple stores... and they are boring like crazy. I mean the format is starting to get a bit old.. they are just too 'cold' and sterile at times.
I think they need to make the stores more comfortable... with way better acoustics and ambience. A better space for trying out devices would be far better than just dumping a few of their devices on those desks in the middle of the store. I mean in a few of the stores the MacBook Pros were on display at the entrance... you have the store traffic walking past you and the noise and you're buying a $1500 plus dollar machine...
Open plan was the big thing and it was 'modern' ... but increasingly I hate it, and I think a lot of people feel the same... and Apple stores are just not a pleasure at all to look around anymore... I get zero joy being there... I walk out faster than I walk in 😂
Even the accessory displays are bad... they don't have many bags and other similar items on display...
I was at the flagship store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan a couple weeks ago. It was pretty neat architecturally, but there was little reason to go to it specifically over the Apple Store in downtown Brooklyn or at the World Trade Center mall, or the one in Grand Central (yes, I’ve been to all three, I’ll schedule a Genius Bar appointment for whichever Apple Store is most convenient for me based on my schedule). Part of it is the relative limited selection of third party accessories at a modern Apple Store. The days when we’d need an Apple Store (or an Apple certified retailer) to find accessories or software that would even work with our Macs was over nearly two decades ago. Most of the third party items in Apple Stores these days are phone cases and power accessories. So most of the store is taken up by the same displays of current Apple tech that make one Apple Store feel like any other.
But also, Apple is such a big brand these days that it’s not like the 1990s where Apple products didn’t get the sales support it needed. Best Buy has its own Apple Store in a store concept (and the local Best Buy has one despite being in a shopping complex adjacent to an actual Apple Store), and even Walmart sells iPads, iPhones, and maybe AirPods, not to mention online retailers like Amazon. The only thing you’ll find at an Apple Store that you won’t find anywhere else is probably the Mac Pro, the Mac Studio, the XDR Display, and the Vision Pro (and even then, all of that stuff can be ordered on Apple’s website).
But part of it is how same-y technology is these days. I guess I can’t exactly fault Apple for that (I mean, it’s not like Apple is forcing other phone makers’ to copy their design language or form factors), but it IS pretty inescapable. But phones are computers, and there’s only so many ways one can design interaction models for them, form follows function. It’s not like Sony’s peak, when one MiniDisc, CD, or cassette Walkman could have a wildly different design or shell from another and still do the same job.
