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Apple Trials Express Retail Store Format for Genius Bar Appointments and Online Order Pickups

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Apple is trying out a new retail store experience that puts express pickup of online orders and Genius Bar appointments front and center, while keeping customer and staff safety paramount during the ongoing global health crisis.

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Images credited to PopVox co-founder and CEO Marci Harris via Twitter​

Dubbed "Apple Express," the temporary retail format for brick-and-mortar stores is being trialed at Apple Burlingame in California. The location has an interior storefront hub with a partition at the entrance that includes serving counters with perspex window shielding, central display cases with popular accessories for purchase, and a surrounding wall that screens off the shop floor proper.

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Black spots on the floor in front of the temporary facade indicate where visiting customers should stand in order to observe social distancing measures. Based on the pictures, the system allows one customer at a time to come up to each serving window, while customers with pre-booked appointments can queue up outside.

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Customers are required to have their appointment-assigned QR code and government-issued ID ready as they wait for the next available Apple representative, while another sign displays QR codes that link to Apple's support app and official website.

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It's not clear if Apple plans to expand the "Apple Express" retail system shown here to other stores within California or to other U.S. states, but if the trial proves successful we could well see it rolled out across the country as the U.S. continues to grapple with the pandemic.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple Trials Express Retail Store Format for Genius Bar Appointments and Online Order Pickups
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/09/15/apple-trials-express-store-format-safe-pickups/
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This makes sense globally. There could still be queues of people, not sure it would solve that issue even if the collection times are staggered.
 
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Ultramove69 said:
Get in, get stuff, get out. Quick, short, and to the point. I kind of like it, nice to see Apple adapting to the changing world instead of working around it.
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My thoughts as well. No doubt Apple has spent a ton of time developing and trialing their procedures, and fine tuning going forward.
 
Even if the new antibody discovered at University of Pittsburgh turns out to be a viable cure for Covid, this express window is a welcome change. I hope it gets implemented for my local Apple stores. Anything to increase efficiency is welcome.

The barrier shown in the photo will also help protect the employees during flu season. I used to work behind a similar barrier at a bank and customers would come in coughing and sneezing but as long as I did not touch my face while working, I never caught their colds and flu.
 
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Why this is 'political' is interesting, but having 2 or 3 spots for Genius consultations is a huge decrease in capacity. At the 'local' Bar, there are a dozen, or more, Geniuses. So support is going to take a huge hit. That's going to hurt.
 
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Ultramove69 said:
Get in, get stuff, get out. Quick, short, and to the point. I kind of like it, nice to see Apple adapting to the changing world instead of working around it.
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That was my last visit. They were limiting how many people were in the store, and were queuing people up outside. It was a HOT day, and the Sun was sizzling, and even though they had umbrellas outside, they were not giving them to people waiting (probably not a bad idea, unless they were cleaning the handles). But it was very much a 'What can we do to help you?' 'Okay, can we help you carry out your purchases?' (Not rude, but insistant, 'if you are done, please leave so others can come in') and the que was in full view. One couple inside was just dragging their feet, and people were starting to complain. Rumblings of the cattle. MOOOO! I doubt it would have gotten ugly, but you never know these days.
 
Seems just like them returning to a normal store experience. Ever since they took away the register, I've had silly issues trying to get seen by someone. I understand them wanting to turn it into an "experience", but the last time I did an in store pickup I was standing around for half an hour while others were seen before me because there was a mix up between the check in person at the front and the associate who was assigned to hand me my device.

Thats only one example, but I've never seen the benefit of how Apple does things versus other stores. Hopefully with this setup it will be easier to do in store pickups even after we're past Covid.
 
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cocky jeremy said:
Don't worry. This super deadly virus (haha, yeah right) will be gone after the election.
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Jimmy Bubbles said:
I wonder how Apple in Sweden is handling things, given that they never shut their country down, nor mandated masks. They’re now at or near heard immunity and probably one of the safest countries now.
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Cool, denialism and misinformation already.

No, Sweden is not at or near herd immunity. We don't even know whether herd immunity is possible without a vaccine. (How's that herd immunity going for all the various colds out there?)

And, if you still somehow don't understand why COVID-19 is dangerous, at this point you can even hear the words straight from our dear leader's mouth, if that's all you'll believe. (He would never admit it publicly, of course, but nevertheless he is on tape doing so.)
 
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Chaos215bar2 said:
And, if you still somehow don't understand why COVID-19 is dangerous, at this point you can even hear the words straight from our dear leader's mouth, if that's all you'll believe. (He would never admit it publicly, of course, but nevertheless he is on tape doing so.)
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Malaria kills about 500,000 people every year but we never shut down the world because of it.
 
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Chaos215bar2 said:
If people took COVID-19 seriously, we wouldn't need to shut down at this point. But regardless, COVID-19 has also killed about 1 million people in 6 months, and it's hardly finished.
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The CDC says the number is closer to 6,000 in the US. Just because you had COVID when you got run over by a truck does not mean you died from COVID.
 
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DesertNomad said:
The CDC says the number is closer to 6,000 in the US. Just because you had COVID when you got run over by a truck does not mean you died from COVID.
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My god, man. Even the CDC (which, sadly, is no longer a trustworthy source of information) is talking about upwards of 200,000 deaths. The real number (as reported by people with actual medical and scientific training, as opposed to filtered through political appointees) is closer to 300,000 by now.

Edit: I'm updating this as I realized that my numbers here are in fact wrong. The correct death count is around 200,000 currently.

Please consider, though, that this mistake is emblematic of the extent to which the US federal government is failing in its response. Yes, the CDC does have the correct death count (at the moment), but at the same time we're getting guidance from multiple places in the federal government (including the White House) literally telling areas with some of the worst transmission rates in the country that people don't need to wear masks.

At the same time, we're literally being told that transmission of the virus is a good thing, because it will lead to herd immunity. This is false. Herd immunity is possible primarily by way of vaccinations, as many viral infections do not in fact result in long-lasting immunity. Based on our knowledge of other coronaviruses, while it's all but guaranteed this strategy would result in a massive death toll, it's very much an unknown whether there would be any significant long lasting benefit.
 
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Chaos215bar2 said:
My god, man. Even the CDC (which, sadly, is no longer a trustworthy source of information) is talking about upwards of 200,000 deaths. The real number is closer to 300,000 by now (as reported by actual epidemiologists, as opposed to filtered through political appointees).
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If that number is accurate, it is still not worth shutting down the entire world. I'm glad I don't have any kids that have to grow up in this messed up world.
 
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DesertNomad said:
If that number is accurate, it is still not worth sitting down the entire world. I'm glad I don't have any kids that have to grow up in this messed up world.
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If people were willing to take basic precautions, again, there wouldn't be any need to talk about "sitting down the entire world [emphases added]". (Unless you're just intent on seeing that summer blockbuster in a packed theater — which would honestly be fine with me if you weren't putting your entire community at risk in the process so you could see a stupid freaking movie, or what have you.)

Also, if we're talking about the world, the death toll is, as stated only a few posts above, around 1,000,000. Not 300,000. Do note that the US has seen about 30% of worldwide deaths, despite having less than 5% of the world's population. Yes, there are complicating factors regarding where the virus spreads more easily (i.e. industrialized nations where you can hop on an airplane and travel anywhere in the world), but that statistic is uniquely terrible in the world right now.

Anyway, we're done unless you want to discuss actual facts rather than throwing a hissy fit because someone told you to wear a mask, or whatever your objection may be. I'm not interested in figuring out what issue precisely you have with listening to actual experts in the fields of both medicine and economics.
 
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