Apple's 'Ship to Store' Expands Again, Then Goes Offline Ahead of Retail Enhancements

[MacRumors]

Last week, Apple began offering customers the option of having their online orders shipped to their local retail store for pickup, a service especially valuable for those who have difficulty receiving shipments at their home or office. The "ship to store" option initially rolled out in the company's three San Francisco stores, and quickly expanded to include all sixteen Bay Area stores before the four New York City stores jointed the program earlier this week.

Apple has been said to be taking the service full-scale as of today as part of a series of retail enhancements that will also allow customers to use self-checkout for shelf-stocked items at Apple retail stores using the company's iOS app.

Evidence of Apple making minute-by-minute tweaks to the ship to store program is visible in Apple's online store, where just a short time ago customers had the option of using the service throughout the company's 51 California and four New York City stores.

The new expanded program did not last long, however, as Apple now appears to have completely shut down the ship to store option, with all stores listing online-only items as "unavailable for pickup". Items stocked in-store can still be purchased through the system, with California and New York City stores listing those products as "available now".

Apple is said to be viewing in-store pickup and self-checkout as major changes for the future of its retail stores, expecting that the majority of its customers will utilize in-store pickup as their default delivery method for Apple purchases.

Article Link: Apple's 'Ship to Store' Expands Again, Then Goes Offline Ahead of Retail Enhancements

 

[Truffy]

Given that my nearest store is in Zürich, having stuff delivered to the door is relatively luxurious.

 

[G4DP]

Are we going to get a whole new article every time a new store starts offering this service?

 

[serdiouk]

Local Store pick-up?

Who needs their local store pick-up these days? It's a complete waste of time and in some cases money.
Apple offers free shipping on any order over $50. And the shipping is quick. Only a moron with a ton of free time on his/her hands would want to drive/take local transportation to the local store and then still wait in line.

 

[czechboy0]

worldwide in-store pickup

does anyone know whether this option will be available worldwide or just in the US? also, any official retail stores coming to the Czech Republic soon?.. i wish.

 

[Sackvillenb]

well, hopefully this pilot program will continue expanding in the US.... so that it eventually expands into Canada and the rest of the world!

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Who needs their local store pick-up these days? It's a complete waste of time and in some cases money.
Apple offers free shipping on any order over $50. And the shipping is quick. Only a moron with a ton of free time on his/her hands would want to drive/take local transportation to the local store and then still wait in line.

Some "morons" work and do not trust having little boxes containing stuff that costs hundreds or thousands of dollars being left by their front door all day. Rather than having to work the deal to go pick it up at UPS or Fedex or similar, this gives them the option of picking it up at their local Apple store instead. If the Apple store is closer than the Fedex, etc pickup point, it's not so moronic after all.

 

[RafaelT]

Who needs their local store pick-up these days? It's a complete waste of time and in some cases money.
Apple offers free shipping on any order over $50. And the shipping is quick. Only a moron with a ton of free time on his/her hands would want to drive/take local transportation to the local store and then still wait in line.

Have you ever considered that everyone's situation is not the same as your own? Open your eyes, there is a big world out there and everyone's life is a little bit different.

How about someone who lives in NYC in a building without a doorman (or one that you don't trust) and they happen to be not far from an Apple store... why wouldn't they get their custom configured computer shipped to the store?

 

[arbitter]

When I buy an Apple product... I go to the store and buy one. For the one time in five years, I might as well make it a whole trip instead of an online order.

 

[theheadguy]

Honestly, will this be a new news post with every expansion of Ship to Store? There's a lot of stores open now...

 

[D.T.]

Who needs their local store pick-up these days? It's a complete waste of time and in some cases money.
Apple offers free shipping on any order over $50. And the shipping is quick. Only a moron with a ton of free time on his/her hands would want to drive/take local transportation to the local store and then still wait in line.

Just because UPS delivers to your parent's basement, doesn't mean everyone has that same luxury. People have concerns over package drop offs, security, PO boxes only, don't want someone to see their gift, etc.

Plus, someone might want one-on-one help, to ask some additional questions before opening ... we could probably come up with dozens of scenarios where a store delivery would be preferable.

 

[JHankwitz]

Are we going to get a whole new article every time a new store starts offering this service?

I sure hope so. I need more worthless junk email. It makes me feal sooo important.

 

[anotonin]

Who needs their local store pick-up these days? It's a complete waste of time and in some cases money.
Apple offers free shipping on any order over $50. And the shipping is quick. Only a moron with a ton of free time on his/her hands would want to drive/take local transportation to the local store and then still wait in line.

Some people like to stand in line. That way other people can see them standing in line at Apple.

It could work wonders for their egos.

 

[thundersteele]

for apple, it also gives them another opportunity to sell AppleCare to online customers. This is a high revenue business.

 

[joeshmo2010]

Who needs their local store pick-up these days? It's a complete waste of time and in some cases money.
Apple offers free shipping on any order over $50. And the shipping is quick. Only a moron with a ton of free time on his/her hands would want to drive/take local transportation to the local store and then still wait in line.

Lol, coming from a 12 year old who doesn't have a car. Guaranteed.

 

[slu]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Who needs their local store pick-up these days? It's a complete waste of time and in some cases money.
Apple offers free shipping on any order over $50. And the shipping is quick. Only a moron with a ton of free time on his/her hands would want to drive/take local transportation to the local store and then still wait in line.

Some "morons" work and do not trust having little boxes containing stuff that costs hundreds or thousands of dollars being left by their front door all day. Rather than having to work the deal to go pick it up at UPS or Fedex or similar, this gives them the option of picking it up at their local Apple store instead. If the Apple store is closer than the Fedex, etc pickup point, it's not so moronic after all.

Or you could have it shipped to work.

Listen, I agree that there are reasons why some would want to do this. But the number of articles on what amounts to a niche service is absurd.

 

[charlituna]

Are we going to get a whole new article every time a new store starts offering this service?

If it gets them hits, they will post an article every time Tim Cook farts.

----------

Who needs their local store pick-up these days? It's a complete waste of time and in some cases money.

Some folks leave in areas where having a package delivered isn't secure and they can't be at home to get it.

And shipping these things to the store with the regular deliveries is probably cheaper for Apple than the piece meal straight to home stuff.

Only a moron with a ton of free time on his/her hands would want to drive/take local transportation to the local store and then still wait in line.

but you aren't waiting in line. Well perhaps a couple of minutes. But Apple has been having a door person at all the stores for a couple of weeks now and part of that person's job is to get the next available staff member to come assist you with retrieving your pre-paid item rather than going to help someone on the iPhone line or whatever. Basically they want to get you the hell out of the store like now for a number of reasons. So if that means calling on the radio and asking a stock person to bring out the order and sign you out, they will do it.

And remember that this in store pickup also means allowing you to see the inventory in a store so you don't go there to find out something is sold out. And you paid for it already so it is yours even if you don't come right away. You can buy that Macbook Pro today and go get it on Saturday and it will be there waiting the whole time if it was a store stocked item. Or if it was a customized they will get it in a few days, alert you it in in the store and hold it. As I was told they keep them for 3 weeks and if you haven't gotten there yet they contact you to remind you it is there and depending on the response they have it returned and your money refunded or keep it until whatever time you say you are coming for it and then return it if you don't show up.

 

[OafTobark]

interesting.

but no need, yet.

 

[alectheking]

It's back up for me. My local store in San Luis Obispo now has the option for pickup and im gonna use it to pick up a mini today. Im debating almost waiting just so I can do it with the updated app. Ahh 1st world problems