I went to an Apple Store for the first time...

[Richard1028]

Being 350 miles from the nearest one, I finally had an opportunity to visit one last week in a Mall.

Wow, most all the mall stores were dead except for the Apple Store. There must've been 75+ people in this thing. I thought this was really odd since Apple doesn't have that many products to display (with respect to other merchants). It wasn't anything to do with the new iphones either... most customers were drooling over the macbooks.

Are these stores always this busy?

It's hard to believe the macs only have a 10% market penetration.

 

[rebecca.x]

Being 350 miles from the nearest one, I finally had an opportunity to visit one last week in a Mall.

Wow, most all the mall stores were dead except for the Apple Store. There must've been 75+ people in this thing. I thought this was really odd since Apple doesn't have that many products to display (with respect to other merchants). It wasn't anything to do with the new iphones either... most customers were drooling over the macbooks.

Are these stores always this busy?

It's hard to believe the macs only have a 10% market penetration.

My local one is often busy too, but not as busy as youve described and not the busiest shop in the area. I guess it depends what time of day you visit. I last visited at lunch time, so it was full of businessmen playing on the macbooks on their lunch hour and eyeing up their next iphone accessory purchase.

 

[celticpride678]

YES. My Apple Store in the mall is crazy every single minute of the day. My entire family says the same thing, how are they so unpopular. Whether it is the Genius Bar, buying something or just looking, it is busy from when they open at 10:00 AM to when they close at 9:00 PM. Go figure

 

[-tWv-]

The apple store nearest me always has 30-40+ people in it. You have to make an appointment if you want to get anything done because you would be waiting for a few hours before an employee could get to you if you tried to just walk in.

 

[andalusia]

My local store, Manchester Arndale, is usually quite packed although there are mostly a couple laptops available. They seem to be the most popular with the majority of the Apple computers being Macbooks.

 

[sananda]

Regent Street store is just full of tourists using the place as a free internet cafe.

 

[MarkCooz]

Actually it also depends on how big the apple store is...
(How much merch they have) (Big store = MORE AND MORE MERCH)

well the nearest one that's near me is like 5 miles away it's in fair oaks mall VA
store is big, there's about 8 iMac's 12 Macbook (Pro's, White and Air) 2 Apple Cinema Display 1 Apple T.V 6 iPod Nano 4 iPod Touch and about 8 iPhones 3G and 3G S.

I Love store.

Plus their accessories are awesome. Huge selections.

I might need to upgrade my HDD to like 320 or 500gb 160gb isn't enough for me. being a video editor and graphics designer. woah not enough.
*Do they sell harddrives the apple store?* or just online retailers.

 

[andalusia]

Plus their accessories are awesome. Huge selections.

Just really expensive

 

[aprofetto]

I love going into the Apple store and just walking around looking at random things... that being said, my fiance thinks I'm pathetic.

 

[boston44]

I love going into the Apple store and just walking around looking at random things... that being said, my fiance thinks I'm pathetic.

HIGH FIVE!

 

[aprofetto]

HIGH FIVE!

lol... I knew people on here would agree with me.

 

[Detektiv-Pinky]

I love going into the Apple store and just walking around looking at random things... that being said, my fiance thinks I'm pathetic.

That sounds like a solid relationship you two are establishing

 

[aprofetto]

That sounds like a solid relationship you two are establishing

lol, she doesn't mind, she just thinks I'm a bit coo-coo.

 

[Dinalli]

Regent Street store is just full of tourists using the place as a free internet cafe.

Spent a day in london a few weeks back.

Battery took a kicking using the gps round london.

Nice people in the Regent store allowed me to top up my charge while i was there.

My local store in sheffield, has changed in the last few years, you could go into and use the genius pretty much at will, these days you most definetly have to make an appointment now.

 

[Adam0306]

store is big, there's about 8 iMac's 12 Macbook (Pro's, White and Air) 2 Apple Cinema Display 1 Apple T.V 6 iPod Nano 4 iPod Touch and about 8 iPhones 3G and 3G S.

Well I actually have 2 stores in the same city (not exactly Corporate stores but Third party Apple specialty stores). These are slam packed and they are actually about this size at both of them. It is usually about 20 at anytime at either one of them. I love going there to drool at everything.

 

[iLog.Genius]

Yup. Apple Store is always going to be packed (at least here in Toronto/GTA) Eaton Center, Sherway, Yorkdale, Fairview and soon Square One (5 Apple Store's in the GTA, crazy...). Always packed with people just looking. It's almost like it's an attraction that you have to see!

 

[old-wiz]

I love going into the Apple store and just walking around looking at random things... that being said, my fiance thinks I'm pathetic.

My wife says the same thing. She just tells me not to drool too much and to limit myself to one new macbook per year

 

[rgarjr]

Yeah things are jammed packed pretty much anytime of day, any day. There's just some many people in there that you would think they are giving stuff free.

I'm not really sure if mostly all these people are buying stuff or just playing around with the stuff. I always see a ton of teenage girls in there playing around with the photobooth app.

 

[crackbookpro]

The store in Cherry Hill, NJ is always packed, but the one in the King of Prussia Mall, is like a 'happy hour' party(but...with no alcohol) of 100 people everytime(no matter the day)... Everyone is happy and oogling over Apple's products.

...can't blame 'em, Apple makes damn good products

CrackBookPro

 

[crackbookpro]

...thought we were in a down economy


...guess not

 

[TsuaSai]

...thought we were in a down economy


...guess not

Most people are probably just going into more debt so that isn't really helping the economy...

 

[MacMini2009]

Most people are probably just going into more debt so that isn't really helping the economy...

But they are contributing and putting money into the economy.

 

[BanjoBanker]

Well I actually have 2 stores in the same city (not exactly Corporate stores but Third party Apple specialty stores). These are slam packed and they are actually about this size at both of them. It is usually about 20 at anytime at either one of them. I love going there to drool at everything.

What part of AL would that be? I am in the B'ham area and I know of one 3rd party store and of course The Apple store at the Summit, where the staff greets me by name! I know there were several 3rd party retailers in Huntsville a couple of years back.

 

[matthewscott661]

Of all the Apple stores I've been to, they were all just like this. There's always a ton of people there, and it's sometimes hard to even get in the door!

I am always surprised too about how much people know about the products they are viewing. Whenever I'm at a place like BestBuy or something, there are just a bunch of computer-illiterate people or people looking for a digital camera.

But when I was at the Apple store last, I was waiting for the genius and had my MacBook over my the new 13" MBPs, and nearly everyone who walked past me mentioned it, and asked me questions about how I thought it compared to the new models, and gave me their own comparisons as well. It was like being in a whole other world.

 

[Richard1028]

Of all the Apple stores I've been to, they were all just like this. There's always a ton of people there, and it's sometimes hard to even get in the door!

That's exactly how my Apple store was - crowded. Off to the side I think there was a class going on with about 10 people and what looked like an apple employee. Plenty of other employees too.

Again, there really wasn't much merchandise here... it was all the same - just multiple display tables with the same macs sitting on them.

This whole thing was just eerie compared to the other Mall merchants.