I hate it. All I see is a lie.

I live in a remote city, so no Apple store for me, but I have always thought they looked really nice places, and I could easily see why their popularity is so high. If there was one where I lived, I would buy there as apposed to anywhere else.

yeah, right.

They only smile when you over pay for accessories and other crap and they get to rape you for. The minute your macbook takes a crap and you take it to their "genius" bar, apple store staff are off like a prom dress and hide for cover. Or they just ignore you and say there are no appointments left to talk to a metro-fag genius.

Pass the cool-aid and apple sauce, I think another comet is coming. If anyone thinks an apple store is utopia they better go join heaven's gate.

It just like anything else, you make it nice and shiny and hoards of lemmings and impressionable, weak minded emo-idiots eat that shit up.

I live in Michigan so no MAJOR Apple Stores here, although there is one about 45 minutes from me in the Briarwood Mall. It truly is an awesome place too. The service is decent, the lighting is perfect, and the vibe it gives off is truly enthralling. You can't help but walk in.

No interesting architecture at the Apple Store in Tyson's Corner, VA (in the mall), but the layout and reps are great. Heck of a lot easier to get hands-on with the gear than at, well, anywhere else.

"Is going into an Apple Store like entering some sort of Plesantville where everyone is happy and things are always perfect?"
NO!
I live 1.3 miles from the Apple Store in the Cherry Creek Mall.
I despise malls.
I won't enter a mall unless I have to buy a gift for my wife at Tiffany.
The Apple Store will not be pleasant for me until it departs the mall for Cherry Creek North.

Ah... nothing like jailbreaking the iPhones and iPod Touches in an apple store.

the store is a lie!

Meeh.. another Boring Apple Storie On Gizmodo.... ugh..

Has anyone else had this experience?

Step 1: Enter Apple store exitedly

Step 2: Glance around room at the only 10 or so products they sell, that you have drooled over many times before

Step 3: Try to find something else to justify your visit

Step 4: Check email

Step 5: Leave retail-utopia feeling slightly underwhelmed

I actually like shopping for a computer because they help you find exactly what you need. And you can reserve someone for an hour to help you out...free. Usually when I walk into a store there are hardly any employees, and if there are all they want to do is sell me as much as possible. a Mac Specialist at the Apple Store told me I didn't need a MacBook Pro and it would be twice the price for something that's much more powerful than what I needed.
Apple's Retail is something fresh and new, and it's unstoppable.

I kind of hate the apple store. Whenever I want to buy something help is nowhere to be found. Whenever I just want to check something out I'm constantly followed. Its also weird buying something for the first time since theres no checkout lines.

i would say neimanns or saks have better service, lighting, and more to look at, but less to play with. best buy has more to play with, but worse service.

so i'd put apple stores in the middle somewhere.

This may surprise some, but I have actually never been in an Apple Store before.

So tell me..what did I miss

Haven't been in an Apple store since the 1st Gen iPod came out (or was that Sharper Image?)

Don't miss it

The only thing I gotta ssk is: if you don't have piercings, can you still get a job at the Apple store or is that a deal-breaker?

I think the bright Zen look they use is excellent and fit perfectly with their products. I stop in an Apple store a couple times a year, and they are nice places. My only experience getting assistance there was a pleasure (they helped send my iPod away to be replaced because the hard drive died, and I was not charged anything but shipping).

Utopia? No, but it is still a nice store to visit occasionally and check out Steve's new toys.

@image18301: Yes, it's a dealbreaker. And you can also forget about getting a job as a barista _anywhere_, Mr. Bourgeois.

@image18301: rofl, so it seems

@vicsells: Me either. I keep wanting to buy _anything_ from Apple, just so I can be cool enough to ask Ellen Feist out on a date. Oops, I guess that just showed I'm not cool or stoned enough....

@Drvec: And I continue to do it.

I actually mosey on over to the Apple store whenever I'm bored. Play with the iPods that I already know inside out. Surf the web until one of the "Geniuses" comes and kicks me off to register some poor sucker into ponying up more money for unneeded junk.

Ahh. It's truly a life-changing store.

apple stores pull in almost half a million a day when they are running nicely (ie christmas) it's insane.

The stores are always one single open space, and all of the display areas are flat featureless tables or counters. After looking closely at the spread of products you realize they have 6 of the same thing lined up next to each other. Do they really anticipate that much browsing volume? That, plus calling their tech support the "Genius bar" is so condecending I want to drop a deuce on the rug.

Sorry for the flamey post but the cloud of Mac smugness is getting on my nerves lately

@Mandatory_Field: just an observation guys, no need to get your backs up! or your feather ruffled! or.. well you get the idea

@Drvec: Yeah, very similar experience! Spot on! Except I don't check email.

It's actually a very good place to shop if you intend to buy something instead of loiter and surf the web the entire visit, which is something people do very often in the Fifth Avenue store. I love that they have checkout people floating about with handheld gizmos to speed up your purchase.

The stores are cool, except I think they're a bit crowded and I have to drive about an hour and a half to get to one where I am in Southern California. "Relentlessly smiling employees," sounds scary! "Excuse me, but my MacBook fell off a balcony. Five stories up." The Apple employee stares vacantly at me.

Step 1: Stupid, rich, yuppie middle schoolers go to the store to take Photobooth pictures of themselves. Convinced that this is the best application ever, they decide it must be theirs.

Step 2: Middle schoolers beg their parents for a Mac for months

Step 3: Parents cave in to their children's demands and go to the store

Step 4: Parents go into the store to find that it is full of shiny objects and smiling people. They are floored by the welcoming atmosphere and amazed by all the futuristic gizmos and whatnot.

Step 5: The parents locate and begin to talk to a sales rep about buying the cheapest Macbook they have in stock. Sales rep convinces them to go one level higher and to buy a AppleCare plan along with a new iPod nano; but it doesn't stop there... How about one for each person in the family!

Step 6: Parents pay for everything and walk out of store, not knowing what just happened.

Step 7: Child loses interest in Photobooth now that he/she can have it whenever they want it.

@Drvec:
YES!!!!

@Roflcopter_Down: asshole, its not funny anymore, just gives them more work to do

Its more like a cult.

They remind me of being in a hospital. Lots of people aimlessly wandering about in a far to white, far to brightly lit fluorescent hell. Five minutes in and my eyes need a break.

The three or so that I've been to around Dallas are all the same. No interesting architecture, no event, just another store among many others.

If I need something from Apple, I use their website.

to, too, two. I wish I could edit.

I had a bunch of friends take me to a Apple store, so I brought along my Ubuntu laptop with an OS-X theme and messed with the MacExperts.

It took them awhile to notice the difference, in the meantime they were really upset at me.

i actully went in to the exact store today and i got to say, the nytimes article is kind of true. it was a line just waiting to get into a big basement ... all these tourists..

@Super_Moose: lol

I've always wondered what would happen if I took my generic PC running OS X in and started asking questions about why the sound wasn't working properly.

I find myself going into the Apple Store at Jordan Creek in West Des Moines just to play with whatever is new, cool and Apple, but I never buy anything. Shows how much I go there if there's always something new... I think 95% of the traffic to those stores must be tire-kickers.

@AznSmith: which is why it will ALWAYS be funny.

You want to be a smug asshole and tell me "OSX doesn't have problems like Windows does" (yes, a salestwit actually said that to me) while my XP system has been on for over two months without a reboot and I had to reboot my Mac Pro at least once a week... well, guess what, you're working late... besides they're paying you to do it so stop being pissed and enjoy your pay-and-a-half.

Personally I don't find the Apple stores to be much different than other stores. The stores themselves are nicer than most and the salespeople generally know macs... unfortunately the salespeople also live within the RDF and do kegstands on the koolaide. It's also been my experience that they become rather condescending if you tell them that you not only use PCs but that you build your own.

So if you're an Apple fanboy then I could see how you could consider an Apple store "retail utopia" for the rest of us it's slightly nicer than most other stores but nowhere near utopia.

@image18301: :-)

i went to the big flagship store in manhattan in midtown last week. it can only be described as my own personal concept of hell. there were lines to get in lines, though most of the employees were nice, the manager who had to fix something on my receipts was a psycho bitch. also every stereo or sample speaker was blaring a different song. most unpleasant retail experience ever.

I once went into an iStore and there was some cool music playing. I approached the Mac that had the music in it... and sent the mp3 to my phone.

Yeah, I robbed Apple store of one mp3. THAT is stealing music :D

(BTW. In Poland Apple Stores look quite similar, but there is a counter and a checkout line though)

im a mac fan and have had nothing but trouble with the "genius" bar. i know more than any of them and they just get more snotty when they realize that you know more than them. By the way, although Im a fan, I use a PC as my daily workhorse.

What other store is there where there are lots of employees (you can't ever have enough, of course), who are both knowledgeable and enjoy what they do?

If you don't think they are good enough, why don't you think for a minute what a Microsoft store would be like?

If you must call it that, sure I'll be the fist "Cultist" to step up. I love Apple Stores. The Design, much like their Computers, are crafted to please certain sensibilities. I am sorry that I am a man-child and I can't understand how a "Real" computer works. I am however not sorry that I have very rarely had a less than fabulous experience. So YES, I think the figures are realistic. Nothing is perfect. I think peoples perception of what any store should be is tainted by thing like megamarts and fastfood. People seem to want clerks and sales people to kiss their asses and process their outrageous demands for pennies on the dollars. Whats up with that?

A microsoft store would have xbox360s ,zunes , Tvs showing media center extenders. A and about 30 differnt desktops and every version of vista. While an apple has only about 8 differnt computters (really 5).

Well I wouldn't go so far as to say that Apple stores have amazing architecture. However the interior design is appealing even though its minimalist. The atmosphere isn't bad, its somewhat calming. Oddly even when the store is crowded and busy, the sale people are calm and nice. The only thing lame is the whole no cash payment on iPhones.

Nothing special in an APPLE store, just APPLE products and friendly people to sell them to you. What's the big deal?

@barrygeorge001:

this issue plagues gadget fans and IT savvy individuals regardless of venue

To quote the Simpsons"This place has a creepy Manson family vibe to it."

Just looking at the Apple store makes me uneasy. They always have this sterile, white glow about them that makes me feel like they will be giving me a frontal lobotomy to "fit in".

Is it just me, or are the Sony Style Stores one million times cooler than an apple store?

Apple is like a luxury car- you don't need it, you want it. And it does it's thing better than its plebeian competition. And just like a luxury car, part of the allure is the presentation. It's also nice to know that I can pick up anything they sell without having to wonder if there's a Mac version out there.

Like it or hate it, you can't deny that the approach is working wonders for Steve & Co.