Apple Store: The Grumpy Report
Yes, it's very nice and shiny, but get out of my damn way.
Apple resellers in a major Australian city are, arguably, probably a little annoyed right now, what with Apple opening up the first in what will eventually be a chain of its own branded stores. Sure, they've had to compete with Apple selling online at the same prices for some time, but with Apple's rather larger budget for store space -- in a classical sense, the Apple Store Sydney is awash with wasted retail space -- and staff numbers, there's no doubt it's going to be tough.
That's not to say that there's nothing to be done to "compete" with Apple in a store sense.
I attended the media "preview" of the Apple Store last Wednesday... although "attended" probably isn't the right word. Apple's well known for stage managing its media events to the nth degree, and this includes not letting one single word about whatever it's doing drip out of anywhere. As such, while I've not worked in Apple PR itself, I can imagine the training being four weeks of something like this:
Trainer: "Now, repeat after me: "Apple Does Not Comment On Rumour Or Speculation"
Trainees: "Apple Does Not Comment On Rumour Or Speculation"
Trainer: "Good. Now, chant that for three more weeks, then we'll teach you about the products..."
In any case, the invitations to attend the store preview came out relatively late, and I already had another commitment that would eat up half of the allotted media time.
I checked with Apple that they'd still let me in the store (at the time it was still hidden behind what is apparently very expensive plastic wrap), and turned up too late for all the speeches about how long the genius bar is, exactly how many staff they're hiring and how excited they all are about the new store. Instead, I wandered in fashionably late (quite possibly the only time you could use the words "fashionable" and "Alex Kidman" in the same sentence, but I digress...) and had an experience that shouldn't be too different from that of the average consumer. I was greeted by a an absolute ton of store staff, all of whom were obsequiously attempting to take on the role of guiding me around the store in that earnest and oh so very American manner. And to be brutally honest, it annoyed the life out of me.
My apologies to any Apple Store Sydney Sales staff who may be reading this, but you're not the interesting bit -- the products are. And being told by three different people that the iPods are upstairs grates a bit, especially when two of them are standing next to each other. Then there were the two others pointing out where the stairs were, as though they were some kind of mysterious American invention that Australians might not be able to fathom.
Certainly, there was a level of overkill relative to the number of people actually in the store, and I can imagine it being very useful having plenty of staff members on hand when it's busy -- I can't list the number of stores I've stood around in pointlessly because there were no free staff members. The displayed products are nicely laid out, and it's a great way to get some hands-on experience with Macs, iPods and the associated Apple ecosystem, within certain limits; I do wonder which non-Apple product lines they'll always carry, and which ones they won't. And the genius bar (and associated they-can't-possibly-make-a-profit-on-it training) is an excellent concept that nobody else in the IT industry even comes close to.
But back to my point about resellers. The Apple Store is a retail operation, to be sure (although the cash registers were placed such that I didn't spot a single one during the media preview), and that does represent something of a threat.
At the same time, I'm pretty sure that a reasonable number of Australian punters will see through the servile sales staff's rehearsed routines, and that's where the little Apple seller down the street can compete. The Apple Store is something of an experience, but resellers are still flogging the same (mostly) excellent kit -- but they can do it with a genuine Australian smile, rather than sycophancy.
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