“Whatever it is (Radio Shack for rich people? The Sharp-est Image?), the Apple Store isn’t what it used to be, even a year or so ago. The initial thrills, the feelings of i-comfort and i-belonging, still await you behind its translucent facade, especially now, in the gizmodic spree of the Christmas season. But somewhere along the way, the zendo quality of the Apple Store changed,” Hank Stuever writes for The Washington Post.
“The demi-privacy of it, the clubby feeling — I know that you know that I know that we know and love Macs like nobody else does — is fading away. Too much commotion. The ethereal, tranquil, spa vibe (the bath of white light, the polished concrete floors, the glint in the happy eyes of the geniuses at the Genius Bar) has been pierced by the sheer popularity of the place. The TV commercials worked. Mac Guy, even with his non-arrogant arrogance, is your real friend, and then he gathered too many friends, and suddenly he doesn’t have time for them all,” Stuever writes.
Stuever writes, “Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO and bodhisattva, got what he wanted: the people. (A hundred million customers were lured to its stores in fiscal 2006-07, according to Apple, adding up to more than $4 billion in revenue.)”
Stuever writes, “Apple shoppers are more than people, more than customers — they are seekers. Those Apple marketing guys said all along they were building not just stores but serene communities of true believers and new converts. And so they did, and here we are, just 6 1/2 years later.”
Stuever continues, on and on and on, in his overwritten, messy complaint-fest here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “RadDoc,” “citymark,” and “Whit” for the heads up.]
Because he writes like a freshman Lit student (most likely, California State University-Chico) without an editor, it’s tough to tell just what the heck the italics-lovin’ Stuever’s point is, besides making up new compound words, coming across as a royal A-hole, recounting a handful of anecdotes that are supposed to put Apple in a bad light, and bemoaning the fact that Apple Stores are welcoming in new Apple product users with open arms. Apple should bar non-Mac or new-to-Mac users at the doors to placate Hank Stuever-types, we suppose.
We know things are bad in the newspaper business, but sheesh! We’re embarrassed for The Washington Post.
Boohoo! It’s great that the Apple Stores are busy IMO. The more the better, because that means more software will eventually come to all users.
From MacNN:
“Some 40 new Apple retail stores will open in 2008, a company executive says. Speaking at a press event for the 14th Street store in New York City, senior retail VP Ron Johnson has said that Apple will expand with an international focus in the new year. The first Brazilian store is in fact opening this month in the Shopping Iguatemi mall in Sao Paulo, and the city will get a second store within 2008, located inside Shopping Marketplace. Apple is meanwhile rumored to be negotiating for space in the Torre Mayor office complex in Mexico City, a structure that includes 33,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space.
Three new stores are planned for the United Kingdom: one is in the Westfield London mall, opening late next year, while another is set for London’s Convent Garden area. The last will be founded in a northern city, but which one it might be has not been leaked or announced.
Apple already operates some 204 stores worldwide, though the vast majority of these are in the United States. Internationally, there are 13 in the UK, seven in Japan, four in Canada and just one in Italy.”
Yeah, when i’m looking for an intimate, cozy day out, the first place I head for is the super-mega-mall on a holiday shopping weekend.
Sounds as if he is pining for segregation.
My mother told me that in a recent trip one morning to Northpark in Dallas, she noticed a store that was packed, and saw that it was the Apple store. She was going to stop at it on the way back just to look, but it was even more crowded. She said it was the only store in the entire mall with that much business that early in the day.
Harvey
I haven’t been to Reston since I moved from there in Nov of ’89, but when I heard Apple was building stores, I figured they would get one soon. I can’t believe they still don’t. Beautiful place.
great job at insulting the 15,000 students who go to csu chico. mdn = snob
To Harvey:
From ifoapplestore.com:
Fair Oaks Mall – Fairfax, VA – An enclosed mall with 1.5 million s.f. leasable space at the intersection of I-66 and Rte. 50 with 180 shops and restaurants, including Hecht’s, Sears and Macy’s. Has one of the highest average household incomes for Apple store territories. It will be the 9th store in the D.C. region. Appeared as a job location on Jan. 19, 2006. Set for 2007 grand opening.
I Fo Apple dot com?
I’m all fo that….
Hey MDN, lighten up! This is what the victory you’ve been forseeing looks and feels like.
Ooops. Macs are going mainstream. If you wanna be a rebel… Linux?
Will we love our macs less when they have a 25% share? (which might mean a >50% consumer share). We will feel less special… those of us who were “mac when mac wasn’t cool” (of course unlike country it was always cool).
In fact this surge in demand is a real challenge for Apple. The kind of challenge every business dreams lives for: overwhelming retail crowds at FULL PRICE.
One of the many drivers of Apple’s growth is this question: Just how many stores can they profitably open? What about Europe and Asia (which have almost none)?
Meanwhile, technologically, with handheld devices, Mr. Jobs is going to use his iPod momentum to sell handheld OSX devices and FLANK MS.
This story is simply describing stores that are BUSY. This is victory, MDN. Just crack open a brew and… savor it. =)
@Spark.
Sorry. Scrolled thru too quickly.
You know there are no checkout lines at the Apple Store, yes? If you need to buy a bloody Shuffle, just find one of the employees who’s standing around and tell them. Any one of them can scan your credit card on their little gizmo. What could be simpler? So what if the store is crowded?
This author sounds like a Fake Apple Fan who wants to make us all sound like a$$holes. As more and more people become Apple folks, idiots like this offend more and more people with their retarded generalizations.
WTF? and what’s the point?
@ChrissyOne
Whoa, slow down and have a decaf. I ordered an item from the Apple store on line and was unable to enter my rebate number at check out so I called customer service and they entered the credit for me. No Problemo
Try it again. If at first you don’t succeed……..!
Gee, I wonder how many retailers in the country wish they had the problems that Apple Stores do. Sheesh.
Where does the right-leaning Post get these goobers? I suppose the same place they get Charles “let’s bomb ’em all” Krauthammer, David “lying about Iran intelligence is a non-story” Ignatius, Richard “the war-supportin’ Liberal” Cohen, and Fred “I never met a Bushie I didn’t like” Hiatt.
The Post has become a parody of itself, with the exception of cartoonist Tom Toles and columnist EJ Dionne.
Oh, and it ain’t just tech they can’t cover–the Post’s latest ‘hot story’ is about Hillary Clinton’s pant suits, I kid you not.
….suck until you do suck seed? No?
I totally get what the author is saying… every time I go into an Apple store now, its crowded… even at 10 am on Tuesday here in Atlanta. And service is suffering because of it… I typically have to wait 15 – 30 mins to buy anything at the Apple Store in Lenox mall.
It great to see the tide is turning where so many new people have an appreciation for macs… but some with each passing year of record breaking sales… macs are becoming less special.
BMW & Mercedes were are able to keep their cult appeal once they went mass market with 3 series and C-Classes selling at almost Honda Accord like numbers… lets hope Apple is able to do the same with Macs.
I love going the the Apple Store when it’s busy. The employees are attentive without acting like “sales” people. But I love it even more that when I buy something when it’s busy; I can still leave the store in about two minutes by walking up to any of the “Mac Specialists” (or whatever they are called now) carrying the handheld “checkout” machine.
I tried to buy something at CompUSA a few days ago. The store was somewhat busy, and there were plenty of employees milling about, but there was exactly ONE guy running the checkout register (there were four other closed checkout registers). I was waiting there for about 20 minutes thinking, I’m NOT very surprised CompUSA is being bought out and closed up.