Google’s first retail store takes more than a bit of inspiration from Apple

Google has opened its first ever physical retail store located on the first floor of its New York City headquarters. The store, in the city’s popular meatpacking district, also happens to be about a block away from a real Apple Retail Store.

People exit the Google Store on June 24, 2021 in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Google's first brick and mortar store opened earlier this month. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
People exit the Google Store on June 24, 2021 in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Google’s first brick and mortar store opened earlier this month. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Daniel Howley for Yahoo Finance:

Naturally, the two being so close invites some comparisons, and there’s no getting around it: Google — like Microsoft, which opened its own retail stores in 2009 — took more than a bit of inspiration from Apple’s retail aesthetic. But it’s not an exact copy of the Apple Store.

MacDailyNews Take: All Microsoft retail stores shut down last year.

Compared to the three-story Apple Store down the block, the Google Store is modest. It’s a single floor with a straightforward layout. The store has wooden display tables that show off the company’s Pixel phones, Pixel Buds, and Fitbits.

Naturally, there’s a help desk where you can bring in your Chromebook or Pixel for repairs, and a waiting area for you to relax while everything gets put back together.

MacDailyNews Take: Google’s Dunce Bar will be a busy place. Have fun “relaxing,” settlers.

On the other hand, Apple’s retail stores are an integral part of its business — letting customers check out and buy products without having to wait days for delivery orders. It doesn’t hurt that Apple’s hardware, the iPhone in particular, is some of the most coveted in the world. And as an aspirational brand, its stores are an extension of the kind of luxurious image Apple cultivates.

Google is known more for its software than its hardware. What’s more, it’s not an aspirational brand, but more of a utilitarian offering. Its products also don’t carry the same kind of panache as Apple’s.

MacDailyNews Take: A fake, wannabe, knockoff Apple Store for cheapskates and/or ignoramuses who settle for fake, wannabe, knockoff iPhones.

Derivative, user-tracking, privacy-trampling Google simply has no shame.

Google Android before and after Apple's iPhone

13 Comments

        1. I don’t have any particular feelings for Spotlight search, and my data isn’t being stolen when I offer it as payment for goods and services.

        2. Wrong on Apple claiming they invented search. But Anon is correct Spotlight search on Macs since OS Tiger is remarkable and awesome. Obviously you have no clue…

        3. I rarely use it, but then I rarely use my 2 macs.
          And of course I’m wrong silly, Apple hasn’t done a competitor to Google Search, but if they did…. 🙂

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