What is it About the Apple Store?

Photo credit: Vincent Ferrari

In 2006, Apple opened the most dramatically designed store ever conceived.  On the front steps of FAO Schwartz, CBS, and GM, they built a glass cube with a suspended glowing Apple logo.  When you follow the staircase down into the store, you see a retail experience that has been, at times, been called a model for consumer electronics retailers.  At the time the "cube" as it's referred to opened, Apple was averaging $4,000 of sales per square foot of retail floor space, a staggering number that put them in the company of such high-end retailers as Neiman Marcus ($611 per square foot), Best Buy ($966 per square foot), and even New York City icon Tiffany and Company ($2,666 per square foot).  When you think about it, the numbers are staggering.  This brings up the obvious question: why are the Apple retail stores so successful?  In my opinion, you don't need a degree in business or economics to answer this question.

Demo Models Actually Work
It stands to reason that if you're an electronics retailer, you should have demo models of your wares on the selling floor.  Apple takes this to the extreme and has every single item for sale on the sales floor, and sometimes at multiple places.  When you stand in front of an iMac or a MacBook, you can fully experience what it does and how it works.  Each computer on the showroom floor is loaded with not only the factory configuration of included software, but a few titles available in the software section of the site.  You won't find broken keyboards, missing mice, and the other depressing computer destruction you often find in big-box outlets or places like Best Buy because Apple employees are constantly swapping out bad keyboards and mice and making sure people aren't abusing the computers.  Instead of putting them off in a neglected corner of the store, they're front and center where they're cared for and maintained.  I think I speak for anyone here when I say it's always more comfortable buying something you can actually try out, and that's what sold me on my MacBook Pro.

Photo credit: Apple.com

No Pressure = More Sales
It seems counterintuitve, but the fact that you can walk into an Apple Store and spend as much time as you need with the product you're looking to buy means you won't be forced to explain your presence every thirty seconds.  You can even think about the item and then ask about it, rather than having to constantly have your thought process interrupted by someone asking "Do you have any questions?"  Employees maintain a good distance and don't sit on you waiting to pounce, and I think people appreciate it.  Are there a lot of teenage girls who run into the Apple Store to take MySpace photos?  Of course, but seeing as they're pulling down $4,000 per square foot of space, it's obvious those types aren't affecting sales.

Little Touches
Look at the newer Apple stores.  You'll notice something missing and it'll be very obvious almost immediately.  There are no cash registers.  As you walk the store, people have Windows CE handhelds (not a word from you CE heads out there!) that can ring you out on the spot.  In stores that do have actual cash registers, you'll most likely be pulled off the line if it's too long by someone holding one of these handhelds.  Many of the stores offer free WiFi.  The store in SoHo (Manhattan) has a theater where free trainings and demos happen on a daily basis.  All stores have a Genius Bar, and while the quality of the Genius Bar employees does vary, it's always helpful to have someone that can answer your questions with some degree of authority.  They'll even have a personal shopper ready for you, by appointment, to help you pick out the Mac that will best fit your needs.

In the end, Apple has done for retail what they did for computers.  They looked at what was out there, figured out what was and wasn't working, and decided to focus on the most important thing in the store: the customers.  For the most part, Apple has eliminated many of the annoyances of retail stores that we've come to hate and while they aren't perfect, it's obvious where their focus lies: you.

When you walk into Best Buy, everything is calculated.  The items in the front of the store are the ones they want you to buy.  Greeters are at the door, not to make you feel welcome, but to make it feel like you aren't entering the store "alone."  Salespeople pounce on you and will sell you anything you need, anything you don't need, and anything they can get into your shopping cart without even a second thought.  When you do finally get to actually buy something, you have to contend with the pressure of "do you want a service agreement?" for twenty minutes as they try to convince you that item you just picked up is a total piece of crap and if you don't get the warranty, you've wasted your money and will pay for it in the long run.  All this pressure from people who, according to them, don't work on commission.

Photo credit: Apple.com

Apple focuses on your experience, but also on their products.  They feel as if they don't need to "sell" you an iMac in a traditional sense.  You rarely get a "pitch" in an Apple Store; just an answer to a question or an explanation of the features.  Even after you choose a computer or an iPod / iPhone and they start asking you about Apple Care, a simple no puts a halt to it.  There are no "rewards club" cards, no magazine subscriptions, and no rebates (or at least no shady ones like you used to find at CompUSA).

When you take into account how many annoyances Apple has eliminated from their retail experience, it's no wonder they're reaping the financial benefits of fine-tuning their business to their customers' needs.

Vincent Ferrari is an Apple fan, videoblogger, blogger, writer, and all-around geek from the Bronx. He works in the IT Department of a cellular phone company that shall not be named, and lives in a very comfortable apartment with his lovely wife, two lovely cats, three Macs, two iPhones, and God-knows-how-many iPods of varying age.