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Apple Businesses

Design Guru Critiques Apple Retail Store 97

Posted by pudge from the mmm-shiny dept.
xdfgf writes "Paco Underhill, CEO of Envirosell, gives an overview, and explains aspects, of the floor plan of the SoHo Apple store. Quote from the article: 'If success lurks in details like those, it explains why Apple CEO Steve Jobs spends half a day each week with a 20-member design team, hashing out tweak after tweak in each of his 53 retail stores. In one session, the group agonized over three types of lighting to get Jobs's iMacs to shine just as they do in glossy ads.'"
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Design Guru Critiques Apple Retail Store More

Design Guru Critiques Apple Retail Store

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  • Design "Consultants" (Score:5, Interesting)

    by adso ( 469590 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @03:58PM (#5513986)

    As an architect, design consultants make my blood boil. While Mr Underhill may have spent hours in the local mall, noticing that people wander counterclockwise, a list of rules to follow does not a good design make.

    His suggestions- glass staircase scares off the oldsters, an "In Stock Now!" sign so people could tell it was a store, and putting more tchochkes at the checkout to get those impulsive spenders- all reek of items that would work well in a supermarket. I'm sure this guy makes millions getting retail corporate sheep to follow his dogmatic design rules (and they are dogmatic- I would hardly call some behavioral observations "science", no matter what the title of his book is.) but if he could step back and realize the kind of people Apple is marketing towards (at the very minimum, a group of people who appreciate good design) then he would know that those people who aren't afraid of a Unix-based operating system sure as hell aren't going to be afraid of a glass staircase. These people will be annoyed by cheap signs littered throughout a space trying to grab your attention (the architectural equivalent of a blinking banner ad) and the few coffee cups at the checkout counter trying to squeeze an extra four dollars out of you while you are waiting in line to spend two thousand.

    This is the kind of genius that thinks they should put some kind of pricing special into their ads (Order now and get the Yao Ming/Mini Me combination Powerbook/bobblehead free! Operators are standing by!)

    • Re:Design "Consultants" (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Twirlip of the Mists ( 615030 ) <twirlipofthemists@yahoo.com> on Friday March 14, 2003 @04:05PM (#5514058)
      ...if he could step back and realize the kind of people Apple is marketing towards (at the very minimum, a group of people who appreciate good design) then he would know that those people who aren't afraid of a Unix-based operating system sure as hell aren't going to be afraid of a glass staircase.

      Two thirds of Apple's core market is made up of the very young and the very old. Most of Apple's target customers have never even heard the word "UNIX." Generally speaking, Apple isn't marketing toward people who appreciate good design on a conscious level. They're marketing toward regular people. Regular people appreciate good design, but don't dwell on it. This tactic has the beneficial side-effect of appealing to fetishists, too.

      ...and the few coffee cups at the checkout counter...

      Actually, Apple's impulse items are iPods and the like, not coffee cups. It works, too. I was at an Apple store last fall to buy a copy of Microsoft Office for a new laptop, and when I got to the register I saw a stack of iPods sitting there. I decided, right there on the spot, to get one for myself and one for my girlfriend.

      • Re:Design "Consultants" (Score:5, Funny)

        by usr122122121 ( 563560 ) <usr122122121@braxtech . c om> on Friday March 14, 2003 @05:52PM (#5515152) Homepage
        [...] when I got to the register I saw a stack of iPods sitting there. I decided, right there on the spot, to get one for myself and one for my girlfriend.
        Next time you decide to go shopping, give me a call :-)
      • "...Two thirds of Apple's core market is made up of the very young and the very old..."

        So the other third is made up of the people who are between young and old? Is that it? :-)

    • Re:Design "Consultants" (Score:4, Interesting)

      by dbrutus ( 71639 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @04:07PM (#5514077) Homepage
      Don't be an ass. Some people have kids with strollers who would like a clear sign for that elevator too, not to mention that old people's money spends just as well as hip, cool 20 year olds.

      I can understand some of the critique but what's the problem with adjusting shelves so you don't have to stoop to see what's there? And for impulse buy items while you're on line? I'd suggest applecare contracts (which come in a very nice box), .mac signup kits, and perhaps a booklet listing every mac shop, teaching center, and mac consultant within a hundred miles of the store.

      There's no need for checkout tchochkes to be about bubble gum and the National Enquirer or for them to only be 4 bucks.

      • And those checkout counters aren't that big, either. With three items on the counter, how many more can you fit?

        As for AppleCare and .Mac, I think you're supposed to decide after the fact, when you start up your new computer and register it. Perhaps Apple doesn't want to scare people by selling them hardware and then asking if they want to warranty it, especially since most warranties are seen as a waste of money, and also because Apple has a lower hardware failure rate than everyone else but Dell. They pr
        • Applecare contract boxes are on the store shelves today. No matter how well your computer model is put together on average, some problems are going to happen after the 90 day support window. Some of that contract value is just in getting support without having to worry about pay per incident.

      • Re:Design "Consultants" (Score:5, Interesting)

        by adso ( 469590 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @04:39PM (#5514398)

        Don't be an ass. Some people have kids with strollers who would like a clear sign for that elevator too, not to mention that old people's money spends just as well as hip, cool 20 year olds.

        I just find it hard to believe that anyone with strollers or a disabilty would not know that in any two-level store, the elevator is almost always in the back (with the rest of the mechanical)

        Although he is generally positive about the store, what infuriates me is that Paco Underhill (Wasn't he Bilbo's neighbor in the Shire?) is applying concepts that seem to be more suited to a big-box retail store than to the Apple Store. I see Apple's retail strategy to be similar to the "branding environments" of stores like Nike Town, where you get to see and touch the products, but not necessarily buy them. Apple could easily stack the place to the rafters with product, but sheer sales volume is not what they are going for inside the store.

        • Apple certainly will be using their stores as branding environments but they also want them to turn a profit. Thus I see the need for adequate stock and maybe even a software to go station in case they run out of something or its a specialty product that isn't worth stocking in retail. They could call the kiosk "the other 95%" of available software.

        • I just find it hard to believe that anyone with strollers or a disabilty would not know that in any two-level store, the elevator is almost always in the back (with the rest of the mechanical)
          I didn't know that. But maybe that's because I've been in a Macy's where it's at the front, and a Target where it's in the middle. Come to think of it... I can't think of even one store I've been to which has an elevator in the back. But I don't get out much either now that my kids are no longer strapped down in

    • Re:Design "Consultants" (Score:5, Interesting)

      by fobside ( 140397 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @04:10PM (#5514114) Homepage
      Do people really go through the mall counterclockwise? I'm thinking about myself and I go clockwise. Damn, that means I'll never be in fashion, because I'll get to the crap when everyone is at the good stuff!

      Apple Stores make their computers look like their in a museum. I think that's an interesting idea. No other store I know does it this way.
      • Yep, they seriously go counter-clockwise. At least in the U.S.A.. Most people tend to walk in the same manner that they drive, so people walk toward the right of the sidewalk, aisle, shopping mall, etc. People want to be closer to the store and not have to cut through people to get to the store. This results in counter-clockwise malling...

      • Re:Design "Consultants" (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Twirlip of the Mists ( 615030 ) <twirlipofthemists@yahoo.com> on Friday March 14, 2003 @04:16PM (#5514167)
        Do people really go through the mall counterclockwise?

        I think people in the United States at least generally circulate to the right, or counterclockwise. The reason has to do with traffic. In the US, we drive on the right side of the road, so oncoming traffic is on our left. So when we walk through a store, we walk on the right side, so that the displays and whatnot are on our left.

        I qualify this by saying "in the United States" because I noticed once in Australia that it's just the opposite. I had to go to a mall in Sydney one time to pick up a new battery for my laptop, and I noticed that traffic generally circulated clockwise there. I haven't paid attention in any of the other Commonwealth countries, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were the same.

        Of course, it might have just been the Coriolis affect. ;-)
        • This effect can be observed almost universally throughout our society, not just in traffic malls. People just prefer walking on the right hand side of any type of path. So I ask you this: before we had cars, on what side of the path did people prefer to walk?
        • If traffic drives on the right then pedestrians should surely walk on the left, to face the oncoming traffic. Conversely if traffic drives on the left then pedestrians should keep right.
        • I think people in the United States at least generally circulate to the right, or counterclockwise.

          Sure, we had the Spiro Agnu watch, but I wasn't aware that that had actually resulted in a redefinition of "counterclockwise".

          • Sure, we had the Spiro Agnu watch, but I wasn't aware that that had actually resulted in a redefinition of "counterclockwise".

            Imagine a circular room. When you enter the room, you turn right and circle the room around its perimeter until you get back to the door again.

            Which way did you circle the room? Clockwise, or counterclockwise?
      • With me, it depends on where the entrance is in relation to the counters.

      • Re:Design "Consultants" (Score:4, Funny)

        by hey! ( 33014 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @05:23PM (#5514880) Homepage Journal
        Yes. Next time you go to a theme park, get there at opening and head clockwise from the entrance. No lines.

        • Re:Design "Consultants" (Score:1, Interesting)

          by Anonymous Coward
          Yes. Next time you go to a theme park, get there at opening and head clockwise from the entrance. No lines.

          It's usually not that simple, but people in theme parks do move in a predictable way. If you know when to go to each ride, you'll spend much less time waiting in line.

          I've seen books that describe how to do this for Disneyland (i.e. when to go on which rides). I read one of them, and it worked pretty well - I waited in line about 5 minutes for one ride, and when I went by later in the day, it look

      • Perhaps people tend to walk counter-clockwise because the large majority of people are right-handed, and lead to the favored side.

        Are you left-handed, by any chance?

    • Re:Design "Consultants" (Score:4, Interesting)

      by RandomCoil ( 88441 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @04:48PM (#5514482)
      I was very happy to read the post of someone who reacted the same way I did to the suggestions. Almost every suggestion attacked the sense of class the current design evokes, with the possible exception of the tilted shelves and the better elevator signage. My personal "favorite" suggestions were:

      1) Addition of "in stock now" signs. Nothing says class like advertising the fact you actually have what you're selling. (although perhaps "not in stock" signs would be useful for the 17" PowerBook)

      2) The concession stand. Because you want your entire store to wreak like a Starbucks and have the floor covered with spill stains.

      3) Add point of sale items near the register. Like Wal/K-mart. Because that's the image you want people to have.

      Clearly the author of the article is the one responsible for putting DVD players (!!!!) in my grocery store.

      RC

  • It breaks the rules yet works? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tuxedobob ( 582913 ) <tuxedobob@mac . c om> on Friday March 14, 2003 @04:08PM (#5514091)

    Strange how he picked an atypcial store to analyze. Most Apple stores are one floor. In any case, one hopes there's more to his analysis than just the 7 points he mentions, especially since the Apple Store apparently fails five of them. (But a concession stand in an Apple Store? What, instead of free Evian?) Nevertheless, Apple Stores are, even by the author's own account, a success, so you have to wonder if perhaps the rules are flawed. It may be precisely because Apple Stores are so different that people are intruiged by almost everything in the store.

    As a side note, I have to wonder how many females traverse the glass staircase in skirts or dresses.
    ...Probably none, actually.

    • Helpful and minamilist ... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Midnight Thunder ( 17205 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @04:35PM (#5514355) Homepage Journal
      I think the thing that the designer doesn't quite get the concept of the store. It is meant to feel helpful and minamilist. You end up wanting to buy a product simply because you don't feel that you are being forced to buy something and thus you feel that you are buying by choice and with your defenses down.

      Walking into an Apple store is akin to walking into a luxury car show room. Nobody talks prices or tries to sell you anything, until *you* want to, yet the product for sale is presented there and you buy it because you know you want it and that you feel you are being treated with due respect, rather than a jerk who will accept the salesman's forced pitch.

    • "... I have to wonder how many females traverse the glass staircase in skirts or dresses."
      You can't walk underneath the saircase. It is blocked. The walkway on the second floor is actually a little scary because of its height (though I can't remember if it is transparent).

      In defence of the author, he probably has a hundred criterion he uses to critique stores, most of which he found to be taken care of and so didn't mention them.

      However, I'm pretty sure he was thinking of more of a K-Mart type place w
    • I think that the "rules" are weird anyway and won't work for the Apple stores. Apple sells abot 15 products, and all of them are unique in the product line. I think what they were after was a sort of vertical integration. Make the best looking computers. Make sure the graphics shine (hence the uncomfortable term "lickable" used to describe the interface). Then, make sure the products look as good in the store as they do in the ads.

      Most importantly: CompUSA and Microcenter are terrifying, chaotic messes tha

  • Making apples shine (Score:3, Funny)

    by Hellraisr ( 305322 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @04:15PM (#5514156)
    If you want to make an Apple shine, just do like in the grocery store business.

    Spray wax on them.

  • Well I go to the one in Albany. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @05:05PM (#5514652)
    But the main reason I like it is the fact that it is not cluttered with all impulse buys everywhere. There is pleanty of room to look around and see what they are selling and actually stop and look at it without feeling that I am getting in the way of other people (Like I do at the grocery store). As well the store is well lit so I can see things clearly. Oddly enough I seem to go from the left to the right. I first look at the powerbooks and PowerMacs then I go around the other way. Its more of a relaxed shopping experence and a not in your face thing.
  • geez Pudge, you could at least credit Macslash [macslash.org] somewhere in your articles when they beat you to the punch by a whole friggin' week [macslash.org]. Your headlines are eerily similar too.

    Triv
    • LOL. Sometimes macslash beats pudge to the punch sometimes it's the other way around. The only thing we can count on is that people will post comments like this on whichever site got it second.

  • I think the whole idea is to get people inside (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ilsie ( 227381 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @05:34PM (#5514990)
    Paco talks a lot about making changes to the inside of the store. But for me (and I am primarily an x86 user), as soon as I walked into the Apple store at some mall in Cincinnati, the product pretty much spoke for itself. I walked around, drooling over the pretty ibooks, running my finger round and round the static flywheel on the ipods, gawking at the humongous flatpanel displays. I wanted one of everything in the store.

    My point being, has this Paco guy ever seen Apple's products? I think all they need to do is get people to come into the store in order to sell stuff. Granted, this doesen't mean you want crack vials lying on the floor or something, but you get my drift.
    • My point being, has this Paco guy ever seen Apple's products? I think all they need to do is get people to come into the store in order to sell stuff. Granted, this doesen't mean you want crack vials lying on the floor or something, but you get my drift.

      Hey, don't go knocking the crack-vials-on-the-floor technique! I'm sure it would at least increase traffic through the store :P

  • In other news... (Score:5, Funny)

    by bobdotorg ( 598873 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @06:24PM (#5515408)
    Gateway contracted the Cow to design their Gateway Country stores.
  • Put it on Mr Underhills tab...that's what I always say

  • keep signage big and bold? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Right... the pristine, minimalist design of an Apple store would be SO enhanced by glowing neon "In Stock!" signs. An Apple store isn't a friggin' Wal-Mart. And a concession? Please. "Hi, welcome to the Apple store! Do you want fries with that?"

    Did this guy even go INTO the store? I mean, c'mon...
    • Actually, a glowing neon "in stock" sign sounds kind of kitschy. And self-aware kitsch would definitely fly in Soho -- Soho is all about retro trash anyway.

      Although, whether Apple wants to fit in to the Soho image - which right now they kind of don't, and frankly, that's a good thing because Soho sucks - is another story...

  • Wi-Fi in an apple store near you? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by inblosam ( 581789 ) on Friday March 14, 2003 @07:39PM (#5515944) Homepage
    Anyone think they will be putting in Wi-fi for public access anytime soon? I am guessing most stores don't have a theatre like this SOHO one, but maybe integrating a small cafe where you can access your email and behold the Mac's around you. What stipulations would you want to incur? Must be using an airport card, must buy something (if only trivial), or must have had a purchase/repair previously?

    Won't affect me unless I move out of the middle of Missouri though. :)

    On a different note, I LOVE going to our University Bookstore's computer department just to look at the Mac's there...that makes me want to own one of everything alone. Maybe it is the product more than the store! But maybe the store is a great vehicle for understanding the product.
    • Not to be a dick (too much), but, Macs, Macs, Macs, Macs.

      The Mac's curves are sexy. I like to look at the curves on the Macs. Curves are nice. The curve's radius was too small and the cars flew off the road. I broke my car's windshield.

      Otherwise, good post :-)
    • As far as I know, they are indeed public access. During the grand opening of the Somerset store, I had to wait in line for an hour or so. Whike waiting, I checked Slashdot, chatted with my friends, and Rendezvouzed/iChatted with the Macs inside. Quite cool.

      I was there again today to get my iBook battery fixed, and I happily got free Internet access while waiting.

  • Apple's unique ability to do what they do (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Ry R. ( 658722 ) <ry@NosPAM.braxtonian.com> on Friday March 14, 2003 @09:03PM (#5516498) Homepage

    It occurred to me the other day that Apple is steering us towards the shiny (brushed) metal future that countless science fiction books, movies, TV shows, movies and conceptual art has foretold.

    The clean look that surrounded factious HAL's world in 2001: A Space Odyssey is becoming Apple's reality.

    The stores are just an extension of this; they have managed to create, as others have pointed out, an environment that is conducive to buying because it doesn't seem designed for selling. Yes, it shows off the products, but it doesn't show them off the obvious here's-the-damn-product way that car showrooms do, and it doesn't layer products on shelves like Wal-Mart (and most everyone else). It just sets the products up the ideal space you would want to use them, a sterile (yet warm and comfortable) studio somewhere overlooking the flying-car future of New York.

    It reminds me of Gerhard Richter [nytimes.com], the fussed-over German painter, who lives in such an environment: homely sterility.

    But what Apple does is pretty much impossible for any else to replicate: They are able to create such an environment because they not only dictate what is sold (Wal-Mart does this) but because they make (i e design) most everything they sell. Additionally they set the most-always-followed president for the design of products that accompany what they make: Their human interface design stretches beyond the software that runs on their OS, it encompasses most every product and most every product box that they sell.

    Because of this kinetic link not just between what they make and what they sell but what other people make for them to sell, Apple is uniquely able to create the Apple Store, something no Windows PC maker could because of the mesh that makes up not just their software or hardware world, but any front-end retail attempts.

    • But what Apple does is pretty much impossible for any else to replicate: They are able to create such an environment because they not only dictate what is sold (Wal-Mart does this) but because they make (i e design) most everything they sell.

      And also, if someone looks at the product for an hour there, then buys somewhere else (cheaper), they still make money.

      You could make an equivilant shop for anything, but unless you make the product you take the hit of (a section) people using your store resource

  • As an ex-Apple employee... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Johnny Mnemonic ( 176043 ) <mdinsmore&gmail,com> on Friday March 14, 2003 @11:26PM (#5517189) Homepage Journal

    Look, I love Apple products--I really do. But Jobs has always suffered from missing the forest for the trees, and this latest example is just another clear indication of that. "Making sure the light was just right so they glowed just like they should?" Meanwhile: the processor speed is becoming more and more of a factor, third party developers are only barely on board, and when they are their support is lackluster, Apple's strategy for penetration into vertical markets and turnkey solutions is represented by some powerpoint slides, and they haven't given raises to the employees for two years. The attitude still is: if you don't get it, it's not worthwhile trying to convert you.

    Apple needs to keep its eye on the ball, and while the design details make for an impressive presentation, you're at least partially selling to a market that knows how to evaluate on the basis of third party benchmarks to price ratio. While design aspects are, I think, part of what makes owning an Apple a special experience, I think the resource of time is being squandered on those concerns and left the meat of the consideration go begging.

    The core of the problem: to buy a Mac, you spend more to purchase a machine with less speed, and will work with fewer third parties. All the nice lighting in the world won't fix that, and so I wish they spent that 4 hours a week thinking about improving those things instead. However, in the long run, that's undoubtedly harder--and it requires that Apple folks work with partners, and they are often too self-righteous to do so.

    • Re:As an ex-Apple employee... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 15, 2003 @02:20AM (#5517927)
      "Processor speed is becoming more and more of a factor?" By processor speed, I assume you must mean how many gigahertz it has. I suppose that's why Intel's just introduced the 1.6 GHz Centrino chips, which they claim is significantly faster than 2.5 GHz P4s. On the contrary, it's becoming more and more evident that processor speed is becoming one of the less important factors for consumer. The fact that the PC industry is still essentially suffering during a time when processors have made incredible gains in speed should be proof enough that speed isn't enough of a hook to get consumers to buy new machines. The stores are doing great for Apple. They're well-lighted, well organized, and the environment is very friendly. The Apple Stores are also the only computer retail store I've ever visited with female sales clerks. By that, I mean, women who are actually technically non-clueless and who do more than just stand around ringing up the register. The fact is, the Apple stores are already ringing up - what, some 20% of sales for Apple. We're talking a mere 50 or so stores that are on track to bring in close to half a million dollars of revenue each year. Clearly, people love the stores. How you can associate the lack of 2+ Ghz G4s with the stores being a wasted effort is beyond me.
    • Actually, I'm under the impression that since the introduction of Mac OS X, a lot more third party stuff is available for the Mac. First of all, there's all the free and non-free (like MatLab and Oracle) unix software that got or is being ported. Also, pretty much all programs that were available for Mac OS 9 have been ported to Mac OS X (with the notable exception of QuarkXPress, although that will be out in a couple of months as well).

      Regarding the processor speed issue: yes, that is a real issue for a

      • But do you honestly think that people who think about lighting in a store can do something about that?

        Well Jobs (apparently) spent 4 hours a day (presumabbably not for life, but for more then a few days) working with the lighting people. One assumes that is 4 hours a day he can't spend on the phone to Moto saying "get me a faster CPU!", or to IBM saying "get me POWER4's I can afford to sell!"

    • First off in terms of processor speed that really isn't apple's fault. Motorollla dropped the ball. Check on the 970 processor they are moving to somewhere betwee 3-9 mos. Most likely Macs will go back to their position from the 1980s of having faster processors than PCs, not to mention they'll be a 64 bit platform so within a year or two you'll have a repeat of the Macs handle 16megs while PCs handle 640k just with bigger numbers.

      As for 3rd party developers don't forget its a BSD which means they tons
    • The type of person who buys an iMac at the retail Apple Store (as opposed to a custom-built machine from the online Apple Store) doesn't know what "megahertz" means. Maybe they know what a G4 is, maybe not. In their case, lighting that makes the product look as they've seen it before could actually help. The fact remains that Apple's human engineering has always been peerless, and their retail stores are no exception. The stores draw in people who maybe have never seen a Mac in person before, or at most

      • The type of person who buys an iMac at the retail Apple Store ... doesn't know what "megahertz" means

        I'm guessing, but I think that I have had more contact with purchasers at the Apple store than you. And while that is true for some of them, I think you might be surprised to learn how many come in with Dell ads in hand, and compare feature-to-feature. It is a lot of money, after all, and so most folks make a very careful, very informed purchase.

        Nevertheless, let's say they do buy the iMac, pretty ligh

  • The glass stairs he talks about aren't really such a big deal -- they are translucent rather than transparent, and that's only apparent because there are lights shining up from underneath. I've been in buildings that promote a sort of adrenaline rush -- seven stories with metal grating for each floor, for example -- and the stairs in Apple SoHo do not qualify.

    According to a rumor I've heard, when the store opened for the first time, the manifold legions of press rushed inward. The architect for the glass

  • "People drift to the right when they enter a store, then circulate counterclockwise."

    Then shouldn't they be designing these stores for the *clockwise* traffic of us Apple users?

  • Why do people hang to the right? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by weave ( 48069 ) on Saturday March 15, 2003 @02:50PM (#5520176) Journal
    Why do people go to the right? Is this a result of which side people drive on? I've noticed in shopping malls too, people walk down the right side of the aisle, but when I was in UK, I didn't see any real pattern, people just kinda walked wherever. (Not a scientific study of course).

    Anyone from countries like Japan, Australia, or UK care to offer any insight? Do you walk to the left when entering a shop?

  • How I envision MOST sales from the retail stores (Score:4, Interesting)

    by amichalo ( 132545 ) on Saturday March 15, 2003 @02:59PM (#5520217)
    Other than a USB hub or iPod, I envision most major purchases starting this way:

    PC/Mac user sees switch/other ad on TV

    Said user goes to store.apple.com or calls 1-800-APPLE to get more info

    User realizes how much better their life coul dbe if they owned one of these products

    User also sees on-line or is told over phone their is an Apple store X miles away

    User hops into car and goes to store where they THEN see the product for the first time

    User say to themselves "WOW a 17" Powerbook or 23" Cinema Display is AWESOME" and then proceeds to purchase and take home said product on the spot.

    This is how it went down for one of my friends before they 'switched' - just needed to touch it and feel it before slamming down the Visa.

    • I concur entirely. This was basically the same experience that I had in buying my TiBook, and one of my friends just concluded in buying a new 12" Powerbook.

      Apple's advertising is as good as it gets, and people want their products. Physical stores exist so people can check to make sure the product really exists, and really looks as damn sexy as they thought it would.

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