Apple Opens First 'Next Generation' Retail Store (usatoday.com) 91
An anonymous reader writes: Apple has opened its new flagship store on Thursday in San Fransisco, throwing the curtain back on a design that puts a premium on hanging out over shopping. About 20 percent of the new store's space features an open Forum area where visitors can learn about Apple's various products. The new design is rolling out to stores in Brussels, Memphis and Guilderland, N.Y. "This is the next generation of Apple retail," Angela Ahrendts, Apple's senior vice president of retail and online operations, told media. "Fifteen years ago today Apple opened its first two stores and we're thrilled to mark the occasion with the opening of Apple Union Square in San Francisco," she said. "We are not just evolving our store design, but its purpose and greater role in the community as we educate and entertain visitors and serve our network of local entrepreneurs." The new stores were designed by Ahrendts and Apple's design chief, Jony Ive. "Among the other big changes in evidence is morphing Apple's Genius Bar to Genius Grove; the addition of a new Boardroom area dedicated to small business customers; and the advent of a new staff position, Apple Creative Pro, tasked with helping consumers with specific questions on music, photography, videos and the like," writes USA Today. "In addition, some of Apple's most significant store locations, include the [Apple Union Square in San Fransisco], will feature a public Plaza that will be open 24/7 and feature free Wi-Fi as well as occasional concerts and other performances." Oh, and you can't forget about the new 6K video wall, which display broadcasts various Apple products.
Well duh (Score:1)
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I'll bet the bathrooms are even transgender!
Good.
Re:Ooh boy! (Score:4, Funny)
Not all of you. Not yet.
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If you want to protect children from perverts, you should keep them away from GOP politicians and religious leaders.
Totally agree. On the other hand, if you want to protect them from serial killers and mass murderers it's best to keep them away from Democrats (like John Wayne Gacy, or the Ft Hood shooter, or the Virginia Tech shooter, or the Batman movie shooter, or the Washington Navy yard shooter, or the Tucson shooter, or the Connecticut school shooter). Honorable mentions to he Democrats who killed MLK, JFK, Bobby Kennedy, John Lennon and Malcolm X.
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If you want to protect children from perverts, you should keep them away from GOP politicians and religious leaders.
Totally agree. On the other hand, if you want to protect them from serial killers and mass murderers it's best to keep them away from Democrats (like John Wayne Gacy, or the Ft Hood shooter, or the Virginia Tech shooter, or the Batman movie shooter, or the Washington Navy yard shooter, or the Tucson shooter, or the Connecticut school shooter). Honorable mentions to he Democrats who killed MLK, JFK, Bobby Kennedy, John Lennon and Malcolm X.
Atheists FTW! :-)
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Society is going to hell when someone shits into the wrong bowl?
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I've read enough of their columns to understand it. I don't agree, but I can understand it well enough to explain it.
A lot of the opposition is based in the basic 'icky' element, but the more rigorous justifications turn to natural law. The concept that there is a 'rightness' ordained to society. Some see this order as divine, a plan by God himself, others as simply a part of human nature which cannot be opposed without creating conflict and chaos. This natural law says how things should be. Among other thi
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Moderate down all you want. I don't agree with the views explained above, I just understand them well enough to try to explain how that manner of thinking works.
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Don't know where you got your "information" from, but there's no need to "keep having it cut open again when it inevitable heals up."
As for dilating, a hard man is good to find.
My body, my choice - that's not some "special rights." Women have been saying it for decades. Get with the times.
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By the way - two points:
ONE: Psychiatrists don't classify it as a mental illness, so who should people believe, professional specialists or some random coward on the net with zero credibility and zero studies to back them up? Gee, that's a hard one ...
TWO: If it is a mental illness, do you always go around berating the mentally ill? How sick are you? Why would you deprive someone that you claim has a mental illness from receiving a treatment that is 98% successful? (which is higher than the success rate f
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ONE: Psychiatrists don't classify it as a mental illness, so who should people believe, professional specialists or some random coward on the net with zero credibility and zero studies to back them up? Gee, that's a hard one ...
Uh, yeah they do. DSM V classifies it as "gender dysphoria disorder." It's still a mental disease, no matter what the crazed PC crowd wants to believe.
No matter how you want to lie, there is no "disorder" in "gender dysphoria. Transsexualism itself is also no longer regarded as a mental disorder. So like I wrote, who should I believe - some asshole on the internet or professionals?
Also, you failed completely to ignore my point about "so what if it's a mental disorder?" Here it is again, an ugly consequence to your attitude:
TWO: If it is a mental illness, do you always go around berating the mentally ill? How sick are you? Why would you deprive someone that you claim has a mental illness from receiving a treatment that is 98% successful? (which is higher than the success rate for any mental illness, btw) Do you also kick guide dogs? Push people in wheel chairs down stairwells? Make fun of people who stutter or lisp?"
Admit it - you're just a misogynistic bully who hides behind anonymity.
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Give it up already. If the law says I'm a woman, and my birth certificate says I'm a woman, and everyone around me treats me like a woman, who am I to disagree?
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Oh please, everyone knows straight males don't need protection. At least if they're white. If they're black, then at best they can hope for protection from white males. Who gets protected from whom when a white female meets a black guy depends on the main agenda of the one yelling at you, at least that's my current understanding.
So far I haven't fully figured out the protection totem pole. All I know is that on the bottom there's the white, straight, protestant guy and on top is the genderunspecified panrel
More important (Score:3)
Does it come with Safe Spaces? And I sure hope the special snowflakes do not have to walk across the whole building with all those horrible people in there to get there.
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Or maybe gender neutral? Never understood why single occupancy bathrooms even need a gender assignation?
Why Guilderland? (Score:2)
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Most likely because it's an upscale mall in the Albany area, which is reasonably affluent, and not too far from New York City, so they can experiment without necessarily closing a more flagship store.
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Ew (Score:2, Insightful)
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Actually it is the worker's governments which permit this sort of thing that need to change. For that to happen, the citizens living there need to do something.
That worked out really well (Score:2)
"What they do to workers" (Score:4, Insightful)
You mean being the best employer in China to work for, by a large margin, because workers are treated better and get bonuses?
It should be said, that is entirely unlike the sweatshop box YOU are typing on, Apple Hater.
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That Chinese company really care about the employees, they even offer them a safety net in case they experience psychological distress!
That even beats the Nike production line in Vietnam where women were provided with athletic trainng opportunities, running around the factory in the pleasant summer days.
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Best? Not even close. I don't know how much you've been to China (if ever), but as someone who lived there for 6 years and still spends 40% of my year there, I can tell you that Hon Hai is FAR from the best. And I've been at the Longhua and Zhengzhou facilities. They still have 25% annual turnover, wages BARELY (like 10%) exceed minimum wage rates for each city, and overall bonuses are a pittance - and are composed mainly of overtime pay.
You want a good factory with low turnover, look at a place like Ti
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This is what you do when your products suck; suck ass, suck hind tit and suck moosecock.
This is what you do when your comment sucks; use the words suck, hind, tit, and mousecock.
The Memphis one opened a month ago (Score:3)
http://appleinsider.com/articl... [appleinsider.com]
They say it's designed to give you the laid-back feeling of shopping in a small town.
I'm so ecited (Score:2, Funny)
I'm so excited. If this isn't true innovation I don't know what is. I'll go line up now for when the store opens.
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It reminds me of book and media stores before the Internet came along and killed the demand for physical media. Before that coffee houses. Before that taverns.
Businesses, stop with the stupid job titles (Score:2)
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Ok toughguy. I work at the Apple store on Chestnut St. Come in there and say that to my face.
You're obviously one of those "Apple geniuses". :-)
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If I ran a next-gen Apple Store, I would have this video projected on an endless loop.
https://youtu.be/hfjHJneVonE [youtu.be]
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I think we found the reason Russia invaded the Ukraine.
KILL IT WITH FIRE! Holy mother of $deity, what the FUCK is that?
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Welcome to euphemism land!
People are not retarded anymore, they are "special". People are not crippled anymore, they are "differently able". Broke people are not on the dole, they're "the Precariat".
And useless people are now "Apple Geniuses".
What's so difficult to understand? Get with the times, man!
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I'll fetch you an Apple Genius, hold on!
Hey guys! (Score:2)
I've seen these things called "Hackerspaces", so what about making "Applespaces"?
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You give them an Apple portable and a screwdriver and see how long it takes for someone to break a product trying to open it?
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You give them a 2014 Mac mini, a 8GB SODIMM and tell them they have only 15 minutes to upgrade the computer.
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Applespaces? Is that like... you know, Safe Spaces, just way more FABULOUS?
People seem to have forgotten (Score:4, Interesting)
Originally, when Apple planned to renovate the Union Square retail location, they intended to remove the fountain that was on the property. Regardless of the aesthetic/cultural value of that fountain (personally, I think it's kind of an eyesore but I absolutely respect that others might not feel the same way), the public protested, and as a result, Apple changed their plan, and the fountain remains.
I think that says something about a corporation--even one as large and influential as Apple is--that they are willing to listen to the community. That they designed the store with the intent--whether or not it is realized--to integrate with the community, is something that I doubt many other major tech companies really care about. But in typical pessimist Slashdot "nothing is ever good enough and every action has some sinister and ulterior motive" fashion, people seem to always find some reason to complain.
Yes, it's a retail store. Yes, it's for Apple to make money. Yes, there was an environmental impact. No, Apple doesn't sell your beloved Android system. No, Apple isn't God, and they don't let their iPhones run anything you want. No, Apple doesn't do everything you want them to do exactly how you want them to do it and for free. No, the building is not some miracle of architecture designed to be perfect in every way, even if Apple hopes you might think so. Yes, Apple has their cult following.
Given all that, just take a deep breath, relax, and admit that it's a decent renovation, that there will be people who will enjoy the new store, and that Apple, unlike a lot of other companies and for whatever reason, at least tries to care about doing the right thing in this case. That is neither a case for sainthood nor demonization.
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You want the retail chief and design chief to fix the iTunes Store? iTunes has a LOAD of issues, but the iTunes Store isn't one of them. The App Store is another matter, but neither of the people you named have any say over that. And the guy in charge of it, Phil Schiller, has actually made some nice changes recently, such as knocking review time down from a week or two to two days.
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Wow, someone's been drinking the kool-aid. They kept the fountain because their main markets are hipsters and older people who care about that. They are heavily reliant on the Reality Distortion Field, which is what this new store is designed to boost, for sales. Think about it, they are turning it into Starbucks, a place where people hang out with the MacBooks writing novels and using Facetime, because that's what hipsters and older people respond to.
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Thanks for proving my point.
Open 24/7? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm not sure what the point is, staying open 24/7 near Union Square. It's very busy during the day, but most of the late-night activity takes place in other parts of town. Is the market so saturated that their next target demographic is homeless people?
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Unless this is May 19th 2015, which would make it "on time" for /. standards, I have no idea what that story is doing here already.
The products are the same (Score:3)
Please open Customer Service Centers (Score:3)
Changing the genius bar to a genius grove, opening a plaza - it sounds like Apple is trying to make enough room in their retail stores. That's good. But here's another idea for making room in Apple stores:
I wish Apple would open Customer Service Centers (CSC). A CSC would take care of non-sales jobs, like genius bars, repairs, and workshops. Apple stores still would do these functions, but customers would have the added option of going to a CSC instead of to a store.
Because a CSC would not do any sales, it should not be in a mall. The CSC should be in an area that's easy to drive to, with plenty of empty parking stalls near the CSC. (The Apple retail stores that I go to are in malls, and the parking spots near the stores are usually taken. If I have to take my iMac to an Apple store for repair, and if I have to park far away from the mall entrance, then it's hard to carry the iMac to the store.) Also the CSC should be large enough to have plenty of room in it for its customers.
If most Apple customers went to CSCs for repairs and genius bars, instead of going to retail stores, then that would help in several ways:
* Apple retail stores would be less crowded, and the sales staff would have more time to attend to the customers. (In the Apple stores that I go to, there are lots of employees and customers, and the people are crammed like sardines. Most store owners would love to have the problem of their stores being crowded with "too many customers", but the crowding makes it hard for me to ask questions and try out their computers.)
* It would be less crowded and stressful for the Apple employees and customers in a CSC. Customers in the CSC would be able to walk into the CSC, talk with a genius, pick up a repaired computer or whatever, and walk out.
* Since CSCs would not be in shopping malls, Apple could choose from plenty of options on where to put them. So Apple would be able to open CSCs in areas with empty parking stalls nearby.
* If Apple opened lots of CSCs, then customers who lived near a CSC but not near an Apple retail store would have a nearby place to go, for genius bars and repairs. (The nearest Apple store is 30 miles away? That's ok - a CSC is just 5 miles away.)
Re:Please open Customer Service Centers (Score:4, Insightful)
But it'd also harm impulse purchases. Right now when someone needs CSC services they have to also look at all the cool new iStuff. That's taking lots of people who already have at least one Apple product and giving them a presentation on more Apple products they could buy right there. Go in to fix your Mac - leave with a fixed Mac and an iPad to go with it.
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Non.... sales? There is such a thing?
Ok, who left the door open? I told you time and again, if you leave doors open techs will come into the marketing meetings and ruin everything with their non-profitable ideas!
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Because a CSC would not do any sales
Oh lol!