Are Customers a Dime a Dozen, Then?

I use this icon because that’s how it felt–as if I were invisible.

The only Apple Store around is in a very expensive area. The I’ve lived here twenty years and never been near it-type expensive. It’s in a gorgeous shopping center with lovely landscaping including waterfalls (in the desert, remember), fountains, and real trees. It’s not the type of place, I would think, where a shopper is accustomed to being treated as if no one cares about her presence.

When we arrived, it was the noisiest computer store I’d ever been in. There were chained-down iPads and chained down iPods and MacBook this and MacBook that and there were lots of people and there were kids. We looked a bit and found an employee in the mob who pointed us in the right direction to find what my friend wanted to see. Unfortunately, it was in use.

Yes, with no warning on the website, we’d stumbled into an apparent summer camp where employees teach kids to do stuff on Macs. Brilliant long-term marketing? I suppose so. But let me tell you that had I been there for me, I would have left and not returned. I had brought my friend who was there to spend some $2,000 and we couldn’t even get anyone to talk to for nearly an hour. She wanted to see the difference between the glossy screens and the glare-reducing ones, but the glare-reducing ones were all in use for the summer camp.

Did I mention store full of kids? Loud kids?

I’ve heard of the Apple Store as a great place to play with shiny expensive toys, but I, technophobe that I am (Ha!), did not find it so. Sure, I could watch movie clips on an iPad, but I couldn’t hear it. I could listen to the radio on an iPod–if I could have heard it.

Those little gizmos (I did not get a clear look) the employees carry to communicate are not super helpful, btw. What use is it to be queued online if there’s nowhere to sit or relax and no way to enjoy the things they are hoping you will play with and want to buy? I saw them used as an excuse–oh, I have to go stand over here, but it’s all right! I’ll put you on the list and someone will help you right away. We were aimed at other employees several times. One lady directed us to another employee to get put on another list, pointing him out with the hand that held the supposed communication device.

I would think if someone walks in planning to buy one of the more expensive items in your store, you might want to get them a little help.

We had to leave and come back for a reason unrelated to the Apple Store. Without that side trip, we spent an hour and a half acquiring a computer though my friend walked in knowing almost exactly what she wanted.

I have to say–I hope Macs are worth the hassle. Only one place in the entire city of 500K people to compare MacBooks and it’s going to take an hour and a half of being ignored?

Yeah.

I said “Ha!” earlier because I’m not really a technophobe. When my brother offered me a great deal to host my blog on his site, I learned WordPress. When Word kept crashing on me, I tossed it and learned OpenOffice. When I needed to step in and build a website for TDP, I learned Joomla!.

My point being, I’m not afraid of a learning curve. Had I been in that store to buy myself a Mac today, I would have walked out and found myself a PC instead. I can’t really think that’s a great way to run a business, but hey. They don’t seem to be doing too bad.

(It’s not a rant; it’s a review!)