Just kidding. There are none. What competes against an Apple Store? Nothing. Well, maybe some discounts here and there, otherwise, nothing. Apple Stores are that good.
Apple’s chief of retail decided the time was good to move on to another challenge. Angel Ahrendts did her job and made the stores a mecca of sorts for Apple customers, and now she gets to count tens of millions if compensation. Any such change at Apple brings out the vultures.
Tea Leaves
Many of Apple’s critics and soothsayers and prognosticators tried to read into the tea leaves to determine why Ahrendts left and what Apple could do with a new retail honcho.
Yogi Berra on Apple Stores:
No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded.
That’s the problem with Apple Stores. They’re too crowded. Ahrendts did her job and decided to move on to another adventure, yet that hasn’t stopped Apple’s certified critics from reading tea leaves on her departure.
T.T. O’Brien put it best.
Quit? Or, fired? Who cares? Ignore the nattering nabobs of negativity and members of the technorati elite politburo who would politicize the event behind their cloudy crystal balls.
Sometimes a tea leaf is just a tea leaf.
Indeed.
So, the question anybody should ask before dissing Ahrendts or making a list of how to fix what obviously is not broken, is simple. Can you name an alternative to Apple Stores that is better?
Yogi:
You can observe a lot by just watching.
It ain’t Best Buy or Target or Walmart. You might find an independent retailer that does a good job of taking care of Apple customers, but they are few and far between. What is obvious is that Apple did retail right. No pressure from Associates. No sales. Plenty of Apple and third party products on hand. Plenty of knowledgeable Associates. Easy purchase options and easy returns.
Microsoft mostly copied Apple Store but only managed to open a few dozen because, well, who wants to buy a Windows PC at the mall?
We can fuss all day about ways to make an Apple Store better tomorrow than it is today, but let’s be straightforward and honest about the situation. There is nothing better by any competitor or any other retailer. Nothing. Not today. Not yesterday. Probably not tomorrow.
Yogi:
The future ain’t what it used to be.
Angela Ahrendts is gone. Apple’s Stores are crowded and a big success. Her successor might make changes. The first I would like to see is, well, honestly, more stores. That would solve many of the obvious problems and Apple has the money to make it happen. Maybe Apple’s board of directors said no to a plan to double the number of retail stores, so Ahrendts took her stock and left. After all, Apple has reached a plateau, right?
Who knows what the future will bring?
Yogi:
You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.
Indeed.
Tom says
Thursday, February 21, 2019 at 3:14 AMMaybe yesterday was the answer to the Apple store. There used to be, a long long time ago a smattering of small shops with two or three mac shamans. They had new and old Mac and Apple hardware, gadgets,software etc. Then…. wouldn’t it be great if there were more of them ? A lot more, and all in (The Mall) one place. How did we miss the pitfalls ? Probably the same path that blinds one to the possibility that what feels good and what’s a good idea are different things. Thanks for the Yogi Berra comments.
willis says
Thursday, February 21, 2019 at 7:51 PMWhat if you don’t live near an Apple Store? For me, the nearest store is about two hours away.
Apple’s got you covered. Apple Store online, Best Buy, Amazon— all with inventory and only sales and service. The only real issue is face-to-face time at the Genius Bar, or touch-and-feel time before purchase.
What’s the alternative?
It’s not as if competitors have stores everywhere— other than Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile. I don’t seen any Macs or iPads when I walk in and their staff isn’t exactly genius quality.