Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 11 August 2008 08:11
Opinion and Analysis
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Apple’s second Australian store has finally opened on a much smaller
scale than the first flagship store in Sydney’s CBD. Instead of massive
crowds and jammed city streets, reports say the store’s opening was
much more subdued, despite the best attempts of Apple staff to “whoop
it up”.
Ok, Apple store employees in Chatswood, do you feel a bit silly now? And what about the management people at Apple Australia, or Apple US?
I’ve just read APC Magazine’s
account of the store opening, which is pretty detailed, and the biggest complaint was that store staff needed to constantly cheer for a prolonged amount of time as the store opened, quickly turning “good cheer” into a sense of “oh, dear”...
You can read the grisly details at the link above, but you have to feel sorry for the local staff who would have had little choice but to follow Apple’s orders – or else.
From what I can tell, the extended cheering became embarrassing. What a way to convert a lot of good will into “oh, well...”. It’s also a good lesson, even for Apple, that you CAN have too much of a good thing. The term “sickly sweet” doesn’t exist for nothing, you know.
I mean, I really think the Apple store shopping experience is something special. It speaks for itself and teaches Australian retailers a thing or two about store design, product placement within a store, customer service, actually helpful sales assistants and a lot more.
All the store opening hoopla, for what is a much, much smaller store than the Sydney, is not a bad thing. It’s just that Apple laid it on, waaaay too thick.
Thankfully, Apple’s Chatswood store opening will soon be forgotten, and people can enjoy the Apple store experience without feeling like they’ve accidentally stumbled into an Amway convention.
The store itself, from the pictures I’ve seen, looks like the much larger Apple stores squeezed into a shopping mall store space. Apparently the store previously sold ladies’ fashion, but naturally Apple has completely redesigned it.
Continued on page 2.
