Los Gatos Apple Store

I had one of the worst shopping experiences in years at the Los Gatos Apple Store last night. First let me say that as you may know, I'm a long-time Apple advocate. But I'm beginning to question my affinity and their understanding of good user experience.

• It was 41 degrees outside the Apple Store and 41 degrees inside the Apple Store. They had the front doors wide open on a cold night in January. People were literally hopping up and down and patting their arms to stay warm. The employees seemed to not notice. In fact they had someone standing at the entrance to greet people. I felt sorry for her as you could see her breath as she said hello.
  
• It was brighter than the sun inside. My eyes hurt. It wasn't a warm brightness though, it was a fake, fluorescent, blinding brightness from the lights above, the lighted promotional panels telling us how great Apple is, and the rapid fire of dozens of LCD screens all around. Ironically, it felt very much like that 1984 Apple commercial. Cold, ugly, blinding light. I wish I could have run in there and smashed the screens to prove a point.
  
• I found what I was looking for right away (a game for my son) but it was on the top shelf of their software wall... 9ft high. I'm 6' 2", I had to jump to reach it. Who the hell designs merchandising like this? In fact the entire store left me wondering. Cold concrete floors, insanely bright displays, tiny ipods spread out across yards of surface space. It just looked bad. But worst of all, there is no register. No place to go to actually purchase something.
  
• No registers! I know Apple thinks this is cool, or modern, or the height of customer service to have sales people roaming around with refurbished Newtons to ring you up, but they are not dedicated cashiers. They are also sales reps... and if they are "helping" customers with a product, they can't be ringing other people up. It's really disconcerting. Your eye looks around for a counter. The only counter is the Genius Bar and you have to sign up and wait around just to speak with someone. There's a line there, but you don't know if you can buy something there or if it's just for support. So you wander around. As I did. Pacing and waiting for some asshole with a Newton to acknowledge me. After 10 minutes I went up to the shivering girl at the door and asked how I could buy something. She said that the people in the blue shirts could help me buy something. But not the teal blue, just the dark blue, but there was one guy in a teal blue shirt inexplicably with a Newton that could help me, but only if I was paying by credit card or debit card. I said what about a gift card, and she said oh yeah a gift card will work. So I went to stand near the teal blue guy who was demonstrating Leopard to someone, but as soon as he was done, he bolted to the back room. I then paced around other people in blue shirts until after 10 more minutes, a woman in a dark blue shirt came from behind the Genius Bar and asked me if I wanted to purchase the thing I was holding... Genius!
  
• As I was pacing, I noticed how much Los Gatos has changed. It always was a place for the more affluent, but it's gotten out of hand in recent years. The customers in the store seemed so plastic and manufactured. Conspicuous displays of wealth or the insecurity of not looking wealthy. Image seemed so important. Being away from Los Gatos for three years and living in a more down to earth Santa Cruz magnifies this. There was a sense of entitlement about these people, which is why I probably couldn't get rung up. These people desired to be served, waited on, which ties up their dark blue shirt people. Much of this would be solved if they just had a damn counter for sales.
  
• This experience got me thinking that Apple has its wires crossed. Their commercials are about how simple and easy Apple is, but their retail experience and brand is just the opposite. It's slick and unapproachable. Listen, I know Apple, I've owned 10 Apple computers, I use them for work machines, I have purchased 6 ipods, an iphone Apple TV, etc. I'm writing this on a MacBook Pro. I've been going to the Apple stores since they opened. I'm an Apple nerd... And If I feel alienated at an Apple store, then something is wrong. Think about how the average person would feel.

Comments

[buffer-boo]

Yo, Beach!

Ummm, yeah,
We had the EXACT same experience while there in early December. It was FREEZING cold, door wide open and we seemed to be the only people who noticed. Karl was freaked out by the no register thing and by the lack of direction of all who "worked" there. I could not reach the head phones that I wanted. I was asking for an expert opinion and instead got a personal opinion of a 21 yr old. Nothing to back it up. It was a trip. Is it some sort of experiment to drive people insane?

My poor brother, who is a contractor switched over to Apple because of Karl's love for the darn place. He got a lemon of an IPhone and had to go into the Apple store in Palo Alto. He left furious and feeling like a freak. He called me and vented and then, finally called the store manager. He said it was like talking to a robot. What the hell is going on?

I do love my PowerBook and my IPhone, but...they need to come back down to reality. Seriously.

Miss you!

[raffy]

I completely agree that the buying process at apple stores has become a pain.

While down in florida over the holiday I had the hardest time simply paying for an item in a nearly empty store. I jumped between 3 reps before I found someone who would take my money. Each rep along the way didn't even know which one of them was handling sales that day.

I haven't bought from the apple store here in chicago for awhile, but I remember last I did I could literally walk up to anyone who worked there, any dept., any color shirt and they'd pulled out their wireless cc processor, swiped my card, throw my item into one of the bags they had tied to their waist and I'd be on my way in under 4 minutes.