All Mac Considered

Going to the Store (with picture gallery)

© 6-15-01 Joe Carson

"The future is now!"

[Please note: We have included thumbs of the the pics in the article. Click on any to go to the Glendale Gallery Page for larger pics with captions. Large download though.]

When I was a very little boy, one of the weekly events that I would look forward to was the ritual of "Going to the Store". This did not mean shopping for groceries or underwear, but going to a real store like Woolworth's or Montgomery Ward's. Those repositories of fabulous wonders (or so they seemed to me at seven years of age...) are now sadly a thing of the past, but to me as a small child they were places of marvels, wonders, exciting smells and colors. I could go on for quite some time about the whole counters full of items of great interest to a small boy, like small jars of bubble blowing soap complete with a bubble ring, real harmonicas, fine cast metal toy airplanes and cars, etc. Simply invoking the magic mantra "Going to the Store" brings back happy images from my long vanished childhood.

Speaking of going to the store...

As we all know by now, Apple has begun opening a series of Apple stores scattered throughout the United States. I discovered that I am lucky enough to be a short distance away from the one in the Glendale Galleria which is only a couple of miles from my humble abode (read: very humble!). When I heard about it old memories of "Going to the Store" reemerged from an ancient slumber in my subconscious and I found myself wondering what it would like to once more "Go to the Store". So, I decided to grab a camera and go investigate. Not being one to be an early adopter of anything, I waited until a few days after the opening of the Glendale store to go. That proved to be a wise move because I learned that 1,500 Mac aficionados had lined up outside of the Glendale Apple Store when it opened and trying to get any real information under those conditions would have proven utterly impossible.

While driving to the the Glendale Apple Store on my first visit, I was trying to guess as to why Apple had chosen this particular location for their first Apple Store in Southern California. It did not take long for me to see the reasons for the choice all around me. While driving there via a surface route and passing a location shoot for some motion picture or a television show, or maybe just a commercial, I realized that I had just passed Universal Studios and was going by Warner Brothers Studios, NBC's local broadcast studios and Walt Disney's Animation Studio. Not far away were the Disney Channel offices, the Disney Imagineering offices and Nickelodeon's studios. Also scattered throughout the area were a myriad of post-production houses, special effects houses, sound recording studios, etc. And, just couple of miles to the east of the Glendale store is Cal Tech in Pasadena and the related Jet Propulsion Labs. For those of you who may not realize it, movie and television production and aerospace are multi-billion dollar industries centered largely within a few miles of my home in Southern California. I guess perhaps the choice of the Glendale Galleria may actually make a lot of sense.

When I drove into the parking structure of the Glendale Galleria, I beheld the great Behemoth of Brick, the Great Temple to Mammon, Conspicuous Consumption and Materialism that is so beloved by local teenaged girls and die-hard Yuppies. After parking my rather dull looking 1991 Isuzu Trooper between a Cadillac Escalade and a Lincoln Navigator I entered the portals of the Great Temple of Greed at the second floor and approached the area wherein the Apple Store was located. On entering the Glittering Portal I found myself resisting the Glamourie of the marvelous goods all about me. I almost succumbed to this Glamourie when I passed the Museum Company. Inside their windows I could see reproductions of Remington bronzes, Degas figurines, Tiffany lamps, etc. I managed to resist and felt great relief once I was past that particular store front. My personal finances are simply not up to that kind of stress.

At last! I came to the Apple Store. Tastefully placed between the 1930's Moderne wood paneling entrance of Bachrach (men's fine apparel) and the neo-Federalist style of Scribner's was the simple and elegant Apple store front done in stark black with glowing white Apple logos. The interior lighting was the all-enveloping white glow of indirect lighting, a little bit reminiscent of Lucas' first film, "THX 1138". Unlike that film, the effect was not one of sterility but a feeling of "This is the Future, and the Future is now!" It immediately struck me that enlisting the help of The Gap's marketing boys in designing the Apple Store was a wise move indeed.

After entering the store I noticed that there were two long rows of shelves painted black running the length of the store and off-white counters lined the walls with a few partitions to separate the sections for highlighting various Apple products. Immediately to my right was the iBook section with several iBooks on display running different programs for people to try out, hands-on. A little further into the room I saw an iMac being used to show off iTunes.

To the left as you enter the store various digital cameras and camcorders were on display and some were connected to Macs to demonstrate how even a humble iMac can become a powerful graphics work station by connecting any FireWire capable camera to it and using the software that comes bundled with it. If even a lowly little iMac can to what was being demonstrated on it, you could imagine what a full G4 PowerMac or Titanium PowerBook can do with the heavy duty products on the market, like Final Cut Pro. If you can't imagine it, well someone was there to show off the heavy duty stuff too.

It struck me that in the Apple Store the patrons were expected to actually get their hands on the computers and try out the hardware and software for themselves. Unlike most computer stores, there was none of this having the products sitting blankly on a shelf and a keep-your-hands-off attitude. Apple knows that a hands-on test drive is more likely to convince a potential buyer than all of the sales person's techno-babble and puff talk. It must work. I was told that they have had trouble keeping those iBooks in stock.

The Apple Sales Associates were there to help any and all with questions about Apple products. Most of the Sales Associates I talked to were Graphics Arts students at local colleges and naturally they were serious Mac users. They were always smiling and seriously enthusiastic about anything and all things Mac. Each generally had a special area of knowledge about Macintosh, but If you had some serious heavy duty technical questions, you would be pointed to the Genius Bar.

The Genius Bar is a very interesting institution. I have never seen anything like it and I have to admit that Apple is on to something here. You can simply come to the bar, and if you are a bit thirsty they have chilled bottles of water ready along with the technical expertise. If you have a question that stumps the Genius there is a red phone in view behind the bar. It has a white glowing Apple logo on it and connects directly to Apple's tech experts. If they don't have the answer, then there isn't one.

One Apple Genius I spoke with was Jonathan Kennemer (Hi Jon!). He is only 23 years old and you have to wonder what could someone so young really know. I really didn't have to wonder very much. He started working with computers when he was sixteen years old and has worked on Apple, Unix, Wintel, etc. systems as an IT expert and has even managed to survive a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer course without becoming a mindless Bill Gates clone. I have to admire his experience and genuine expertise as well as his integrity in resisting the temptation to become a Microsoftee. He definitely is enthusiastic about Mac's new operating system, Mac OS X because he knows what having a true Unix engine under the hood really means, especially since this is a version of Unix even his grandmother can use.

At the far end of the store was a large screen that was used to project images being generated on Mac to demonstrate Apple software technology. In the first demonstration I saw, an Apple representative was showing was an iTunes demonstration.

 

 

Later on a Mac OS X demonstration was given and I have to admit that the demonstrations were quite impressive. When the screen was not being used for demonstrations of Apple software, a huge mural of Yoko Ono and John Lennon was pulled down to cover the screen and made an effective wall decoration at the end of the store. Although hands-on experiences are good, having an expert run Mac OS X, iMovie and iTunes through their paces can really take your breath away.

There was a nook set aside just for educational software and games oriented towards younger children. I also found that sometimes it attracted some not-so-young children too.. The tables and chairs there were kid-sized so that although the adults felt a bit cramped, the kids were right at home. There was also a cluster of flower printed iMacs in this Kid's area. I guess Apple found a place for those iMacs after all.

Down the center of the store were shelves with software. Naturally there were serious productivity applications all along one side, but there were a lot of hot games too. In fact, it kind of blew the old myth of no software or games for Mac out of the water. All of the hot new stuff was there.

 

On the outer portions of the shelves were small counters with MP3 players, digital cameras and camcorders that worked with Macintosh. In the back was a section with the usual printers, scanners, USB and FireWire hubs, etc. The next time I hear some Winteller claim that nothing works with Mac, I might be tempted to steer them to this store and embarrass him/her/it with a demonstration of brute reality. Red can be so becoming on a Wintel Weenie's face.

I also noticed a lot of young people there. By young people, I mean High School age and up through college level as well as young professional types. Since this is one of the target markets Apple is trying to reach I think that the Apple Store is definitely doing its job.

 

Before I end, I would like to express thanks to the courteous and helpful Apple Sales Associates I spoke with. Just to let Apple know that they impressed me, I would like to thank Jonathan Kennemer, Judee Pratt, Reza Safai, Melissa Gill, Ernesto Hernandez and Conan Palmer, just to name a few of the great people Apple chose to work with the Apple Stores.

P.S. I have to go back... I plan to get DSL soon and I have a few more questions for the guys at the Genius Bar. I know that they will have the answers.

Joe Carson

Joe's All Mac Considered page at Applelust