If An Apple Store Opens In Target, Does It Ruin Christmas?

Posted on January 12, 2012 by AppleBitch


You have some cash burning a hole in your pocket. Your Visa card is ready to take a hammering. You have been wanting to buy that 27 inch iMac for a couple of months now and you’ve finally convinced yourself that now is the time to drop the cash. You know you are going to really enjoy this experience. You step out of your car, a tingly feeling in your chest as you know your Mac purchase is only minutes away. You pass through those sliding doors and breathe in the sweet air. You’ve arrived…in Target.

I don’t know about you but I love making a large Apple purchase. Hell, I love making any Apple purchase. It feels like Christmas.  I frequently do my Mac orders online now as there is normally an upgrade involved at some point in the process, but I still visit an Apple Store whenever I can. The news that Target will be opening dedicated mini Apple display stores within some of their retail stores is an interesting move. Is it driven by Target or is it driven by Apple?  Do they really need more retail stores?

There’s one thing, however. Apple Stores can be a great part of the experience of getting a Mac. For me, Target Stores don’t hold to the same experience.

It’s All In The Floor Tiles…

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  • Shock Me

    Apple had the good sense to locate their stores in high-traffic areas to ensure their success. Now they draw even more traffic to the area. Consequently the stores are always busy with newbies, bored husbands waiting for their wives to finish shopping, and genius bar visitors anxious about their tech.

    Luckily, the neighborhood Best Buy less than a mile from my house has a full range of Apple gear, and another quarter mile down the road the Target will have the same stuff. In between, will be the 4 cell phone stores that carry iPhones. And that is only if I turn left out of my driveway.

    So I could drive 40 miles to one of the three Apple stores in my area and pay the associated tolls and gas, or I can walk down the block to Best Buy, or pick up any iDevice while shopping for groceries at Target, or I can stay home and order anything I need on my iPhone.

    The fact the stores are such madhouses is a mystery but they are.

  • Traumaticacid

    I totally agree with RedMercury.

    I think the whole “experience” is set for the uninitiated (or the lonely) who want to go into a shop actually have someone talk to them who does give a shit. (which is hard to find anywhere these days)

    I know what I want and I cant be bothered with all the touchy feely stuff, just gimmee my new toy!

    I have a great reseller who gives me a discount, holds new high demand items back for me and has a shop with heaps more peripherals than the apple store has. eg screen protectors… why does apple not stock those?

    I also like supporting the little guy rather than all my cash going straight into apples pockets.

    I am not knocking the apple store, it is a great place to visit, I did rock in there a month back with my beer soaked MBA, admitted to my F up and walked out with a brand new one.

    The apple dude said “yep it smells like beer but because we are apple we’ll give you a new one” so kudos to them.

  • Anonymous

    While I agree with the whole “experience” part, frankly, I don’t care.  I stopped going to Apple Stores awhile back.

    First, I’ve been a Mac user since 1985–my first Mac was a Macintosh.  So I know I want a Mac–you don’t need to sell me.

    Second, I’ve been a Mac developer since 1986.  Somewhere at home I stiil have the “Phonebook edition” of Inside Macintosh.  So I usually know what I want when I get there.  I don’t need to play 20 questions with a salesperson who is trying to find out my inner needs–I need a 17″ MacBook Pro.  Go to the back room and get me one.

    Third, the stores have just become a mad-house.  Like I said, I know what I want.  And, in a 20 mile radius of where I live, I have a MacMall, a Fry’s Electronics, two Best Buys, and a MicroCenter as well as three Apple Stores.  So I can find a store that will sell me my 17″ MacBook Pro without trying to become my best friend.

    I think the Apple Stores are great, don’t get me wrong.  But they’re not for me.