Why everyone copies the Apple Store format
I’m spending a lot of time in New York at the moment and one of the places I like to visit is the Apple Store. My favourite Apple stores are the SoHo store and Grand Central, I marvel at the size of the flagship store and how it fits perfectly well in the architecture of this marvellous building.
However something struck me, the comparison to an Apple Store. It did feel like walking into something Apple created. It didn’t feel that different, I have to ask myself what if there were no Apple Stores? Would the Microsoft store be different? I think it would, I believe Apple did well creating their retail dream. We know we can walk into their airy stores, experiment with their hardware, check out what the iPad feels like. Apple created a benchmark, other people are following. Walk into the Grand Central store and you are met with an airy environment, the size is just huge and it encompasses many features from a Genius Bar to computers you can play with to a vista of the grand hall of the station. Apple did a great job in preserving the many features of this fantastic railway station while building a Apple Store that blends in with the building.
Others may copy Apple with their large spaces, workstations to testbed computers and tech staff dressed in casual shirts behind a desk ready to provide you with top advice however Apple do it in style , they created the originality, the winning formula if you please. So if you walk into a Microsoft Store and suddenly think “this looks familiar”, you know where you saw it first.
