My Trip To The Apple Store

Finally decided to cross over and buy something Apple. Settled on a Shuffle to test the waters.

Walked into the local mall - virtually devoid of shoppers sans the Apple store which had the look of Christmas Eve.

Patrons were stylishly dressed and cast members wore bright t shirts. It had the feel of an Lilith fair concert.

Worked my way through the various tables of shinny machinery and found the Shuffle table. Decided on the 2 Gig black.

Now the challenge. All the clerks seem to be tied up with customers. Walk to back to what seems to be check out. It was the repair center. Find man in black shirt that appears to be manager. Ask him how I buy something. He tells me that I need to find clerk. Sensing my impatience he offers to find one.

5 minutes later young man shows up with car salesmen type smile and welcomes me to Apple. I explain that I am in a hurry and just want a shuffle. He signals me to follow him to kiosk on other side of store. Tells me we need to "place order" . I tell him that I want it today and not in the mail. He assures me that someone will bring it right out. 10 minutes later clerk arrives with a silver one. Explain that I needed black. Another 5 minutes black one arrives. Not done yet because I need to pay. Clerk has me follow him back across store again to hidden cashier- 1 for all transactions. People waiting to pay - stacked up like La Guardia on ATC delay.

First transaction - the mind numbing contentious return sure to waste 20 minutes more of my time.

Had enough - lost my nerve - walked out of store still "Appless"

 

That's really unfortunate. I've only ever actually purchased something in the store once (been in to visit the genius bar, but typically buy online), and it was pretty painless.

I grabbed what I needed and then one of the guys in the store with a handheld credit card machine checked me out. Five minutes, total.

 

You can have my pink shuffle.

 

Boom,

Seriously, that's weird. The Apple store here doesn't even have a kiosk except for the Genius Bar. All the clerks can take your order where they are standing with their tiny Dell computers.

 

You can get an iPod at Costco.
Much less pretension.

 

Perhaps the fact that I wanted to pay the dreaded "cash" through them for a loop. Cash is so 20th century.

 

Neanderthals should not shop at Apple.

 

You are such a rube.

 

But no Shuffle

 

My bad. I'm not an iPod person.
In fact, I've really gone from a semi-Apple person to a pretty staunch anti-Apple person.

 

As documented almost crossed over - now back to staunch anti.

I think god was testing me yesterday. I almost failed.

 

... and so you retreated to home to listen to the Victrola and enjoy scenes on your stereoscope.

Sorry for the bad experience, Boom. I've never had anything but great, fast service at the local Apple store. The dude at the genius bar was even extremely helpful when I wanted to buy the latest OSX, saved me from buying it when my hardware wouldn't support it. Then, set me up with the next-to-latest version that would work on my Quicksilver. I've gotten software there as well as extensions and my iPhone, and never had a problem with the store itself. The only problem I've had is with the mall it's located in — parking's a bitch.