I was at a mall in Louisville, Kentucky over the weekend, looking for an escape from the 100 degree heat. My oasis was a mall located in the East side of town. I can’t even give you the name of it; I can just tell you that it was mammoth in size and nicely air-conditioned. The mall itself had pretty light traffic. The Old Navy store, Macy’s, and even GNC were completely void of people. In my opinion, the mall’s livelihood depends on just three stores, which were slammed: Starbucks (which is really not even a store, just a kiosk under the escalator up to the food court), Auntie Anne’s Pretzels (where you too can pay $5 for a pretzel made six hours ago), and the Apple store. The Apple store had about six staff members and 50 customers, easily. It was packed to the brim. Despite a fledgling economy and rampant consumer complaints about the iPhone 3G, Apple is alive and well.
If you told me the economy in the United States was in a recession, I would dare you to bet the under on the number of people inside an Apple store of your choosing nationwide. I’ll set the line at 40 and take the over every time. If you’ve never been to an Apple store, I’ll paint the picture for you: There are massive wooden carpentry tables that proudly display your favorite Apple gadgets, from iPhones to Macbooks to brand new iMacs with screens larger than two feet wide. In fact, I used one of the new-fangled iMacs to check my fantasy baseball team’s progress on Sunday (and was pleased to see that my three pitchers were mowing down their opponents). iPods line the aisles, with artists ranging from Avril Lavinge to Taylor Swift pre-loaded and fancy headphones sitting alongside for you to jam to your heart’s content. I loaded Dave Matthews Bank and cranked up the iPod Classic’s volume.
The iPhone 3G is even proudly displayed. We used it to dial up my own phone, but had trouble negotiating the 3G’s speakers and microphone. I’m sure that the fact that the 50 customers in attendance were louder than an Aerosmith concert had something to do with it. Members of Team Apple scurried around to different customers, each trying to explain to Windows-savvy customers that Safari doesn’t involve elephants and MobileMe isn’t an Austin Powers character. That said, it’s a bit difficult to get someone’s attention, especially on a busy Sunday afternoon, so if you’re serious about buying something, I’d advise you to go on the weekends.
There were no fewer than 10 people in the checkout line, which snaked around the back of the store. I could only spot one person checking people out. It seemed a bit low for people purchasing three- and four-digit price tag items. Flanking the check out queue are jackets for your various gadgets, extra power cords, iTunes gift cards, and a variety of other impulse purchase items.
I was trying to decide in my head what was causing this throng of humanity to visit the Apple store. Was it the new iPhone 3G? Was it the prospect of buying a new laptop from a brand that was last popular a decade ago? Was it due to the iPod craze? I’m not entirely sure, but I do know one thing: Apple is alive and well in the United States. Despite the issues that have crept up with MobileMe and, more recently, some of the Mac’s security vulnerabilities, people continue to flock to purchase some of the most cutting-edge technology available. Will you be next? Visit your local Apple store and find out.