- 2001.11.05
The last weekend of October, we went up to the opening of the
Apple Store in Connecticut, located in the Westfarms Mall (a very
appropriate place for an Apple Store - it's a nice, upscale mall)
in Farmington. We were a little late for the opening (in other
words, the line was so long that we decided to have breakfast first
and go back afterward). As we were coming back toward the Apple
Store, we stopped in at Electronics Boutique (mostly video games),
and I managed to find an old Mac painting program, Color It!, brand
new for 87 cents.
Finally we got back to the Apple Store, and by then the line was
considerably shorter. About 5 minutes later we were in the store.
The layout is exactly how Apple has it pictured on their website -
the pro section over to the left and consists of Quicksilver G4s and new Titanium PowerBooks, the consumer over to
the right which was full with iMacs
and iBooks. There is also a kids
section which has several iMacs placed on a low to the ground,
kid-sized table and loaded with games and educational programs; the
music section which had iMacs, iBooks, and PowerBook G4s running
iTunes; the digital photography section, which had a selection of
different Macs set up with digital cameras; the DVD section, which
had G4s running iDVD; and, of course, the theater, which was
running a demo of Mac OS X on a Sawtooth G4.
The store had one iPod for people to look at, and the sales
people were very helpful. I had some questions regarding the iPod
and third party FireWire PCMCIA cards on my PowerBook, and they
seemed to know what they were talking about (they said that there
shouldn't be any problems using an iPod with third party cards).
Someone else asked about using a VGA monitor on a new G4, and the
salesman actually took the time to show him the back of a G4 and
explain how on some models two monitors are supported on one video
card, so that if he wanted he could use his older one alongside a
newer one.
I was impressed by the layout of the store and the good use of
the room. Everything seemed to fit very well into a mid-sized room
without leaving too much empty space or crowding it. The sleek,
modern décor of the room is very appropriate for what Apple
is selling. It helps you to feel relaxed so that you can realize
that buying a computer is not complicated at all. If you've ever
been to the Apple Company Store in Cupertino, you may be reminded
somewhat of that. On these new Apple Stores, the beautiful Aqua Mac
OS X interface is demonstrated in the right side front window
of the store, and a gigantic iBook shown on the other side to lure
potential customers into the store.
Overall, the Apple Store openings are a great event. If you get
the chance to go to one, you should. Bring the entire family. From
the kids section, which contains many children's applications
loaded onto iMacs for kids to play with, to the pro section, where
they have 867 MHz G4s that load Internet Explorer in under 2
seconds (I probably spent about 10 minutes loading and reloading
applications because I couldn't believe how fast it was), there is
something for everyone.
