Great article by a non-tech type dude who wanders into the Apple Store at the mall. Not intending to buy anything, he walks out with a new machine: It was bitter cold, snowing. The mall was quiet. You could actually hear the water streaming from the marble fountain a floor away. But the Apple Store was packed with people–folks laughing, banging keyboards, sampling the rows of gleaming computers and gadgets, like they were in a high tech Disney World fun park. And there were no give-aways, no store discounts; just another (frigidly cold) day at the mall.
Me? I love the Apple Store, although I’ve only been to a couple of them: King of Prussia (David and I made a pilgrimage on its opening day in 2001 or 2002) and Chicago (when I went to PowerSchool University in 2004). Grace still remembers “the cool computer store” we went to in Chicago, even though she was only five at the time and she’s soon turning nine. She just thought it was cool that they had a kids’ section, and that they let the kids try anything they wanted. And that they had bean bags chairs at the kids’ computers.
I do wish that Apple would open a store closer to me. King of Prussia is the closest, and that’s a good 90 minute drive. Ideally, I’d love to see one at Park City Center in Lancaster, but that’s probably unrealistic. Maybe Harrisburg? Or even York? Come on, Apple! There are large pockets of non-Amish across central Pennsylvania!
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