Business Week: Apple stores ‘sophisticated, minimalist’

Business Week Online says Apple’s first retail stores have all the “panache” consumers have come to expect from the company that brought us the iMac and Titanium PowerBook.

Business Week correspondent Marta Roberts, who was present for Saturday’s Apple retail store opening at Tyson’s Corner Mall in McLean, VA said the store was “a far cry from the cluttered, gadget-laden stores tech seekers have come to expect.” Roberts described the store as sophisticated and minimalist where software is displayed “neatly and precisely, the way periodicals are in libraries” and with freestanding stations full of computers that let users experience the products.

“What I like best is that there are people to help,” Bill Jensen, an Apple customer, told Business Week. Apple has staffed each store with well-trained workers as well as resident “geniuses” at the Genius Bar.

“Nobody can do it like Apple does,” Sean Copley, who was there with his baby, wife, and father, told Business Week Online.

Critics of the approach have argued that, by entering the direct retail market, Apple will discourage other stores from carrying their products, the story said. However, Apple Vice President Kathie Calcidise told Business Week that, “we’re staying with our retailers.” And Apple spokesperson Lynn Fox punned that, “Comparing us to other PC manufacturers that have tried this is really comparing Apples to oranges.”

Things are off to a great start. Apple reported sales of almost US $600,000 for the opening weekend of the first two stores.