Apple Store Trafford Centre

Yeah Apple have been expanding and finally they have started bringing Apple stores to Europe. The first I heard of the Apple stores in the UK was the one on Regent Street, London. This was apparently meant to be quite a hit, I haven’t had the chance to go as of yet but I’ve heard only positive feedback. Of course I was disappointed that there wasn’t one available anywhere near me. The only place I could find are ‘Apple Centres‘ which aren’t all that to be honest. I was really keen on doing work experience at that place but they turned me down
Anyway Apple have now opened 6 stores in England which is pretty cool, I always used to wonder what you were meant to do when you Mac has a problem over here. Its not like you can just pop down to your Apple store (as I was once advised by some guy in America) and get it fixed. Funnily enough, I still doubt it would be as simple as that over here

Well finally I got to see the nearest Apple store to me which has recently opened in the Trafford Centre (when I say recently I mean since the last time I went because I haven’t been there for quite a while). Let me give you a little intro to the Trafford Centre, or ‘TC’ as the regulars might call it. It is basically a big shopping centre with lots of shops, I think that the correct word is a ‘Hypermarket’ but that just sounds sad, and they’d call it a ‘Mall’ in America. It’s one of the biggest in England, again thats just a guess, I know that people do come from different cities to see it so yeah it probably is. It is often being changed, mainly added to. There was a new John Lewis added at the end of last year and at the moment they’re extending the eating quarters even further. I’ve been going there pretty much since it opened in ‘98.

Well this Apple store is quite nice, it has only one floor and it is relatively small, I’m guessing it was previously a small shoe shop of some kind. Anyway it has the very simplistic layout that most Apple stores have, and I think that is what makes them stand out. Before this shop opened I used to go to John Lewis to check out the Macs because they have been selling them probably since the first iPods. The thing I didn’t like about going there was that they were always a little behind on the latest. For example, last time I went, which was only about a month ago, there was no sign of any Intel Chip Macs and the ones that they had were at least a year old. One thing you can be quite sure of is that the official Apple stores will have the latest that they can achieve. Another thing that bugged me about non-Apple retailers is that usually the people working there haven’t got a clue about Macs. Sometimes its just amusing to watch them try and sell a Mac to a customer - and they always do try selling the Macs because frankly, they’re more expensive. Let me put it this way, I’ve had to interrupt just to make sure the customer gets the right information!

I think that the ‘Genius Bar’ is an interesting idea, but the name is really sad, no offence Apple! It sounds really geeky and again, I have some reservations as to how ‘genius’ these guys really are. I guess its safe to assume that they know more then your average guy about macs because really, people in there haven’t got a clue. What I like about that place is that they aren’t too cheapskate to only have a few products on display. They had some 20+ iPod’s and iPod nanos out there and there were loads of different Mac’s also available for use. Again I find it frustrating when other shops have the Macs behind glass, or on some annoying screensaver that ‘apparently’ (yes - Command+Q(+Esc) usually works) can’t be switched off. At these stores they have them all there ready to use, and they’re fully loaded with apps, music and pictures all at your disposal. I had a nice play around on a Dual G5 with a 30″ screen, yes that was nice. I opened up Photoshop and had a play around (yes I was the one who filled the screen with a nice ‘w0rd’). They also have a section at the back with ipod/mac accessories (overpriced of course) and some other additional items like printers, scanners etc.

The Apple website details some other things which sound pretty impressive. There is a whole timetable of events that the shop’s supposedly do, mainly workshops which are important to introduce people to the computer side of Apple.

In conclusion to my random article about an Apple store, I think that it is very positive step for Apple to open up stores in this country. They are certainly a success, people are attracted to new things and Mac’s are definitely new to quite a percentage of the population. I myself am not so amazed with them having used them since I was a child but I still see that the Apple market is opening up to a much wider target audience. I think it will still be some time before they are fully successful in competing with the PC market, but this has taken them at least a step ahead in that journey.

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1. Dan Says:
   February 16th, 2006 at 3:33 pm

   Hey there, great article. I hope they have the new MacBook Pro when i pop down to my nearest apple store. (birmingham)

2. Usayd Says:
   February 16th, 2006 at 3:42 pm

   Thanks I was quite surprised to see that the TC Apple Store had all of the latest Macs. That’s really the difference with retailers and offical stores, Apple can afford to specialise all of the store on their products rather then just a part of it.

3. ahmed Says:
   February 19th, 2006 at 1:15 am

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4. Usayd Says:
   February 19th, 2006 at 5:07 pm

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5. peace Says:
   February 26th, 2006 at 12:37 am

   apple are taking over- sad world we live in