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Earlier this week, the NY Times had an article about how Apple's retail stores were uncommonly successful. The Apple Stores contribute to 20% of revenue, unlike other big brands whose brick-and-mortar offerings tend to be more about brand presence than actual ringing of cash registers (example: the Samsung Experience store at the Time Warner Center doesn't actually sell Samsung products).
Experts credit Apple with creating stores that seem like a community gathering places, where people can surf the Internet all day long and write their novels, with friendly staff and wallet-busting products that people covet in beautifully designed stores. However, while the stores are customer friendly, they aren't necessarily customer-pet friendly:
A customer entered the 14th Street store last week with his two whippets. Their reaction to the impressive stairs was more fear than awe. When the dogs refused to climb the steps, their owner scooped both of them into his arms and carried them up.Puppies, we feel the same way! No matter which Apple Store we're at, we keep wondering about the engineering involved to make sure the glass-on-glass stairs (with some metal) are secure. And an idea - Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan gives a talk and demonstration at the Meatpacking Apple Store!
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Only in Manhattan are people obsessed about bringing animals into stores, restaurants, cafes, offices, or other places meant just for people. Who cares if the Apple (or whatever upmarket store) isn't pet-friendly? As long as it's human-friendly, that's what brings in the customers.
The bulk of Apple's stores are in malls. Unless they're service dogs, Fido or Tinkerbell or Sparky are staying out, so not a big issue.
Samsung will smarten up, just like Nokia and Sony did, and eventually start selling at TWC.
The first time I used the staircase at the 5th Avenue store, I almost fell. It's optically difficult to navigate. The stairs taper on one side and the contrast of the glass makes it hard to see where one stair ends and another begins. I've warned my parents about this and that they should take the elevator if they visit the store.
Apple should address this problem.
It's a tort ready to happen.
Mmmmm, Apple tart . . .
It's not surprising, a lot of adults have a problem with glass stairs/floors, and babies generally won't go across them either. I find them a bit freaky myself, and have to force myself to walk on glass. At my work there is a section on a floor that is glass, and even though I consciously know it is safe, I always feel uptight when I have to walk across it.
Non-Pratters usually can't get in there but the floors in the Pratt Institute library are ALL glass!
www.forgotten-ny.com
Leave the beasts at home. When I go to a store, I don't want to navigate around a couple of large dogs.
If the 5th Ave store is a lawsuit waiting to happen, why hasn't it? It's an incredibly busy store with thousands of people using the steps every day. You'd think if the steps were that disorienting, one of those thousands would have fallen already in the year and a half since it opened. Maybe it's because most people don't have to stare at the steps when they use them. We're smart enough to be able to feel each step with our feet. Personally, I find annoying animated GIF avatars more distracting.
meballard, if you hate glass floors that much, you'd better not go to the Skywalk at the Grand Canyon. Look through the floor and you get to see 4000 feet straight down.
It is an animal's natual instinct not to walk through air. Even babies know this. You don't need to subject your dogs to "training" just so you can go into an Apple store and walk up the stairs to use the restroom. How disgusting; just reading that article wants me to whip that wealthy air-headed customer.
For those people who get scared, that's what those handles are for along the sides of the stairs! Hello?
Re: The Skywalk at the Grand Canyon - It would scare the hell out of me, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't try it. My mind says it's safe, my gut says otherwise, and it's good for me to try things that scare me, and I find it to be a fascinating idea.
Re: The handles - doesn't help a dog or a baby (just saying), and while the handles to provide a safer feeling, it does still feel wrong to be walking on glass (or anything that you can see through).
hmm.. do you suppose apple had shoplifters in mind when designing those stairs? I mean they're as difficult to descend as they are to ascend..I guess if one were bold enough to even swipe some apple swag, they'd probably end up on their face on their way out the door!!!
So how clear are those glass stairs? Are there always a bunch of old creepy Japanese businessmen loitering underneath, surreptitiously getting upskirt shots on their cameraphones???
I like my avatar and I am delighted that it distracts you.
I'm going to file this under not news.