4 ms·

Sure, but a large portion of the Apple store crowds has always been people just hanging around and goofing off on the laptops. IIRC it's policy in those places

by gipp 6y ago

Sure, but a large portion of the Apple store crowds has always been people just hanging around and goofing off on the laptops. IIRC it's policy in those places to always let people do that however long they want, even if there's clearly no intent to buy anything. I've always wondered what portion of those crowds are actually customers. EDIT: Yes, everyone, I understand the marketing and lifetime-value reasons for doing that. I'm just questioning the value of comparing crowd sizes as a direct measure of relative instantaneous revenue/success.

ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
That happens in many stores. I call them "store groupies." Around here, vape stores have them in droves. I remember them hanging around Science-Fiction bookstores; often using the back rooms to have D&D games. I think that every one of them becomes a customer, eventually. Many of them become evangelists, which can sometimes be even more valuable.
- k12sosse 6y ago
  and store employees call them "loiterers". A herd of human waste, with no money or no intent to purchase anything.
  - hedora 6y ago
    If this is a problem, then don’t pay the employees based on commissions, and train them to make such people feel welcome to ask questions, play with demo machines, etc.
- braythwayt 6y ago
  There was a "Byte Store" on Queen West in Toronto in the early days of personal computers. There were--cough--a number of teenagers hanging around like groupies. One of them--cough--may even have installed their heavily customized SuperStarTrek game, and had it become the store's favourite demo.
reaperducer 6y ago
I've always wondered what portion of those crowds are actually customers. It doesn't really matter, though, because as the OP pointed out, Apple Stores are massively profitable. This is well known in retail circles. Landlords fall all over themselves to get Apple Stores. Real estate developers will include Apple Stores, or Apple Store lookalikes in their renderings even before the buildings are built, just to get people interested in their projects.
- snapetom 6y ago
  Plus, it gave Apple the perception that there's higher demand for Apple products over Microsoft. Some average Joe thinking about a tablet walks by a packed Apple Store and an empty Microsoft store. It's pretty obvious how that influences their decision. Microsoft set up a lot of stores in the same malls as Apple Stores. This disparity in numbers has always been the case, no matter how good the MS experience has been as others have pointed out. Seems Apple learned their lessons from the first time the battled Microsoft. Consumers don't do as deep of a research as the tech crowd thinks.
pwinnski 6y ago
Apple retails stores top every list of revenue per square foot. It's not even close[0]. Crowds may be anecdotal, but the crowds clearly do translate into revenue for Apple. The link spells out revenue per square foot for Apple as $5546, vs an average of $325. Second and third places bring in $3721 and $2951 per square foot. [0] https://chainstoreage.com/news/most-profitable-retailers-sales-square-foot-are https://chainstoreage.com/news/most-profitable-retailers-sal...
- dingaling 6y ago
  "The record for the greatest sales in relation to area of selling space is held by Richer Sounds plc, a British hi-fi retail chain. Sales at its branch in London Bridge Walk reached a peak of £195,426/m² ($27,830/ft²) for the financial year ending 31 January 1994."
spideymans 6y ago
Those people goofing around on the computers are future customers.

by gipp 6y ago

ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago

That happens in many stores. I call them "store groupies." Around here, vape stores have them in droves. I remember them hanging around Science-Fiction bookstores; often using the back rooms to have D&D games. I think that every one of them becomes a customer, eventually. Many of them become evangelists, which can sometimes be even more valuable.

k12sosse 6y ago
and store employees call them "loiterers". A herd of human waste, with no money or no intent to purchase anything.
- hedora 6y ago
  If this is a problem, then don’t pay the employees based on commissions, and train them to make such people feel welcome to ask questions, play with demo machines, etc.
braythwayt 6y ago
There was a "Byte Store" on Queen West in Toronto in the early days of personal computers. There were--cough--a number of teenagers hanging around like groupies. One of them--cough--may even have installed their heavily customized SuperStarTrek game, and had it become the store's favourite demo.

reaperducer 6y ago

I've always wondered what portion of those crowds are actually customers. It doesn't really matter, though, because as the OP pointed out, Apple Stores are massively profitable. This is well known in retail circles. Landlords fall all over themselves to get Apple Stores. Real estate developers will include Apple Stores, or Apple Store lookalikes in their renderings even before the buildings are built, just to get people interested in their projects.

snapetom 6y ago
Plus, it gave Apple the perception that there's higher demand for Apple products over Microsoft. Some average Joe thinking about a tablet walks by a packed Apple Store and an empty Microsoft store. It's pretty obvious how that influences their decision. Microsoft set up a lot of stores in the same malls as Apple Stores. This disparity in numbers has always been the case, no matter how good the MS experience has been as others have pointed out. Seems Apple learned their lessons from the first time the battled Microsoft. Consumers don't do as deep of a research as the tech crowd thinks.

pwinnski 6y ago

Apple retails stores top every list of revenue per square foot. It's not even close[0]. Crowds may be anecdotal, but the crowds clearly do translate into revenue for Apple. The link spells out revenue per square foot for Apple as $5546, vs an average of $325. Second and third places bring in $3721 and $2951 per square foot. [0] https://chainstoreage.com/news/most-profitable-retailers-sales-square-foot-are https://chainstoreage.com/news/most-profitable-retailers-sal...

dingaling 6y ago
"The record for the greatest sales in relation to area of selling space is held by Richer Sounds plc, a British hi-fi retail chain. Sales at its branch in London Bridge Walk reached a peak of £195,426/m² ($27,830/ft²) for the financial year ending 31 January 1994."

spideymans 6y ago

Those people goofing around on the computers are future customers.