Brian and I hit up the Richmond, VA, Mac Store yesterday.  I wanted to get an iPhone 3GS, and Brian needed a new super-duper video card (he’s ready to be running 4 monitors at his home office – apparently to take advantage of Adobe CS4 gizmos).

I don’t spend a lot of time at shopping malls, much less at 10am on a weekday.  But we wanted to be there before the store opened, because Brian had been to this store before, and he said there was going to be a line at the opening (perhaps it would be a small line, but definitely a line).  As we walked around the mall killing our half hour before the Mac Store opened, getting a coffee, etc., I was pretty sure we had showed up early for nothing.  The mall was a ghost town. The only thing missing was tumbleweeds.  No stores open, no customers waiting anywhere, no signs of life.\n\nWe walked up to the Mac Store about 5 minutes before they opened.  The store actually had about 20 people in their getting private lessons on their MacBooks and iPhones. They mostly began to shuffle out around 10AM when the store opened. I was greeted by the store concierge, who asked us what we were looking for.  She sent me off with a specialist to get my iPhone, and Brian was sent off to look at peripherals  I glanced up around 10:15, and the store was packed.  10:15 in the morning on a Wednesday!  There must have been about 15 Mac employees busy with customers, and another 20 customers waiting for a Mac Store employee of their own.  Apple is doing something right.

One last point  I don’t know how Apple is finding such great employees, but the people working at the Mac Store were an enthusiastic crew.  In a lot of big brand stores, it can be hard to get someone to help you, and even harder to get some who knows their product. Bill, the specialist who helped me, was professional, prompt, and knowledgeable.  Next time you need an Apple product, go to a Mac Store, if only for the experience.