Munich Apple Store Opens With Now-Standard Whoops And Weirdness
2:11 am, December 8th, 2008, Giles Turnbull
Apple Store Munich Opening from rckrz.de on Vimeo.
So here’s some footage from this weekend’s opening of the first German Apple Store in Munich. If you’ve attended one of these before, there won’t be much that’s new in this video; you know about the line outside, about the cheering, whooping staff, about the free t-shirts, about the buzz inside where everyone’s either looking at Macs, or photographing people looking at Macs.
It’s so dismally identical to all the other Apple Store openings that it’s a little depressing. Isn’t this in danger of becoming a parody of itself? Maybe that fridge has already been nuked.
I don’t mean to sound all curmudgeonly here, but a thought occurs to me: if you’ve ever defended Apple in a web forum, then been set upon by a rabid hoard of Mac-haters who tear your opinions to shreds and call you a nutter, and you’ve wondered WHY they do that – well, this is why.
Posted by Giles Turnbull in Opinions, Retail Stores | Comment on this article
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check out this german site for pictures: http://www.ganz-muenchen.de/shopping/einkaufen/einkaufsstrassen/innenstadt/rosenstrasse/haus_fuer_haus/1/apple_retail_store/info.html – especially this panorama picture: http://homepage.mac.com/wkaemena/FS/Muenchen/AppleMUC1/
Andy, on December 8th, 2008 at 2:25 am
Just because the US and the UK have seen lots of Apple Store openings before doesn’t mean that people in Germany shouldn’t be allowed to get a little bit excited about their very first (“identical”) store opening.
Resali, on December 8th, 2008 at 4:01 am
You are the first writer to actually poit to this (not even John Gruber). It looks like Mac users doesn’t bother at ll.
It bothers me!
Looks inside any guitar mag, you see guitarists bragging about their guitar of choice, even two of my favorite guitarists, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo (has often Apple logos on his favorite guitars) anti-consumerist as they are.
It’s all about choice. But to me the reason is that they see apple designs as UGLY. You know, it is a very Japanese aesthetics, very minimalist, and the fact that japanese corporation does not use it for mass consumer products is a proof that it DOES not appeal to the majority, but only to fine in taste.
I cannot afford the Mac I dream about – Mac pro, but will never buy a pc machine, just because it cannot runs OS X, reason why mac clones could kill Macs.
Deocliciano Okssipin Vieira, on December 8th, 2008 at 6:13 am
And yeah! … about the line outside, about the cheering, whooping staff, about the NO (i guess) free t-shirts, about the buzz inside where everyone’s either looking at outfits, or photographing people looking at outfits.
That is about an Armani, or any other designer of the same fame opening, UGLY as his clothes are. At least I do not like them, cannot afford them too!
But people do not look at those buyers with eyes soaked in awe.
Deocliciano Okssipin Vieira, on December 8th, 2008 at 6:28 am
Horrible, cringe making and depressing. I can’t stand Apple Store openings and whoever is responsible within the company for organising them (particularily the clapping and whooping) should be shot. They just don’t make sense. Apple machines are understated and elegant but the store openings are the ’special event’ equivalent of shoulder pads and mullet hair cuts…
jarvis, on December 8th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
I’m not sure if this is relevant or not, but would anyone know if people from this crowd actually purchased any Mac computers or iPhones? I’m sure a lot of these people turn out to get freebie shirts and just to be seen in a crowd, but are they actually interested in purchasing any Apple products. Or do they get into the store, see the prices and say, “Ouch, this stuff costs too much.” So did anyone notice if the store was doing any brisk business?
Constable Odo, on December 8th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
These weird bravura displays by opening store staffs are getting embarrassing. It was fun for the first few, but now they make me cringe. Please stop.
Paul, on December 8th, 2008 at 3:54 pm