Chapter 15- Retailing- A visit at the Apple store

Retailing is the final stop of a product before it reaches the consumer, retailing has a large influence of the economy in the U.S, to put it in proportion- when the latest economic crisis hit the country many of the top economists agreed that in order to revive the economy  consumers must spend more money in the retail stores.

The company I am blogging about (coca-cola) is not a retailer because coke sells to destination stores which market their products.

My boyfriend and I are both students, and we decided it was time for us to purchase another computer, so the natural first step for us was to go to the Apple store and get an idea about what the company has to offer. We went to the apple store on 5th ave and central park south, this store is located at one of the crossroads of the world , the first thing that shocked us was the incredibly large amount of people outside of the store, and also noticed many of them were tourists taking photos of one another with the apple logo. The exterior design was clear glass and it seemed very simple but very futuristic. When we went into the store the atmosphere was greatly influenced by the design that the store was all about new technology. The employees were very friendly and a tentative, once we were spotted we were approached by a young male who seemed very friendly and more important he understood what he was selling, I have been at many other stores in my life, and especially in New-York, salespeople in most stores usually have a specific target market and do not approach everyone that comes into their store because they don’t want to “waste their time” in apple though, the employees seemed to pay attention to everyone and treat them as potential customers, when he started explaining about the MacBook Pro we were looking at we were amazed, the gentleman had an answer for every question we had which was refreshing, in my opinion this is how employees at specialty stores should be trained in terms of knowledge about the products they are selling. After receiving the information we desired about the MacBook pro we decided to check out the I-pod section for two reasons: the first was that we are planning a vacation soon and my “brilliant” boyfriend left our I-pod in his pants during laundry day, and the second was to see if we had been fortunate to experience a single great employee in the laptop section. The answer was clearly NO, the other employees were equally great in their knowledge about the products and also in the quality of their service and attention they provided.

The prices at apple are intact with the quality of the products, not everyone can afford this luxury, however apple and their employees explain to the consumers why they need an apple. The design and organization of the store along with the professionalism of the employees make you feel as if it is your loss if you left the store without making a purchase. We will definitely be back when we get our next salary!