It depends greatly on your apple retail store location, many of them are fairly tight run little ships, but some (say my local fashion island location) seemingly are huge groups of people milling about - I waited 30+ minutes so that an equivalent of a retail store clerk would let me buy a computer I had no questions about.

I would note that it's likely faster to buy the computer from the website/app while standing in the store, and then ask them to bring it out.

They're "more free" to do the pure bringing-stuff-out, because they know they might have to budget 30 mins or more for a complex purchase with lots of hand-holding and transferring and stuff, while a bring-out is always going to be short.

And, if you don't have your phone on you, you could buy a Mac using one of the demo Macs. I think that's almost part of the reason they're there, at this point—they certainly do prominently feature the Buy Now buttons on the kiosk modes they pop into.

I didnt ask them to bring it out - I walked in, they asked me what my purpose was, and I said "I want to buy the most recent macbook pro with an upgraded ssd, your middle tier option" and then they scheduled me to take a seat.

I guess I should have gone around the store and figured that out?

How would I have known that clicking a button on a computer in the store will get me a person faster than an actual person telling me they will get me a person and not just that same person eventually coming out knowing I clicked the button?

I would not feel comfortable putting my credit card details into a display model.

The secret to all of Fashion Island is only ever going during regular business hours on weekdays. Otherwise the whole place is a nut house.

They are all tight little ships until they get overrun with people. Just like everywhere.

I was asked to wait 45 minutes to pick up a bought and paid for phone.

I left and came back later and found a more reasonable sales person, but still ended up waiting about 10 minutes.

Then there was the time I made a service appointment, showed up slightly before my appointment, and waited 35 minutes for a “genius” to look at my phone.

I don’t know if it’s just my local store, but I avoid Apple stores as much as I can now.

Same experiences here. Ever since they went to the kind of free-for-all approach it's not been a good experience going to a store. I miss the days too when they actually had a checkout counter. Way easier than trying to flag someone down.

From the experiences described, there’s a sense that corporate threw a bunch of ideas at district managers (or whatever their hierarchy is) without follow-through of trying to identify pinch points and develop a process to correct them.

It might be an issue of mindset within the company. The problems described seem regional (overcrowded stores, shady/burnt-out retail staff in some areas; positive experiences in others) that each need a separate approach but are lumped together in Apple’s one-size-fits-all approach to everything.

I predict that Apple will close their retail stores by the end of the decade, citing improved logistics). Apple products will continue to be sold at third-party retailers until the company folds or pivots in another 10 years.

I don’t think so, unless they can’t get the experience quality issue under control and it starts damaging the brand. The stores serve an outreach component that 3rd party retailers can’t. As much as I hate them, the classes they host are always well attended and I’m pretty sure they have a small business coordinator that makes sales that won’t happen otherwise. They remain a major differentiation point versus Android to, enabling the forever tolerance of AAPLs insane margins.

Yeah that's messed up. Handing off already-paid for equipment should be smooth and a priority for them. Trying to think back when I picked up laptops, and it was always quick. But I had the freedom to go in during slow hours.

Microcenter got this right. They have a dedicated section and register for internet pickups. It's fantastic!

I thought this was the common thing to do now. I don’t go out to stores too much. But Target and Best Buy were my last two and both have sections on side for pick up.

Apple really broke the stores with their reengineering process.

The store in my area is too small, always packed and too noisy. The employees are really good and make the experience bearable, but they really converted an awesome, friendly retail experience and made it stressful and inefficient.

The people who design the non-flagship stores don’t spend much time in them.

Apple treats the regular variables that retail stores must suffer as unbearable undefined behavior. They try to regulate and define too much. Their customers truly are, literally and figuratively, treated like sheep at every opportunity.

I would prefer to be treated like a sheep. "Stand in this line and wait your turn." Not very respectful to our individualism and creativity. But a great way to get your online order at a store! I have a barcode, you have a barcode scanner and my phone... a match made in heaven.

The problem is that they have some sort of "Think different!!" thing going on and it's not working out. I am surprised Steve Jobs drove a car with round wheels. That's not very different!