While Apple undertakes the painstaking work required to open amazing retail stores in China, there are competitors who have taken a less meticulous approach and have opened their own, less-amazing “Apple Stores.” A woman living and working in the south-central city of Kunming discovered one of the stores recently, staffed with blue-shirted employees who believe they actually work for Apple Inc. In a blog entry she posted today, photos of one fake store show wood display tables, stone and wood floors, acrylic information panels, wall-mounted graphics, iPads on tilted stands, and a circular staircase to the second level. The employees even have white lanyards around their necks with white plastic name tags. Apple does have authorized resellers in China, but with strict controls on their appearance and branding. However, the photographed store is not listed among Apple’s resellers in the country. In her blog post, BirdAbroad says, “We struck up a conversation with these salespeople who, hand to God, all genuinely think they work for Apple.” As she tried to take some photos of the store, five employees approached and asked her to stop. However, after she implied she and a companion were Apple employees visiting from America, the staff turned friendly and allowed her to snap some photos. Later, during a walk around her neighborhood in the city of 6.8 million residents, she found two more look-alike stores, one with a sign that proclaimed, “Apple Stoer.”
Apple has a network of authorized resellers outside the United States, including about 138 resellers in China, who operate “Apple Shops.” Their interior design is similar to Apple’s own retail stores, but is Apple-controlled to differentiate them from company-owned stores. The restrictions cover Apple’s brand, including the back-lit logo and other design elements found in Apple-owned stores (photos below).
The photographed store is located at 23/25 Zhengyi Lu, and is not on the list of Apple’s authorized resellers. The other two stores photographed in the original post are located along Remin Zhonglu. Neither of those two locations is listed among Apple’s authorized resellers.
Read follow-up stories by the Associated Press and the Wall Street Journal.
Update – July 22, 2011: The story remains hot, as BirdAbroad says she’s received calls from every major news organization around the world, and that local reaction is building. The Reuters news agency has visited the store and obtained customer reaction.
This photo inside a fake Apple store in Kunming, China shows bold wall graphics, a wood display counter against the wall, an employee in a Apple logo blue shirt wearing a white name tag on a lanyard, acrylic info cards, iPads on tilted acrylic stands, stone floor, and the "Apple Store" sign. The second level has wood flooring. — photo by Jess
This storefront of an authentic Apple Shop in Kunming, China shows how an authorized reseller has some similar features of a company-owned Apple store, but is different enough that the visitor realizes it's an independent reseller.
The interior of another authentic Apple Shop in Kunming, China shows how the reseller is limited in reusing official Apple store design elements.
E-mail this story
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Next Comments →
Ah, back to my days flying for Pan Am! The Golden Shopping Center at Sham Shi Po Station in Kowloon had two floors of tiny shops with knock-offs of the Apple IIs in the plain beige enclosures that looked pretty much like the Apple II, but hardly ever worked like they should when you got them home! Later, the same beige enclosures came with IBM style electronics! You had to ask to find out which was which. Gradually the IBM machines took over the market until the Macintosh came out! The point was, everything gets copied (faked) in China! http://www.12hk.com/area/ShamShuiPo/GoldenShoppingArcade.shtml. Caveat emptor was the watchword!
Could we please have someone that reads Chinese check Apple’s China website and see if this Kunming store (or stoer) is an authorized reseller or not? Apple stores just have that Apple logo. Resellers add the phrase “Apple Reseller.” A reseller would have real products, if it is a fake than maybe the product is fake. Of course it could be gray market.
To be clear, none of the three stores pictured in the original blog posting are listed as being authorized Apple resellers on Apple’s Web site. The use of “Apple Store” is completely non-standard among authorized resellers, as is the T-shirts and lanyards, and the many interior design features. On the other hand, the store may actually be selling genuine Apple products obtained in a legal and authorized manner. However, whether or not the products are genuine is not the issue. Rather, it’s the store’s visual appearance, which could easily be interpreted as an Apple trademark violation in any country that recognizes such protection. It’s also about the representation that the store represents Apple’s standards of product performance and service. Naturally, whether this store is “good for consumers” is another issue open for debate.
Who would want to copy Apple?
Gary, these stores are selling genuine Apple products. As to the source of these products no one knows. The main issue is not whether these stores are selling genuine Apple products or whether they look like Apple store.
The point is that resellers like these ones cannot mislead the unknowing consumers are being genuine Apple Store endorsed by Apple. The problem is that the owners of these stores mislead their employees to think that they are working for Apple.
The latter is a common misnomer for some staff of resellers and members of Apple Consultant Network in Hong Kong, these people also thinks they work for Apple.
I would not have a problem with these stores if they clearly marked themselves as “Reseller of Apple Products”. Although the fact that some of them had “Apple Stoer” on their signs kind of gave it away. Unfortunately, many mainlanders will not be able to spot the subtle difference in the mis-spelling.
Thanks…I think that zeroes in on the issues that have really been obscured by the enormous amount of press about these stores. I have the feeling that Apple worked through the Chinese government when initially planning their retail stores in the country, perhaps including how the government would handle knock-offs, fakes and other trademark-type violations. Perhaps Apple expressed their commitment to open 24 stores by 2012, but only with some assurance by the government that they would move against the most obvious counterfeit stores.
{ 56 trackbacks }