Store Is the Office

I visited the San Francisco store on the Friday before Christmas (Monday), and found the place jammed. The "EZ Pay" tables were busy, both for iPods and laptops, and the other product areas were also buzzing. Perhaps as interesting, however, was that the usual denizens were camped at the display computers, tackling all sorts of personal business, even as lines of people formed behind them for their turn. A woman with a baby in a stroller video iChatted with someone and text iChatted with someone in Spanish; a woman composed a letter in Word, with a binder, papers and bouquet of flowers laid out on the counter, while talking on her cellular phone; many people composed e-mail; and groups took scores of odd photos with PhotoBooth. There was literally just one out of 10 computers being used by a prospective buyer, which, of course, is normal for Apple stores. OK, I did find that Safari's parental controls were in place--the store was blocking Google, mySpace, YouTube, FaceBook and many other big-time sites. So, at least there were fewer Web surfers hogging bandwidth. And, thank goodness I didn't see any porn on the Safari screens. The purchase lines were moving quickly, so It will probably be a productive holiday sales day for Apple--and I guess that is what matters.

[Above] A typical "camper" at an Apple store, with her notebook, flowers and papers laid out on the counter. Notice that she's also talking on the phone. On the screen is a Word document she was composing.