Behind the Genius Bar

The Genius Bars at Apple retail stores have become the focal point for customer activity, including consultations, new purchase set-ups and on-going repairs. The amount of traffic and types of actitities have increased at the bars, requiring some reconfiguration of the work area.

In the photo below you can see some of the work area: in the lower-right of the photo are the banks of pagers that are handed out to those waiting for a Genius. Directly in front of the pagers is the pagers encoder with its stubby antenna.

Around the corner and behind the bar, you can see a wooden shelf with a Powerbook on an angled Plexiglass stand, and a credit card reader and thermal receipt printer. It's used for processing purchases when the other check-out positions within the store are very busy, especially during the holiday season. You can see at least three other similarly-configured Powerbooks further back.

The remainder of the Genius Bar is a tangle of cords from power outlets to the equipment on the counter, which in this photo includes an iBook and iMac.