Reflections on the 5th Avenue Apple Store
Last weekend I took a quick trip to New York City, on a preliminary mission for Operation: Burlap. I visited Tekserve again, as well as the Apple Stores on 5th Avenue and in SoHo. The 5th Avenue Apple store was exactly as I imagined: sleek, glassy, modern, and extremely busy. There was an incredible buzz running through the place.
The 5th Avenue Apple Store is located at the southeast corner of
Central Park, right next to FAO Schwartz, near the GM building and surrounded by many of New York City’s landmark retailers. The actual Apple Store is underground, but the store’s entrance is marked by a huge, illuminated Apple logo, hanging in a giant glass cube.
Theis giant glass cube rising out of the cement looks great in this
landmark setting – it’s surrounded by water fountains, trees, and a pavilion where a couple hundred people (mostly tourists) sat, talked, ate ice cream, and took in the scenery of one of the City’s most famous settings.
You descend into the store on a gently spiraling glass staircase, or else by riding a steel and glass elevator. The shopping area is
cleanly divided into sections for pro and consumer laptops and
desktops, iPods and iPod accessories, computer peripherals, and
software. The long wall of software is impressive, and handily
quashes the misconception that there’s no software available for the Mac platform.
The design of the store and all it’s fittings is ultra-clean and
modern, and is made of a mix of dark wood tables and shelves, lots of glass, polished cement floors, and recessed flat-panel monitors displaying Mac tips and tricks. The check-out area seemed well thought out for dealing with the crowds. At the opposite end of the store from the check-out area was a big long counter hosting iPod Support, “The Studio” (which features tech support dedicated to professional creative projects), and, of course, the Genius Bar. There is also a large theater where Apple hosts demos, workshops, and special events.
As I said, the store was packed – people were shopping, seeking help at the Studio or Genius bars, checking email or surfing the web, and just sort of wandering about in wonder. It seemed like there were dozens of Apple employees available to help. I asked a couple of different employees questions, and all but one was helpful and friendly. What’s a computer store without one snobby geek?
You can read about the 5th Ave Apple Store by clicking here.
And see some great photos by clicking here.
The 5th Avenue Apple store is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
I wanted to wear my Nike + iPod kit to New York, because I always feel like I’ve walked a hundred miles a day when I visit the city. However, I flew out of Burlington just when the ban on liquids on all flights was announced, along with all the other security increases. I had read that iPods were also banned (which turned out to be false,) so I decided to leave my nano behind, just in case. I didn’t want it confiscated at the gate. For now, I am sticking to the theory that I actually do walk a hundred miles per day when I’m in the city.
I believe Al Gore sits on the Apple board. One would hope he would take the lead in pushing the company to be as environmentally and socially responsible as possible.
Interesting as EPEAT gave Apple high marks for their environmental efforts…. http://www.epeat.net/
For those interested in an in-depth examination of the Greenpeace & Apple issue, I’ve found a couple of pieces on Daniel Eran’s blog helpful. He examines the issues in-depth, and writes well: http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Home/E83D58B3-10E0-4A9C-8847-BCE665EE235C.html
Well, I read the Apple page and it’s pretty pathetic. The first part makes some pretty broad generalizations that are basically “truisms” but doesn’t really say anything specific about what Apple is doing. Kind of like when goverment hacks tell us over and over that terrorism is bad but don’t actually say what they’re going to do about it. The second part, where Apple details what they’ve done over the years looks like a list of actions Apple had to do anyway to keep doing business around the world and/or were clearly actions taken for business reasons but twisted to look like they did them for environmental ones. I’m not impressed.
Ken johnson
I’m thinking that Al Gore is already at the core of Apple’s internal greening. An example of recent Apple improvements includes the giant reduction in packaging: dramatically less packaging material and much more efficient transport and storage from these savings.
Where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire, Don. Perhaps Greenpeace is overstating its position, but probably not by much. Large manufacturing companies have the moral duty to be as green as possible.
Just curious. What does Smalldog do? Can customers bring in their old monitors or computers to have them recycled responsibly?
I believe Apple has a HUGE responsibility to deal with E-waste, since they are the ones who are manufacturing this stuff in the first place. I don’t think they are being as environtmentally responsible as they claim, because after it leaves the factory, or the show room, they have washed their hands of any responsibility.
Yes, after a customer buys a product, they own it. However, in my opinion a company that sells products that will, in a few years, be almost worthless AND toxic should at the very least EDUCATE consumers about their disposal options, and at the most they should offer a way to recycle the e-waste, maybe through the Applecare program. This would take 100% responsibility for creating what will eventually be virtually worthless junk, enriching themselves and related businesses like Small Dog at the expense of the environment.
This is not a slam at Apple or Don or Small Dog, I really admire what Don is doing with VBSR and how he runs his company, and applaud SDE’s e-waste program. It’s just a realization that the tech business has serious environmental costs, and no matter how socially responsible a company is, it remains a fact that the computer industry is rapacious in its use of raw materials and toxics.
“I do think it is time, however, for Apple to hire a corporate
responsibility officer as a high-level executive to help the company….”
Oh, please!! I am sick and tired of all of this tree-hugging crap. It may be fine to brainwash little children who can’t think for themselves, but anyone of adult age has no excuse.
The whole environmental game is just a ploy to make otherwise decent citizens feel guilty because they aren’t “doing something.”
Well, based on the recent blog post by SJ, it looks like Greenpeace was full of it. If the info in the blog is true, Apple’s been doing more for the environment (for many years) than most companies are doing even now, including companies Greenpeace was rating higher than Apple.
It’s obvious this entire episode was simply Greenpeace throwing a temper tantrum because Apple refused to disclose every minute detail of what they were doing.
I’m convinced more than ever that the entire environmental movement would be better off if Greenpeace just went away. All they’re doing these days is turning off the moderate majority by their childish, extremist antics.
I commend you for your (Smalldog) efforts and would like to make another suggestion to you: How about hosting your servers on solar power exclusively like I do? http://www.aiso.net based in California, and they are Mac friendly. Here’s their blurb: AISO.Net is a reliable and responsible green web hosting company. We have made a strong commitment to help fight pollution and preserving our natural resources. Solar panels run our data center and office, not energy credits.
Solar tubes bring in natural light from the outside providing light during the day. AMD Opteron powered servers use sixty percent less energy and generate fifty percent less heat.
These are just some of the ways AISO.Net is becoming the world’s most responsible green web hosting company.