Some retail watchers were expecting a significant update to the retail stores as Apple enters the luxury business. But aside from some new benches displaying the watches, the stores are just as you remember them.
Sapna Maheshwari/BuzzFeed
Today, the Apple Watch finally landed in the company's retail stores — and it was sort of anti-climactic, as far as new Apple products go.
There weren't the usual lines of fans waiting outside — first of all, because the watches are available only to try out (you can't but them in the store yet), and second, because the company has been encouraging customers to schedule appointments online.
And while retail watchers wondered if Apple's stores would get a makeover with the arrival of the Watch, which can cost all the way up to $17,000 a pop, they've remained pretty much the same.
The difference, of course, is that there's now a major new product line alongside the laptops, iPads, and iPhones. You can play with demo watches that are permanently attached to touchscreen guides, or look at the different kinds available in a glass case; those are built into and displayed on the same exact wooden tables that showcase everything else.
But you'll need an employee if you want to try the watches on, as they're tucked away in drawers. That takes place on the sales floor with existing staff, just like any other product.
The exception is with the "Edition" collection, the gold watch line that begins at $10,000. Even then, the special treatment might not be all that special — at the Manhattan store on the Upper West Side, appointments take place in a designated area of the main floor; at the massive Fifth Avenue store near Central Park, the fittings occur in a VIP room that one retail employee said has been used in the past when celebrities visit the store.
Sapna Maheshwari/BuzzFeed
Business As Usual For Apple Stores On Watch Launch Day http://ift.tt/1yd23VL
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