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Touching the back wall of the Apple store

(blog.lauramichet.com)
252 points nivethan | 2 comments | 27 Jun 25 02:45 UTC | HN request time: 0.419s | source
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JSR_FDED ◴[30 Jun 25 03:53 UTC] No.44419187[source]▶
I remember the first time I went into an Apple Store.

I was looking at a 17” PowerBook, salivating at the screen and performance but struggling with justifying the price tag. An incredibly nice lady walked up to me and asked if I had any questions. I told her I was thinking it over as it was a large purchase. She beamed and said “Of course, that’s totally understandable. In fact it takes on average 3 visits to an Apple Store before making a purchase”. It was the smartest, nicest, most low key way of saying don’t feel pressure…you’ll be coming back, and then you’ll buy the machine you’ve always wanted.

Very on brand. And surprisingly still not really copied by others.

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1. unethical_ban ◴[30 Jun 25 16:06 UTC] No.44424898[source]▶
Yesterday, I went into Best Buy with a friend to look at soundbars. As we were looking, a young man came up and said "Do you have any questions?" - I said we were just browsing, and he smiled and that was that.

He came back a few minutes later when he saw me scanning a QR code on the price tag. Odd since I signaled I didn't need anything. He asked again, "Anything you need help with?" - This time I was still wishy-washy but said "Yeah, I'm checking the inputs on this soundbar to see if it has 3.5mm and how many HDMI ports it has".

And without asking any more details, he smiled and said "Alright!" and walked away. We were completely baffled.

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2. tpmoney ◴[30 Jun 25 17:06 UTC] No.44425597[source]▶
Assuming it wasn’t just following up in case you really did need some help now, probably a “loss prevention” technique. Retail folks are almost never going to accuse someone of stealing and “following around a hovering” behavior is discouraged. Instead the recommendation is to keep an eye on someone you suspect to be shady and just swing by every couple of minutes to “check on them”. Even if you can’t see what they’re doing every moment, the constant reminders that you know they’re there and that you might see them is often enough to discourage theft.

Works reasonably well. When I worked retail we had a person whose MO was to come into the store, browse the expensive headphones, take one off the shelf and put it down on the floor with their book bag while they looked at something else. After about 10 or 15 minutes they’d pick up the book bag and sweep the headphones inside as they were standing up and then walk out the door. If you stopped by while they were looking at the other thing and asked them if they needed any help with finding some accessories for the headphones or just offering to “hold it at the register” for them, they would wind up putting them back (or handing them to you and tell you they changed their mind) and leaving.