How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster
<i>&gt;[Angela Ahrendts&#x27;] overhaul of the Genius Bar has been especially controversial. Customers looking for technical advice or repairs must now check in with an employee, who types their request into an iPad. Then when a Genius is free, he or she must find the customer wherever they happen to be in the store. Ahrendts was determined to get rid of lineups, but now the stores are often crowded with people waiting for their iPhones to be fixed or batteries swapped out.
[...] Some employees speculate she’ll [Deirdre O’Brien] bring back the original Genius Bar.</i><p>I don&#x27;t see how the old <i>dedicated</i> space for a Genius Bar would work better.  The problem is that the old way tied tech support to a spatial <i>location</i> in the store.  The new way assigned tech support to a <i>person</i> instead of a location. This allows <i>any and every table</i> in the store to become a temporary &quot;genius bar&quot; for that customer session.<p>In theory, if you had a dedicated area for the Genius Bar, you&#x27;d hope it would be free of crowds and be very inviting.  An example photo showing open seats ready for instant service for the next customer:  <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;upload.wikimedia.org&#x2F;wikipedia&#x2F;commons&#x2F;6&#x2F;6a&#x2F;Apple_Genius_Bar_Regentstreet_London.jpg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;upload.wikimedia.org&#x2F;wikipedia&#x2F;commons&#x2F;6&#x2F;6a&#x2F;Apple_Ge...</a><p>But reality turns out differently.  In the following photo, notice the long lines crowding the back of the store at the Genius Bar:  <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;tr4.cbsistatic.com&#x2F;hub&#x2F;i&#x2F;2006&#x2F;10&#x2F;03&#x2F;fce299cc-c3bf-11e2-bc00-02911874f8c8&#x2F;apple_store_07.jpg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;tr4.cbsistatic.com&#x2F;hub&#x2F;i&#x2F;2006&#x2F;10&#x2F;03&#x2F;fce299cc-c3bf-11...</a><p>If an Apple exec wants to bring back the dedicated area for the Genius Bar, how does one avoid the logistical nightmare of those lines?  You still have to work within the same finite retail floor space.<p>I don&#x27;t like the new Apple Stores but I do know I&#x27;d rather sit down at one of the retail tables instead of stand in line at the old store layout.