Page 224 - The Apple Experience

writing, Microsoft had opened fourteen stores around the United States and
it most certainly took a page or two, or three, from the Apple Retail

playbook. Friendly employees in brightly colored shirts greet visitors in stores

that are spacious, clean, and uncluttered. Expansive windows invite shoppers

to see the excitement inside the store and interactive display areas encourage

customers to play with Microsoft products. The resemblance to the Apple

Store design is more than a coincidence. The technology blog Gizmodo

reported that Microsoft hired at least one Apple Store designer to act as a
consultant on the new store design.

You can’t blame Microsoft. A store could do worse than copying one of

the greatest models in retail history. Apple has learned that its customers like

open spaces, glass entrances and staircases, and simple, handcrafted oak

tables. According to Apple designer Jonathan Ive, “We are absolutely

consumed by trying to develop a solution that is very simple because as

physical beings we understand clarity.” Ive was speaking about product
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design but this philosophy extends to the design of the Apple Store as well.

Nowhere is that philosophy more evident than in Apple’s Grand Central

Terminal store, which opened in December 2011.