Page 247 - The Apple Experience

 Consistent Delivery. I visit Funnel Mill once every two months on business

trips to Santa Monica, and each time I go the “packaging” of the product is
consistent. Again, no detail is overlooked. Here is how J.C. explained it:

Coffees are brought on silver platters. At the twelve o’clock position,

we place two types of sugars in small ceramic bowls so you can see
how clean and pure the sugar is. The drink is placed at the six o’clock

position with the handle positioned at the four o’clock position to

make it easy for the customer to pick it up while they’re working on
their computer. A napkin and a long-stem spoon is placed in the nine

o’clock position, and the customer’s choice of cream is placed at three
o’clock. Our ingredients are measured to the gram. I want to make

sure that your drink tastes and looks the same each and every time.
The experience must be consistent whether you come in tomorrow or

a year from now.
12

J.C. is obsessed with detail. Schultz is obsessed with detail, and so was Steve

Jobs.

In a sad but very revealing story in the Walter Isaacson biography, we
learn that Jobs pushed away an oxygen mask during one of his operations for

a liver transplant. He demanded to see other options because he didn’t like

the design of the mask. Jobs’s curse became our blessing. Jobs brought beauty

to technology and reminded us that retail spaces could be more than four

walls used to store and distribute products. They could be architectural

landmarks. Apple’s New York City Fifth Avenue “cube” is one of the most

photographed sites in the entire city. Ironically, the past history of the
location had failed for other retailers because the site is underground. But

where most people saw an underground failure, Jobs and his designer, Peter

Bohlin, saw a “ceremony of descent.”