WSJ July 21, 2011, 8:09 PM HKT Fake Apple Store Clerk Speaks Out
Suddenly, one of the most famous Apple stores in the world is one that not only isn’t a real Apple Store, but apparently isn’t even an authorized Apple reseller.
As noted earlier on China Real Time, the fake Apple Store, located in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming, was spotted by an expatriate blogger in the city who uses the handle BirdAbroad. It has since gotten widespread international attention for the remarkable lengths to which its proprietors seem to have gone to mimic the look and feel of a real Apple Store.
Trying to reach the store’s owners has been tough. Repeated calls to the manager on Thursday went unanswered. But a store employee reached by phone confirmed that the store is not an authorized Apple reseller. The salesman said products in the store are genuine Apple products sold at the same prices as those advertised on Apple’s website.
BirdAbroad said in a post Wednesday that store staff she spoke to appeared to believe they were employees of Apple. The staffer reached by phone was under no such illusion. “It doesn’t make much of a difference for us whether we’re authorized or not,” he said. “I just care that what I sell every day are authentic Apple products, and that our customers don’t come back to me to complain about the quality of the products.”
The store is one of many unofficial resellers with Apple products on display around China. BirdAbroad’s post said there were two other Apple retailers around the corner from the featured fake store, one of which has a misspelled sign calling itself “Apple Stoer.” Many of the Apple products carried by resellers are purchased from the company’s retail outlets in China, while others are bought overseas and smuggled in. In some cases, the products on offer are second-hand or even knock-offs. It’s unclear where the Kunming fake Apple Store sources its products,
“I think in Yunnan, our store should be one of the best in terms of scale and the level of professionalism,” the Kunming salesman said. The Kunming store’s winding staircase, blue employee t-shirts and official looking name tags help give it the look and feel of one of Apple’s iconic Apple Stores, of which there are only four in China—two in Beijing, and two in Shanghai. While valuable as retail channels, Apple’s highly stylized stores are also an important marketing tool, analysts say.
Now that it has undoubtedly gotten Apple’s attention, one option for the Kunming store could be to apply to be part of Apple’s network of authorized resellers. But it’s unclear how kindly Apple would respond to such a request under the circumstances. Matters relating to Apple’s intellectual property are not usually taken lightly, as illustrated last year by a police probe into an iPhone 4 prototype purchased by technology website Gizmodo before the device’s launch, and this year by prison terms handed down to three people in Shenzhen after police discovered they had collaborated to steal pre-release photos of the iPad 2 in order to make accessories for it.
An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.
Official Apple resellers, labeled as “Apple Shops” on the company’s website, are granted authorized status after going through an application process for certification to sell or provide specific Apple products and technical support services.
Photos of the authorized resellers’ stores on Apple’s website show that some of its official resellers also nod to Apple’s trademark, minimalist look and feel, and also feature giant posters of Apple products. But there are guidelines, including on how to use the company’s logos. One authorized Apple reseller in Beijing said Thursday that his store’s design and the placement of Apple’s logos are all “done according to Apple’s requirements.”
–Loretta Chao and Sue Feng
