Apple Store, West Edmonton – Grand Opening!

I’ve been keeping one eye on the Apple store in West Edmonton Mall ever since I was made aware of the quiet construction that was taking place.

When Apple announced the grand opening for this weekend and added the incentive of free t-shirts for the first thousand people, I had little choice but to check it out.

First thing this morning, not wanting to miss out on the free t-shirt (for the novelty, if nothing else) I gathered up my wife and daughter, dragged them out of bed and off we went. Unlike Jessie, I didn’t expect to see quite so many people show up for something as trivial as the opening of a retail store. In spite of arriving 15 minutes early, a large line-up of eager Apple addicts were already present with hundreds more quickly swarming in behind us.

Once the store opened up for business, the line of people flowing into and out of the store with their shiny new purchases was impressively quick and streamlined. The staff had no issues whatsoever in dealing with such a large crowd of people.

Not wanting to leave without giving the place a test run, Jessie was quick to snag an Apple TV and HDMI cable to add to our collection of Apple gear. When she needed assistance to locate the lower-end 40 GB model, help was immediately available. Apon getting everything we felt like blowing some cash on today together, checkout was extremely quick and convenient. A hand-held device was used to collect payment for our purchase and a receipt in PDF format was e-mailed off to the address of our choice. The whole process took less then a couple of minutes.

Being an electronics addict, I purchase all sorts of toys from a variety of retailers and I’ve yet to witness a checkout experience as quick and hassle free. Every other retailer on the planet has a lot they can learn from Apple in this regard.

Being indescribably impressed, Jessie, Natalie and I happily left with our new toys and three new t-shirts. When a retail outlet is this well organized, you just can’t help wanting to give them all your money on a routine basis. I look forward to our next visit.

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