Have you ever walked into a store and you know exactly what you want, you find it easily, and then you spend a crazy amount of time waiting for someone to ring it up for you so you can be on your way? I HATE that. I am a seriously impatient person and if a store is busy I’m just as likely to put said item back on the shelf and leave without it.
And that’s what a busy store does NOT want to happen.
And Apple Stores are BUSY!!
So today I walked over to the Apple Store in Pacific Centre Mall on my lunch to purchase two adapters for the iPhone (one for myself and one for Kirk). I’m not big on wanting assistance when I shop for computers or accessories. I have a pretty solid knowledge of what I need and why, so I don’t really usually want to get into a conversation about things with sales people – even if Apple sales people are probably the most enthusiastic you will ever encounter. I don’t really need any coaching on Apple products, I am a cult follower and don’t need any more Kool-aid.
The store was as crazy busy as always, but I found what I was looking for in the accessories and then I was left looking for a person in a blue shirt to help me. There are lots of blue shirted people, but every single one was assisting someone. There is no formal cashier in an Apple Store, anyone can sell you anything at any location using their iPhone.
What happened next was AWESOME! The fellow who sold me my laptop a week and a half ago saw me looking for someone and apologized, saying he was assisting another customer. Then he asked me “Do you have an iPhone with the Apple Store app?”
I did.
Then he said “As of today you can use it for self checkout.”
I was astounded, and whipped out my phone and opened the app. Sure enough, a new window was there that said “Easy Pay” When I clicked it, a window with a small barcode reader popped up. I scanned my items, chose “Pay” entered my iTunes password and the security digits for the credit card that I have on file with iTunes, and presto! I was done.
The Blue Shirted fellow passed by me a moment later and asked if it worked for me. I said yes, with a huge smile on my face, and asked if security was going to jump me at the door. He laughed and said no, they believe in honesty. I don’t know how they expect people won’t pretend to pay and walk out with items, but maybe there is some monitoring in place that tracks it. I don’t know. They certainly do have cameras, and everyone who has enabled Siri has uploaded all of the personal data in their phones to Apple (knowingly or not), and Apple has fantastic facial recognition software in their photo apps, so perhaps they really do know if one pays or not. Or maybe the cost benefit of freeing up staff to sell the big ticket items outweighs the odd cable and case walking out the door.
All I know is that I paid for my items in a few moments and then I walked out of the store with my items, and no security guard jumped me.
This is about the coolest thing ever, and it was super fast and efficient. And super fast and efficient is important to me.
It obviously doesn’t apply to big ticket items, but anything on the accessories shelves can be self purchased. I walked out of there with a huge smile on my face.
Apple did it again.
The Apple Store App can be found here ?