Yesterday after work I went to the grand opening of the new Apple Store at The Grove in Los Angeles. This particular location is on my way home from work, so I thought it would be a good time to satisfy my curiousity about what an Apple Store looks like.
I got there with several co-workers from Symantec at around 3:30, two and a half hours before the opening. It was a sunny day, and the people I was with were uncomfortable in the heat. It didn't especially bother me, although I was pleased when the Apple Store employees passed out small bottles of water.
When the store opened, it was a rather bizarre experience. They let the first 25 people in l’ne into the store, which included myself and the other people from Symantec. Painfully loud music was playing over the store speakers, and the store employees were cheering and clapping. It was actually rather unpleasant.
Fortunately the noise level dropped after a few minutes, and I was able to look around. The store took up two floors, and was layed out with lots of room between the display systems. There was a fancy staircase made of translucent plastic between the levels. Between this design and the lighting, the individual steps were a bit hard to see--I wouldn't be surprised if someone misses a step and falls down the stairs.
It occurs to me that the Apple Store staircase is fairly representative of Apple's products under Steve Jobs--it looks pretty, but it's not very user friendly and may actually be dangerous.
After looking around the store for about 25 minutes, it was time to leave. The store was pretty crowded the whole time, so I never had a chance to test whether there was an open Airport network in the store.
4:27:17 PM 
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