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Made in China. "The Apple Stoer"
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| Summerlover |
"The Apple Stoer"
http://www.thestar.com/business/art...ple-stores?bn=1
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BEIJING—Famous for its fakes, China now appears to have taken its legendary ability to copy other people’s products to a new level for the digital age: the completely fake Apple store.
For a nation of 1.3 billion people, four Apple stores in two of China’s biggest cities have never seemed enough.
Now, an enterprising entrepreneur in the southern Chinese city of Kunming has taken matters into his own hands, opening his own Apple store with the style and seductiveness of the real thing.
On Wednesday an American expatriate blogger reported stumbling across the dazzling new find in her very own neighborhood.
China has a well-earned reputation for producing illegal knock-offs of luxury brands such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Rolex.
But an entire Apple store is believed to be a first.
Apple’s products are wildly popular here. A report this year detailed how one young teenage boy sold his kidney to buy an iPad.
“This was a total Apple store rip-off,” wrote the blogger, known as BirdAbroad, who supplemented her report with acres of photos. “A beautiful rip-off – a brilliant one – the best rip-off store we had ever seen.”
The attention to detail in the store is astonishing, she reported, right down to the staff’s electric blue T-shirts with official Apple insignia and bulky name tags.
“Being the curious types that we are,” wrote BirdAbroad, who toured the store with her husband, “we struck up some conversation with these sales people who, hand to God, all genuinely think they work for Apple,” she noted.
Apple spends an enormous amount of money, time and design resources on its full-service retail outlets to create a unique experience for its customers. The stores are a key component in the company’s marketing strategy.
The hardwood and stone flooring, the sleek stainless steel, a spiral staircase to that “weird upstairs sitting area,” all the signature Apple touches are present in the Kunming store, she wrote. And there were products, all with Apple logos.
Whether they were real or “fell off the back of a truck somewhere,” BirdAbroad could not say.
The store in question, in the city’s Zhengyi St., is not authorized by Apple to sell its products.
In an email exchange with the Star, the blogger explained that the Zhengyi St. store is not one of the 13 Premium Reseller (non-Apple stores authorized to sell Apple products and use Apple logos) or authorized Apple stores the company lists on its China website.
Yu Jing, manager of the store, acknowledged Thursday that it was not one of Apple’s authorized dealers but insisted its products are authentic. She would not divulge how the store actually obtains them.
BirdAbroad noted that when she stumbled on the store she was disinclined to believe it was real given that Kunming is “the end of the earth.” The city of 6.8 million is more than a three-hour flight from Beijing.
“But seriously,” she wrote, “China warps your mind into believing that anything is possible, if you stay here long enough.”
As she left the store, she stumbled on two other similar outlets within walking distance, one emblazoned with the words “Apple Stoer” at its entrance.
Apple’s media desk at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters did not respond to voicemail messages requesting comment.
But the Kunming Apple story highlights yet again a persistent problem in China. Despite government pledges to crack down on piracy and the production of counterfeit goods, recent weeks have seen a deluge of reports showing that counterfeiting is not just alive and well in China but thriving.
Only days ago, the European Commission reported that it had seized 1 billion Euros worth of fake goods at its borders in 2010 – 85 per cent from China, up from 64 per cent the year before.
And last week, China’s ongoing piracy saga was given added dramatic flair with reports that one of the country’s most exclusive imported furniture chains, catering to China’s powerful nouveau riche, had been unmasked for making some of its product, not in Italy as advertised but in derelict factories in the Chinese countryside.
Doris Phua, CEO of furniture maker DaVinci, wept and wailed in a high-profile press conference denying the charges. But even as she spoke, customs officials revealed the company had used fancy footwork to produce official import papers, storing the Chinese-made goods in a special duty-free zone near Shanghai, then “importing” them back into China.
But for sheer chutzpah, nothing can trump a group of developers and architects in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. Last month the 800 inhabitants of the idyllic Austrian hamlet of Hallstatt reacted with horror when they discovered that their entire village – a UNESCO World Heritage site – was being replicated in detail in China, right down to the local Catholic church.
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I think this quote says it all “But seriously,” she wrote, “China warps your mind into believing that anything is possible, if you stay here long enough.” |
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| E2EK1EL |
The ultimate KIRF: fake Apple Store spotted in China
This Apple Store looks so real we still can't quite believe it isn't. The KIRF-ers have excelled themselves this time: mimicking or at least reinventing everything from the Brave New World posters down to the dog-tags and "We live here" demeanor worn by the staff. There were a few giveaways, however, which led observant blogger BirdAbroad to whip out her camera and start gathering evidence: slight imperfections in the decor, a lack of individual names on staff badges, plus an unlikely location in the Chinese Backwaterville of Kunming. Hey Apple, we feel your pain. You'll find further unbelievable pics after the break and over at BirdAbroad's blog.
EngagdetMobile Reported it yesterday: By Sharif Sakr posted Jul 20th 2011 4:04AM |
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| spiderpig |
God some reporters are dumb.
These are legit Apple registered authorized re-sellers. There's absolutely nothing wrong with them adhering to Apple's branding. |
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| Dior Homme |
China is so awesome. I wanna go back.
Haters gonna hate! |
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| E2EK1EL |
Authorized re-sellers of anything of anything, cannot duplicate their suppliers Corp ID & branding in anyway. Unless the Corp authorize & allows franchising and dealership lic, then the appearances will be unified and consistent.
“Apple has no stores in Kunming and only 13 authorized resellers in the city, who are not allowed to call themselves Apple Stores or claim to work for Apple.” |
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| GGM |
| Lol I love how this comes out in the midst of all Apples' "you copied us" lawsuits. Perhaps it's time for them to go after their own resellers? |
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| Dior Homme |
But its Apple "Stoer"
Ya btw let's go after our resellers lol |
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| E2EK1EL |
Home news
Customers furious, staff defiant at China's fake Apple Store
July 22, 2011 00:07:00
Melanie Lee
REUTERS
KUNMING, CHINA—Customers at an Apple Store in the Chinese city of Kunming berated staff and demanded refunds on Friday after the shop was revealed to be an elaborate fake, sparking a media and Internet frenzy.
Long a target of counterfeiters and unauthorized resellers, Apple Inc was alerted to the near flawless fake shop by an American blogger living in the southwestern city, more than 1,600 kilometres from the nearest genuine Apple stores in Beijing and Shanghai.
"When I heard the news I rushed here immediately to get the receipt, I am so upset," a customer surnamed Wang told Reuters, near tears. "With a store this big, it looks so believable who would have thought it was fake?"
Wang, a petite, 23-year-old office worker who would not give her first name, spent 14,000 yuan ($2,050 CDN) last month buying a Macbook Pro 13-inch and a 3G iPhone from the Kunming store. She wasn't issued a receipt at the time, with staff telling her to come back later.
"Where's my receipt, you promised me my receipt last month!" Wang shouted at employees, before being whisked away to an upstairs room.
Staff were also angry at the unwanted attention after more than 1,000 media outlets picked up the story and pictures of the store from the BirdAbroad blog.
"The media is painting us to be a fake store, but we don't sell fakes, all our products are real, you can check it yourself," said one employee, who didn't want to give his name.
"There is no Chinese law that says I can't decorate my shop the way I want to decorate it."
While upset at the coverage and unwilling to be fully identified, staff were cooperative when Reuters visited the store, answering questions and allowing the shop to be filmed.
Another employee, surnamed Yang, said business had been affected, with customers demanding they prove the authenticity of their products.
Apple has declined to comment on the fake store or others like it dotted around China. The Cupertino, Calif.-based firm has just four genuine Apple Stores in Beijing and Shanghai and none in Kunming.
With about 3.2 million inhabitants, Kunming, the capital of the mountainous southwestern province of Yunnan, is small by Chinese standards and not well known in the West.
Located not far the borders of Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar, the city's fast-growing industrial and manufacturing base is emblematic of China's ascent on the world stage.
The fake Apple Store is situated along a crowded pedestrian-only shopping street, its black Apple logo gleaming. Inside, with its Apple posters on the walls and iPads and Macbook computers displayed on wooden tables, the store looks every bit like Apple Stores found all over the world but for some slightly shoddy workmanship and one or two errant details.
Not all customers were bothered by the revelations that the store was not the genuine article.
"As long as their products are real it's okay – after all, you enter a store not to look at anything except their products," said Hu Junkai, 18. "If the products you buy are real, why do you care whether the store is a copy?"
Wang was not convinced.
"The biggest thing I'm upset about is that I spent so much money at this store and I don't even know whether it is real or not," she said.
"What can I do? They aren't going to give me a refund." |
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