Mainstreet.com reports that Mark Malkoff, a comedian and filmmaker, had heard rumors that Apple essentially gives customers free rein to do what they please in their retail stores and decided to put the company’s tolerance to the test with a few unusual stunts at Apple stores in and around New York City.
He had a pizza delivered to one Apple store and proceeded to eat it while browsing laptops, took his wife on a date in another store accompanied by a personal chef and trumpet player and yes, he walked into one store with a goat on a leash, all in plain sight of employees.
Unlike many other retailers, Apple is known for putting all of its products out in the open for customers to play with. Shoppers can spend as much time as they please hanging out in the store and trying out gadgets with little interference from customer service representatives, a policy Beemer describes as very “pro-consumer.” In essence, Apple’s tolerance of unusual customer behavior is just an extension of that.
According to Daniel Butler, vice president of retail operations at the National Retail Federation, Malkoff’s stunts never really violated the three basic tenets of retail behavior: Don’t steal or damage products, don’t create a safety hazard and don’t harass customers or employees. One might argue that some of Malkoff’s actions came close to breaking the last rule, but watching the video, the shoppers seem to get a kick out of his antics and the employees seem completely unfazed, as though it’s just another ordinary day at the Apple Store.
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