The musings of a famous Apple user, who is willing to walk to an Apple store (he has a Gulfstream for longer treks):
"What do you mean? Steve, you can't sell your products in a retail store! You don't have a wide enough variety. Don't go retail, Steve. You don't know about retail. You can't. Don't even mess with it. You've got a great model going here." My point is that even Steve Jobs after all of these countless years of over-the-top success had people telling him, "You'll fail if you do it."
Today there are 327 Apple stores, retail stores around the world, and starting Thursday night, people are gonna be lined up for blocks around a lot of them trying to get this new iPhone. There are people that go into Apple stores like kids go into toy stores; and I think that's one of the unspoken answers to what is considered the magic of Apple and the whole aura of the place. It's tough to get into an Apple store on a Saturday afternoon. I've only been into one (it was in Boston) 'cause I don't shop. I don't do retail. But I was walking and I said, "There's gotta be one near here." It was on Boylston Street when I was staying in a hotel. I said, "There's gotta be an Apple store nearby here, just has to be." So I got out my iPhone and went to maps: "Tell me where the nearest Apple store is?" It was two blocks away, three blocks away. Pfft! I took the Hoof Express, went down there, and there were -- yep, three blocks, wasn't far -- and there were people there. (interruption) I will walk to an Apple store. Yeah! That's my point. (chuckles) I barely will walk to the bathroom, but I will walk to an Apple store.
I approve of his point of view.
You know what I love about the Apple Store, if I have a problem with my Mac, I take it there, and I get it back next day. No shipping it off to God-Knows-Where and getting it back in two weeks or any of that garbage.