Apple wants you, but mostly teens, to hang out in their Apple stores, sorry, “Genius Groves.”
Back in the olden days, teens would hang out after school at fast-food chains and coffee shops, Taco Bells and Starbucks. Old enough to spend free time independently but young enough to not actually have anything to do, these were the go-to destinations. Now, in a world where Apple is already low-key omnipresent in everyone’s life, the tech giant wants not only to be how but also where you spend time.
The goal, according to Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s head of retail, is to make “Meet me at Apple” a cool and normal thing for people, specifically Gen Z i.e. teens, to say and do.
People do, it should be said, visit Apple stores even when they don’t have a broken phone or a need to buy something new. Some people come for the WiFi, others the charging outlets. Some people like to come and use the Apple display models and talk themselves into needing an upgrade on their one-year-old Macbook Pro. All of those things are still, generally, solitary activities. Mostly, an Apple Store feels like the place you go to kill time, not spend it.
In any case, Apple knows you care about the aesthetic of your personal brand and what good is a chill place to hang out if you can’t also Instagram it. So, they’re sprucing up their stores with some “foliage” and calling them Genius Groves. The new design will also include wooden boxes for seating which, again, looks good on the ‘gram but is not particularly well-suited for long-term loafing. Lastly, Quartz raises the astute point that bathroom access is likely to be limited, so it would behoove you to choose a Apple store conveniently located near a Starbucks. In which case, you could maybe just go to Starbucks. Or Taco Bell.
