Really now, so if I read on the news that the country that spends the most on illegal drugs is the U.S. then I can tar and feather the whole country and say "Do the Americans have no shame? Are they all just shooting up on crack and meth over there? The U.S. truly is the country of junkies and pushers."
Apples and oranges. This is not some hidden, underground activity. This is a retail store operating out in the open. I don't remember seeing any retail chain stores called "Crack R Us" in the US, operating with the full knowledge and consent of the authorities.
And so what if the US uses a lot on so called illegal drugs? Marijuana for example is big business, and marijuana is a good thing, so any country that has a huge marijuana business is something that puts that country in a positive light. Meth and crack = bad. Marijuana = awesome.
Give me a break. You don't think the hundreds of thousands of indirect workers that are employed in China - thanks to Apple- and the untold billions of dollars of business done in China - thanks to Apple - gives Apple a little bit of leverage to tell the Chinese bigwigs to swat an irritating mosquito? Come on.
It's unclear just how good Apple's connections are in China, there are some clues that they are intent on good relations with the Chinese government. Continually bundling Taiwanese sales in as part of 'Greater China' is one.
Whether they'd bother using any of that political capital on swatting something this small though is questionable.
...yet hardly any different than the dozens of counterfeit booths that I see every day in New York.
It is different. Those street peddlers in New York selling fake rolexes and junk to dumb tourists is hardly the same thing as operating an entire retail store. And the NYPD cracks down on those street peddlers all of the time. I've seen it with my own eyes.
Since the Chinese counterfeit store is allowed to operate, that means that the Chinese authorities don't give a damn, and they support counterfeiting and criminal activity.
Since the Chinese counterfeit store is allowed to operate, that means that the Chinese authorities don't give a damn, and they support counterfeiting and criminal activity.
There is nothing strange about this at all in China.
China has lots of official and unofficial stores selling stuff.
This one happens to be a reseller in Kunming, and the guy that wrote the post and the people that replied have misunderstood..
As said above, Shanghai used to have lots including one on Huai Hai lu that I continually had to tell people not to use as they were useless, but looked exactly like a "real" store.
Actual retail Apple stores in China can be identified by the following:
Staff beating on the customers, riots and broken glass (Beijing)#1
People falling in the poorly designed 1" moat around the edge which was cleverly made level with the ground so you don't see it. (IFC Shanghai)#2
...or looking up ladies skirts as the staircase was made with transparent glass (IFC Shanghai)#3.
#2 IFC - Fixed - they now have a security guard around the outside telling you not to fall in.
#3 IFC - Fixed - they put some opaque tape over the overly designed staircase.
The only apple "fake" products I've seen are things like iPhone cables and power supplies. There are things that look like Apple products - but they're obviously homages rather than "real". Eg the Android or MTK Shanzhai phones or the Atom based similar to Air lookalikes (which actually run as Hackintoshes rather well from what I've seen).
Resellers whether authorized by Apple or not, typically sell the actual real product.
There are 2 ways to get product here - Grey market, and Official.
Grey market pricing used to be the way to go, because
1) Apple Support in China pre 2010 sucked, so the grey market support was often FAR better than the legit support.
2) The pricing was WAY cheaper than the "local" overpriced product.
eg
Say a Macbook in HK was about 10,000HK$; the China price would be 15,000 - for an older model.
Most "Apple" stores in China will serve a variety of products not sold here.
eg iPhones (when they weren't available) etc.
Its supply and demand.
People want them, so stores sell them.
Like many companies in China, where the official supply chain couldn't cut it, the unofficial supply chain stepped in.
For years HK sold more Mac's per capita than a lot of places - purely as that was all getting shipped to China...
A few of the largest Mac sellers here by volume aren't even Apple Authorized. That said, their support was above and beyond the official support here as they actually gave a shit, unlike Apple pre 2010.
This is really on the same lines as the game stores on almost every block in China selling XBOX, PS3, WII etc. None of those are "officially" sold here, but every game store has them.
Same like iPhones - there is a huge market for iPhones here. The official iPhone carrier here has way less iPhones on their network than the major carrier China Telecom.
China Telecom used to post the occasional stat about iPhone use - 2g era was already 1 million odd users, and that was years before they even started selling iphones here officially.
Most of the iPhone, iPad releases have been brought over to China and sold in their millions prior to official release. Apple has gotten a bit wiser though, and twigged that hey - there is a huge market here - and if they don't fill it, unofficial channels will.
Many countries have exactly the same situation, and the same issues.
So all you [expletive deleted] beep beep beep americans going - ooh bad, should actually learn the situation, why it is why it is, and learn that its all supply and demand. If there is demand, there is supply...
Does this mean the store is also selling counterfeit Apple Products? Or are they selling the real stuff and just counterfeiting the store look & feel?
This is what I'm wondering. I know they have good fakes. But some of that stuff looks so real. Certainly real enough to fool the individuals who work there into thinking they are selling real Apple products. I figure many of those employees must be Apple fans and at least own or have used a real Apple device. So I wonder if it's a copycat store selling real Apple products or KIRF outlet.
To even think the staffs he'll bent thinking they actually work for Apple is beyond hilarious. Not actually shocked but yes, shocking! What's next I don't know. Seems everything is possible in China. These people obviously don't care.
*addendum below
Wow, you can't have had many laughs this year if you think this is funny. I find it pretty alarming myself. I mean, we've no idea how widespread this is in China - there could be many more stoers (sic) like this. If customers think this is a legit Apple store and buy a barely functioning product, they'd be put off for life. It could damage Apple's reputation.
...yet hardly any different than the dozens of counterfeit booths that I see every day in New York.
No, it's very different. All the are are electronics sales places that either sell knockoffs or grey market, or legit but cheap and old stuff. The names and windows are not set up to fool the visitor that they are entering any legit "company" store. 70% of the people entering, including tourists, know the whole score with that and the rest just thinks they're legit electronics stores, but they know they're not walking into Best Buy, even.
If you're talking about street sellers, street sellers that sell expensive fake electronics look like they're selling expensive fake electronics, so, very different.
Comments
Kind of ironic eh?
As long as there are idolaters, there will be others taking advantage of them.
Vanitas vanitatum, et omnia vanitas.
Unbelievable.
I am sick and tired of fucking China copying everything we do in our country. Support the USA all the way not China!
priceless
9
Really now, so if I read on the news that the country that spends the most on illegal drugs is the U.S. then I can tar and feather the whole country and say "Do the Americans have no shame? Are they all just shooting up on crack and meth over there? The U.S. truly is the country of junkies and pushers."
Apples and oranges. This is not some hidden, underground activity. This is a retail store operating out in the open. I don't remember seeing any retail chain stores called "Crack R Us" in the US, operating with the full knowledge and consent of the authorities.
And so what if the US uses a lot on so called illegal drugs? Marijuana for example is big business, and marijuana is a good thing, so any country that has a huge marijuana business is something that puts that country in a positive light. Meth and crack = bad. Marijuana = awesome.
Give me a break. You don't think the hundreds of thousands of indirect workers that are employed in China - thanks to Apple- and the untold billions of dollars of business done in China - thanks to Apple - gives Apple a little bit of leverage to tell the Chinese bigwigs to swat an irritating mosquito? Come on.
It's unclear just how good Apple's connections are in China, there are some clues that they are intent on good relations with the Chinese government. Continually bundling Taiwanese sales in as part of 'Greater China' is one.
Whether they'd bother using any of that political capital on swatting something this small though is questionable.
...yet hardly any different than the dozens of counterfeit booths that I see every day in New York.
It is different. Those street peddlers in New York selling fake rolexes and junk to dumb tourists is hardly the same thing as operating an entire retail store. And the NYPD cracks down on those street peddlers all of the time. I've seen it with my own eyes.
Since the Chinese counterfeit store is allowed to operate, that means that the Chinese authorities don't give a damn, and they support counterfeiting and criminal activity.
I am sick and tired of fucking China copying everything we do in our country. Support the USA all the way not China!
... and if you think for two seconds about it, it wouldn't have been possible if US corporations didn't export all the manufacturing to Asia...
Maybe the ones to blame are closer to you than you imagine.
Since the Chinese counterfeit store is allowed to operate, that means that the Chinese authorities don't give a damn, and they support counterfeiting and criminal activity.
Or they don't view it as such.
There are tons of them.
There is nothing strange about this at all in China.
China has lots of official and unofficial stores selling stuff.
This one happens to be a reseller in Kunming, and the guy that wrote the post and the people that replied have misunderstood..
As said above, Shanghai used to have lots including one on Huai Hai lu that I continually had to tell people not to use as they were useless, but looked exactly like a "real" store.
Actual retail Apple stores in China can be identified by the following:
Staff beating on the customers, riots and broken glass (Beijing)#1
People falling in the poorly designed 1" moat around the edge which was cleverly made level with the ground so you don't see it. (IFC Shanghai)#2
...or looking up ladies skirts as the staircase was made with transparent glass (IFC Shanghai)#3.
#1 Beijing's infamous iPhone 4 opening event.
#2 IFC - Fixed - they now have a security guard around the outside telling you not to fall in.
#3 IFC - Fixed - they put some opaque tape over the overly designed staircase.
The only apple "fake" products I've seen are things like iPhone cables and power supplies. There are things that look like Apple products - but they're obviously homages rather than "real". Eg the Android or MTK Shanzhai phones or the Atom based similar to Air lookalikes (which actually run as Hackintoshes rather well from what I've seen).
Resellers whether authorized by Apple or not, typically sell the actual real product.
There are 2 ways to get product here - Grey market, and Official.
Grey market pricing used to be the way to go, because
1) Apple Support in China pre 2010 sucked, so the grey market support was often FAR better than the legit support.
2) The pricing was WAY cheaper than the "local" overpriced product.
eg
Say a Macbook in HK was about 10,000HK$; the China price would be 15,000 - for an older model.
Most "Apple" stores in China will serve a variety of products not sold here.
eg iPhones (when they weren't available) etc.
Its supply and demand.
People want them, so stores sell them.
Like many companies in China, where the official supply chain couldn't cut it, the unofficial supply chain stepped in.
For years HK sold more Mac's per capita than a lot of places - purely as that was all getting shipped to China...
A few of the largest Mac sellers here by volume aren't even Apple Authorized. That said, their support was above and beyond the official support here as they actually gave a shit, unlike Apple pre 2010.
Oh well, at least I can finally think about closing http://www.badappleservice.cn now haha.
This is really on the same lines as the game stores on almost every block in China selling XBOX, PS3, WII etc. None of those are "officially" sold here, but every game store has them.
Same like iPhones - there is a huge market for iPhones here. The official iPhone carrier here has way less iPhones on their network than the major carrier China Telecom.
China Telecom used to post the occasional stat about iPhone use - 2g era was already 1 million odd users, and that was years before they even started selling iphones here officially.
Most of the iPhone, iPad releases have been brought over to China and sold in their millions prior to official release. Apple has gotten a bit wiser though, and twigged that hey - there is a huge market here - and if they don't fill it, unofficial channels will.
Many countries have exactly the same situation, and the same issues.
So all you [expletive deleted] beep beep beep
Will fake Steve Jobs be visiting this store?
I am sick and tired of fucking China copying everything we do in our country. Support the USA all the way not China!
Good luck trying to buy anything made in the USA today.
Good luck trying to buy anything made in the USA today.
I bought an audio interface for one of my Macs, 100% made in the USA, Apogee Duet.
But yeah, most things are not made in the USA, that is true.
I'm wondering when we'll see a Microsoft Stoer popping up...
yeah, like there's a reason they'd want to do that!
Does this mean the store is also selling counterfeit Apple Products? Or are they selling the real stuff and just counterfeiting the store look & feel?
This is what I'm wondering. I know they have good fakes. But some of that stuff looks so real. Certainly real enough to fool the individuals who work there into thinking they are selling real Apple products. I figure many of those employees must be Apple fans and at least own or have used a real Apple device. So I wonder if it's a copycat store selling real Apple products or KIRF outlet.
The. Funniest. Story. Ever. This. Year.
To even think the staffs he'll bent thinking they actually work for Apple is beyond hilarious. Not actually shocked but yes, shocking! What's next I don't know. Seems everything is possible in China. These people obviously don't care.
*addendum below
Wow, you can't have had many laughs this year if you think this is funny. I find it pretty alarming myself. I mean, we've no idea how widespread this is in China - there could be many more stoers (sic) like this. If customers think this is a legit Apple store and buy a barely functioning product, they'd be put off for life. It could damage Apple's reputation.
...yet hardly any different than the dozens of counterfeit booths that I see every day in New York.
No, it's very different. All the are are electronics sales places that either sell knockoffs or grey market, or legit but cheap and old stuff. The names and windows are not set up to fool the visitor that they are entering any legit "company" store. 70% of the people entering, including tourists, know the whole score with that and the rest just thinks they're legit electronics stores, but they know they're not walking into Best Buy, even.
If you're talking about street sellers, street sellers that sell expensive fake electronics look like they're selling expensive fake electronics, so, very different.
Holy crap... China's selling counterfeit Apple products in counterfeit Apple Stores? I think this is the plot to Inception 2...
Dude...all I can say about this story is...WHAT. THE. F.