Apple Stores combat dangerous CO, unpleasant BO with odor 'sniffers'
With hundreds of thousands of people streaming through the doors of Apple's retail outlets around the world each day, the company has reportedly turned to high-tech "sniffers" in an effort to keep the stores' air fresh and odors at bay.
Apple's Santa Monica store
The revelation came from employees of Apple's Third Street Promenade store in Santa Monica, a shop that opened in 2012. The store is said to reek of body odor --?particularly in the early morning -- as noted by The Street's Rocco Pendola.
According to one store employee who spoke to Pendola, the problem is caused by the relatively high locations of sniffers in the store's walls. The sniffers are sensors which monitor the store's air --?checking for the presence of gases like carbon monoxide --?and trigger the ventilation system based on those readings.
Ventilation industry professionals use similar systems to diagnose problems with air conditioning systems in homes, businesses, and schools. Those devices, sometimes called "electronic noses," sense normal atmospheric gases as well as sometimes foul-smelling chemicals called volatile organic compounds.
The "sniffers" used to monitor the store's air quality Source: The Street
Pendola speculates that the issue in the Santa Monica store may have been overlooked during the management transition from former retail chief Ron Johnson to the now-fired John Browett. The division, which is currently without a senior-level leader, will soon report to current Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts who will move into a new role at Apple later this spring.
While the report notes that complaints of foul odors have surfaced in the past in other Apple retail stores, AppleInsider has been unable to confirm any similar cases in existing shops, perhaps indicating that sniffers in those locations are doing their job. Recent Visits to the company's busy outlets in Hong Kong and New York yielded no olfactory offenses.
Apple's Santa Monica store
The revelation came from employees of Apple's Third Street Promenade store in Santa Monica, a shop that opened in 2012. The store is said to reek of body odor --?particularly in the early morning -- as noted by The Street's Rocco Pendola.
According to one store employee who spoke to Pendola, the problem is caused by the relatively high locations of sniffers in the store's walls. The sniffers are sensors which monitor the store's air --?checking for the presence of gases like carbon monoxide --?and trigger the ventilation system based on those readings.
Ventilation industry professionals use similar systems to diagnose problems with air conditioning systems in homes, businesses, and schools. Those devices, sometimes called "electronic noses," sense normal atmospheric gases as well as sometimes foul-smelling chemicals called volatile organic compounds.
The "sniffers" used to monitor the store's air quality Source: The Street
Pendola speculates that the issue in the Santa Monica store may have been overlooked during the management transition from former retail chief Ron Johnson to the now-fired John Browett. The division, which is currently without a senior-level leader, will soon report to current Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts who will move into a new role at Apple later this spring.
While the report notes that complaints of foul odors have surfaced in the past in other Apple retail stores, AppleInsider has been unable to confirm any similar cases in existing shops, perhaps indicating that sniffers in those locations are doing their job. Recent Visits to the company's busy outlets in Hong Kong and New York yielded no olfactory offenses.
Comments
Just wait someone will do a survey and find they the majority of people buying apple product do not take a shower or change their cloths.
Or are very flatulent....
Apple is Doooooooomed I say, Dooooomed!
Yeah. It’s APPLE’S problem that people don’t know how to bathe.
Come off it.
Yeah. It’s APPLE’S problem that people don’t know how to bathe.
Come off it.
You come off it. He's not saying it's Apple's fault that they don't bathe, but rather they should be more efficient in terms of ventilation and air purifying. Not every comment is an insult against your precious Apple.
" Apple denies showers to employees, 3 employees jump off roof of Santa Monica Apple Store!"
I don't get it. Why would it stink early in the morning when the store was (presumably) closed all night? Shouldn't it stink more during the day or late in the day after it's been filled with people in a relatively warm climate? Do they have minimum wage security guards sitting in the store at night who might not be able to afford to clean their uniforms often enough?
Aside from that possibility, if it stinks early in the morning, it's probably not body odor - it's probably an inherent smell from the fixtures, ceiling, insulation, etc., that just happens to smell like b.o. It's probably happening because the air is not getting circulated at night. Burning insulation can also sometimes smell like b.o. Or, if the store uses a water-cooled air conditioning system, it could be stagnant water sitting somewhere in the system. Or it could be the equivalent of "new car smell". Hopefully, it's not the smell coming from formaldehyde being formed by cheaply made furniture, although since there's not a soft cushion anywhere in an Apple Store, that would be doubtful.
Heaven forbid, they might blow the place up.
http://newsfeed.time.com/2014/01/27/90-farting-cows-start-fire-in-germany/
In not sure about the odor, but there is a terrible echo in the new Santa Monica store (pictured above). Sound bounces off of every wall and the glass ceiling. I feel like I'm in a tunnel with 50+ other people talking at once.
That's true in the Lincoln Square store in Manhattan as well. It's all large spaces and all hard surfaces: the tables are wood, the floors are concrete, the walls are stone and the ceiling and fronts are glass. There's absolutely nothing to absorb sound (aside from customers). When the first phone with Siri was released, I went in there to try it out and it was impossible, due to the noise. They need to put up cloth acoustic panels on the walls in random patterns. That won't solve it all, but it will make it somewhat better.
I once thought I heard a live band playing in the basement of the Lincoln Square store. I went down there and it was just a loud iPod player accessory. That's how much everything gets amplified by the acoustics.
Apple likes to think of itself as paying attention to the tiniest details, but they did not pay any attention to the acoustic design of this store model.
I don't think it's the employees but rather the hipsters.
[VIDEO]
People are jammed in to the stores with the door a the far end I've been remarking on this issue for years!
No, but that one was.
There would have to be bodies inside first in order to get a BO stink.
"Blames BO on 5C failure."