The story of the fake Apple Stores in China that has been all over the news has become a bit more interesting. The Wall Street Journal did what they do best: spit in their palms, slap ’em together and do some journalism. After multiple calls, a sales employee answered the phone and spilled some beans. “What kind of beans were spilled?” is a question left unanswered. I’m not sure what beans are popular in that part of the world. My only worry is they were black beans. If it was out of a can, that juice can leave one darned stain.
The employee did reveal they are fully aware of the inauthenticity of the store. That’s a bit disappointing, considering a duping of that nature instantly became one of the funniest things in the world to me. Another disappointing element to the comedic nature of the story, although an overall great thing for the people buying their stuff, is the products are real. All the various iThings they sell are legit and even priced at Apple’s set prices. Where the products come from, exactly, no one has said. Most likely, they are from resellers. There is also a great chance some are stolen. From firsthand experience, I can tell you that plenty of people try to steal large ticket items to send to a different country for profit. It is usually someone attempting to use a fake credit card. It happens fairly often at my store, so I’m positive it happens all over the place. Also, every so often, there are stories of hijacked shipments in the news.
There is no doubt the Kunming stores are on Apple’s radar. I’m sure we will get another chapter in this story soon. Apple don’t play that shit. They hit back.
[Pic via BirdAbroad]
Matthew owns some books he’s never read, but he reads Twitter every single day.
so it seems apple cracked down due to the blog:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14273444
It would be funny if the employees do not feel special because they do not work at an authorized Apple Reseller.
I just got back from Kunming and the beans were probably green, though they could also be red if they were in paste form.
“Apple don’t play that shit. They hit back.” I love it. Matt Burnside, you are a literary genius. A proverbial “lyrical gantsa'”
When I first hear this I also thought it was hilarious but was the fact that they are selling legit goods in a fake store is kind of awesome.
Except Apple can’t touch China. Intellectual rights jut don’t mean a thing there.
…It’s totally a purse.
So I wonder if Billy Gates has anything to do with this. I picture him and Steve Jobs have a rival battle going where various pranks occur, this being one of them. Well in that case, the joke is on you Gates. Mac OS > Windows (In my opinion)