Re/code reports that Microsoft now has more than 100 of its Apple Store clones across the U.S. and Canada, in sizes ranging from tiny stores of 15o square feet to the 22,000 square feet store strategically positioned close to the iconic glass cube Apple Store on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.
What Microsoft’s stores don’t have is customers.
Microsoft denies that it is just a copycat, pointing to the giant video wall as a feature not found in Apple Stores, seemingly unaware that (far better) giant screens are a standard feature of Apple’s latest retail store design, first seen in Brussels.
Microsoft’s stores have a warm decor, plenty of helpful staffers and an array of PCs, phones and devices. They could use a few more customers, though. It’s hard to know exactly how the stores are doing since Microsoft won’t comment on either sales or traffic figures. It is fair to say, though, that it is not uncommon to visit stores in which workers outnumber customers.
