The Two Faces of Retail

So the Chronicle of Higher Education forecasts that university students in 2020 will take a retail consumer perspective to their education. I agree, except that they already do, to a large extent, and so too an increasing number of independent K-12 parents. This news (see immediately previous post) is especially interesting given how variable customer retail experiences can be.
I visited a Sprint retail store yesterday to replace my ailing Palm Pre mobile phone, and was utterly blown away by how my fellow customers and I seemed to be reacting to the experience. A quick eyeball scan around the place where 10-12 people were waiting their turn (even though we all had scheduled appointments online) revealed faces that looked, well, more like people awaiting their turn with the endodondist. Dejection mixed with fear seemed to be the affect of the day.
Contrast that with what one sees at an Apple store--pick any one, they are all pretty much the same in this regard. A few blocks from where I sit in a cafe at Rivington and Ludlow on the Lower East Side of NYC is an Apple store where customers, even those waiting their turns, are eagerly playing with the merchandise. The affect on their faces is suggests fun more than fear. Excitement, rather than dejection.
If we are going to be in the retail business--and I think we already are, more than most of us want to admit--then how can we create an Apple-like reaction in our customers? Because a Sprint-like reaction is certain death.

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