More of a store
Let’s get one thing clear – Apple Saket is more of a retail store than the sort of flagship space that Apple BKC in Mumbai is. It is on a single floor in one of Delhi’s most popular malls, Select City Walk in Saket, and is not the sort of massive, imposing structure that Apple BKC is. In fact, you will have to search for it inside a rather massive mall, where it mingles with dozens of other stores. As we said, this one is more of a store than a flagship experience place.
Single hall with an understated layout
Apple Saket is spread across a single hall. There are special oak tables with Apple products on them, and even the wall has wood paneling with yet more Apple products on them. There are no clear divisions of sections of the store, but as you look around, you will notice that there is a distinct iPhone table, a wall for the AirPods, another for the Apple Watch, and so on.
While the products on the tables are smartly arranged, it is the arrangements on the walls that will catch your attention – the AirPods Max, the AirPods, and the HomePods, in particular, look great, and even a section of the wall covered with iPhone cases is eye-catching. And then, in the middle of all this color, you have a snow-white cabinet with snow-white Apple accessories. You kind of feel enveloped by a lot of Apple, but in a subtle manner. There are no partitions in the store, but you will figure out what is where within a short time of walking into it.
All the products, all variants, all the time
As the sheer plethora of products hits you, you will also realize that in the best Apple Store tradition, Apple Saket pretty much has every Apple product released in India. The space overall might be lesser than Apple BKC, but every variant of every product officially released in India is available. If you seek a certain Apple product – be it a certain storage variant, a certain color, or a certain kind of accessory – you have the best chance of getting it here. ” ‘Out of stock’ boards are out of stock here,” one of the staff told us.
Genius Bar, special sessions… all there!
The space might be smaller, but Apple Saket has pretty much everything that makes an Apple Store an Apple Store. You can set up appointments and talk to a product expert (or ‘Genius’ as Apple calls them) to get technical and hardware issues with your Apple products sorted out at the Genius Bar. There also is Today at Apple sessions conducted by Apple Creatives, who are artists and creators, that will enable users to do more with their devices by telling them about special functions and features and so on. These sessions, we are told, will target audiences ranging from beginners to professional users. There will be a round table around which these sessions will be held – you are unlikely to get the sort of space that Apple BKC has, but the level of involvement and expertise will be high. This takes us to perhaps the biggest USP of the Apple Saket store.
The “Soul” of the Store: the staff
It lacks the sort of imposing front and space that Apple BKC in Mumbai has, and well, if one wants to be really blunt, Apple Saket, from a distance, might even strike you as being a regular electronics store, albeit a very classily designed one. So what is going to make it different? The people! As per Apple, the Store is going to have a staff strength of over 70, with a variety of skill sets, all of them committed to giving whoever walks into Apple Saket a memorable experience. “We have a great space here,” Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail, said about the Saket store. “But our people are our soul.” What we have been promised are knowledgeable and kind executives who are never going to push you to buy a product or service. Just how good they are could well determine how popular Apple Saket turns out to be.
Runs on renewable energy
This is something that gets overlooked and overshadowed far too often, but it is one of our favorite features of an Apple Store – Apple Saket will run on 100 percent renewable energy and is carbon neutral, like all Apple facilities in India. We really wish more stores would highlight this – it is definitely as effective as dropping chargers from the package!
The prices are going to be official ones
There are going to be special offers available at Apple Saket as in other Apple Stores, and from what we know, some of them (especially the exchange ones) are going to be extremely attractive. However, for the most part, a point to note is that products at Apple Saket will come with official price tags. So if you are expecting the kind of insane offers that pop up online, hold your horses. This is an official zone. You will get every official Apple product here but at its official price. That said, you can order online and pick up products from the store or buy products at the store and get them home-delivered. There is a lot of convenience in the shopping process here.
