Some experienced staff would complete the picture for the many who wonder over to have a look, think 'Oo pretty, wtf is it?' and wonder off to buy a HP.
Funny you should say that....
At the time, these zones were basically called a store within a store (I forget the actual branding) and funnily enough, Im pretty sure that the first was at the Enfield Store. In theory, there were specially trained staff on hand to advise you on all things Apple; anecdotally though, the feedback I heard (I was working on a Mac mag and I got told whether or not I wanted to
) it was business as usual and staff would steer you towards buying a PC instead my own experience of having a look at a few stores, was roughly that (the Enfield one was pretty flash though), but it did vary.
From a PR thing, it was quite positive lots of nice positive soundbites and increased punter awareness (I think they did they odd store demonstration).. When Steve J did that Tokyo keynote unveiling the WTF new iMac colouring, the Enfield store had the keynote beamed in store with free sushi for punters. However, as I say, in reality it didnt seem to change much.
I remember going to a PCW to have a look at an iMac in 1998-9 (I thought I was going to have to buy by post, but wanted to have a close look) couldnt see any and a staff member told me that they didnt stock them. He wasnt immediately corrected by a colleague (not that many stores did carry Apple products I think) lo and behold, they had five displayed less than 5 feet away. I doubt I would have bought it there, but as the first employees sales pitch was basically telling me why Macs are awful, I made my excuses and left. John Lewis was a short walk and I came out with a new machine that was £60 cheaper and had a better warranty. Cut to 2 years later and things hadnt really changed as far as I could see and definitely from what I was told.
One thing, I did learn a few years back (from people within the business), was that PCW dont/didnt like to stock anything that they were unable to mark-up by a very reasonable 60% or so and if the manufacturers didnt give them the discount they demanded, there wasnt a chance of PCW pushing the stock. I doubt Apple capitulated back then (it would be very un-Apple to be pushed around that way), so I suspect the commission for staff was so bad that even if you had a customer wanting to buy a Mac, the employee would try to steer them in a different direction.
