Best Buy vs. Apple Store

Quick correction: Best Buy is doing very well. Very profitable, and up 3x in the past five years. As far as retail big-box goes, they're basically top of the pack.

The question comes down to square footage in my opinion. I have one apple store in easy driving distance which was designed in the late 90s/early 2000s for the needs of late 90s/early 2000s apple. I don’t have the numbers on me, but i think I don’t need them to say far far more people are using apple products and services in my area today vs 2003.

No matter how cleverly they organize the store, there is simply not enough space.

To me, the biggest contrast here is simply that Apple stores tend to be really, really small for the number of people in them at peak hours compared to other mass market retailers.

Is the practice of Apple store employees checking you in at the entrance specific to the US? I never saw this in Hong Kong. Or maybe the store there had a different policy.