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Comment by ChrisMarshallNY | Hacker News Reader

One of the things about the Apple Store, is that folks want what it sells. Because of that, they put up with it.

Personally, I find the Apple Store to be a pain in the ass. The online version makes me a clickaholic, and the IRL version is very confusing.

Government sites are very different.

I have no opinion on the new position. I don’t know the guy, and don’t use AirBnb. I just find that the insistence on making govt sites “like the Apple Store” to be weird.

In a local mall, we have an Apple Store on one end, and a Microsoft Store on the other.

Aesthetically, they are quite similar.

But the Apple Store is always packed, and the Microsoft Store is always empty.

[UPDATED TO ADD] As was pointed out, this was reflective of a long time ago. Microsoft closed all their stores a few years ago.

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> In a local mall, we have an Apple Store on one end, and a Microsoft Store on the other.

I had to check if I had opened an old thread. Microsoft closed all of its stores in Jun 2020.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Store_(retail)

Shows how long it’s been, since I’ve been past there. I don’t really do IRL stores, much, these days (but I have been to the Apple Store a couple of times, in the last few years).

s/have/had/g

My bad. Thanks for pointing that out.

Not all stores closed in 2020. We still had one as of May 2025 around here (which is also mentioned in the Wikipedia page you linked) https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/microsoft-closed-ex...

AirBnb has one dark pattern that I'm aware of, that I absolutely despise: the search listings don't display the actual price, but instead the price minus the fees (so not what you'll actually pay). Thankfully some jurisdictions made this illegal (e.g. if you use the Australian AirBnb website you'll get the actual prices), but it's a horrible pattern presumably designed to get people to commit to initiating a booking and thus less likely to not proceed when they see the final total.

I have zero faith that anyone who was okay with that should be in charge of anything for the public good.

This has changed - at least for me, in the US, Airbnb shows all-in pricing.

This has started to turn around in the US, and states like CA and MN require it, with MA to follow in a few days.

The problem is that if you don't use that dark pattern, you take a double digit revenue hit. So you revert to the dark pattern while shaking your fist at why the customers "just don't understand?"

I think that was one of Biden's FTC initiatives about hidden fees in things like airlines, car rentals, hotel rooms, etc.. Honestly one of the better moves by the FTC, here's hoping it survives.

And for me, not. Hate to say it, but it depends. On what I can't say.

> But the Apple Store is always packed, and the Microsoft Store is always empty.

Perhaps because more people associate Microsoft with software and Apple with hardware? Also there are way more stores selling Windows-based hardware equipment compared to Apple stores.

Why would I ever go to a Microsoft store? To buy a Windows CD?

It looks like I’m dreaming of a glorious past, but they seemed to sell XBox stuff.

for a while they were making a play to be in the devices market.

> Why would I ever go to a Microsoft store? To buy a Windows CD?

To get into the back of the line leading into the Apple Store which is ALWAYS packed.

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