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Over the year, Apple Inc. has revamped its stores, changed the layout, added services and increased its staffing. The “concierge” service that Apple launched last week is the latest initiative designed to draw more visitors and bolster already record-breaking sales.

According to SFGate, the new Apple stores boast “clipboard-carrying concierges [that] greet customers at the door to direct them to the right section of the store or to the personal shopper or trainer with whom they had made an appointment.” The registers have been removed from the stores and the employees carry a portable scanner in a super hip, hip holster. Receipts are e-mailed on the spot or, if the customer prefers, a paper version emerges from printers hidden underneath display tables. So, where is the shopper with enough gull to use cold hard cash supposed to pay? Though there may be delay for cash and check payers, you’ll be escorted to a cold, dirty dungeon where you can fork up your bucks believe it or not, Apple still knows that Cash Rules Everything Around Me.

This is like a Visa commercial where the repetitive music creates machine like buying precision, consumers consume quickly, remain organized, buy, buy buy, but one annoying sucker decides to pay with a check or god forbid, cash! This dirty payment method throws everybody off and the clockwork of the shoppers comes to a screeching halt until the ol’ plastic comes out.

Apple Stores Revamp for Holidays [SFGate]
SF Apple Store [Apple]
C.R.E.A.M. [YouTube]