On the other hand, if capacity cannot be easily expanded, then there is a question of how to allocate it between walk-ins and appointments. If capacity is expanded then the ease of getting a reservation should take care of the walk-in issue. First, to what extent should Apple accommodate walk-in customers? Second, is there any easy fix to expanding Genius capacity? These are related. So is there an easy fix to this problem? It seems like there are two issues here.

There are even reports of scalpers hawking Genius Bar reservations in China. While a quick check of my nearest Apple store shows that they currently have a number of appointments open for tomorrow, Friday morning already has no availability. It certainly can be an issue here in Chicagoland. The article goes on to note that this is not just an issue in London.

But it is hard to redirect people when every nearby shop has its Geniuses fully booked for days on end. This week, a gaggle of well-trained, polite and friendly staff worked their way along the line trying to answer simple queries and advise people on alternatives to queueing. If the problem is urgent you can turn up and queue, but it could be a very long wait. Each sees up to 30 customers a day but it is impossible to book an appointment less than a week in advance. The Regent Street outlet, for example, employs at least 120 Geniuses. But the whole experience is under pressure as a relatively small number of shops struggle to cope with rapidly growing customer numbers. The emphasis on service, with blue-shirted Geniuses on hand to answer queries and fix broken products, has become almost as important to the Apple brand as the aesthetic appeal of its products. When it opened in Virginia in 2001, the first Apple store was hailed as a retail revolution, allowing shoppers to play with expensive technology without any sales pressure. The hip technology brand is used to queues for the launch of its latest must-have product, but these people have come carrying faulty iPhones and malfunctioning laptops, desperate for help from one of Apple’s increasingly hard to reach “Genius” experts.

An ordinary Thursday afternoon at Apple’s flagship UK store in Regent Street, London and a long line of customers snakes across the first floor. They argue that a pressing concern is simply managing the queue for tech support ( Apple stores await Ahrendts touch as outlets struggle with growing demand, Oct 18). Much has been written Angela Ahrendts leaving Burberry to take over Apple’s retail operations but the Guardian has something of a unique take.

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