A few days ago I was invited to the soft opening of Jakarta's latest Apple Premium Reseller run by the city's widest reseller network, iBox. Currently iBox has at least six outlets spread across the capital city from north to south not including sister reseller Click with three outlets.
iBox APR
The 110m2 outlet was unveiled along with the opening of Plaza Indonesia's new extension building which replaces the old extension bridge leading to eX, Plaza Indonesia's hip and glamorous wing which opened a few years ago. A far cry from an actual AppleStore opening, iBox's APR opening was a very low key affair which involved only internal staff as well as myself and my colleagues from Macworld Indonesia. There were no cheers, no clapping of hands, no shouts of joy nor T-Shirt giveaways that accompany the opening of every AppleStore outlet. There had been zero promotion or hype to get people to come to the store and there were no crowd to speak of. This was not Apple's own outlet. This was a reseller outlet. The large iBox sign hanging from the roof explained enough. Many passersby who saw the store seemed indifferent although those who paid a visit were pleased that there is now a full fledged Apple reseller at Plaza Indonesia. Previously iBox at Plaza Indonesia only had a tiny corner at the old extension bridge and a small shop inside eX at the ground level. The small shop remains though the corner shop has been shutdown along with the old bridge.
Identical Appearance
You'd never be able to tell which APR shop you're in thanks to the uniform visual design. It seems that Apple South Asia has decided that every APR in Indonesia will sport the exact same look, most likely reason is to enforce the Apple brand and experience. All APR outlets have solid and simple brown wooden tables, black rack-mount walls and glass cabinets that are identical from store to store regardless of the operator. Only the signage, acrylic stands and the brochures let you know whether you're at iBox, Infinite, Zoom, or EMAX. At the moment only eStore APR at Ratu Plaza has a distinct design but that will change soon as they have began their Apple-enforced renovation process. While existing APR outlets have at least one training room, iBox's, being the smallest of the bunch, focuses solely on retail. There are no training rooms and no service counters. However, being the most compact gives it the advantage of looking the most well-equipped and even during quiet times when there are only a handful of customers, the store seemed busy. They do ask that any and all service enquiries be addressed to either iBox at Puri Imperium or iBox at Ratu Plaza.
If you're ever in the neighborhood with a craving for Apples, check out this new store. Its neighbors are pretty hip brands such as Starbucks, Adidas, Metrox, Puma, Mos Burger, Pancious, Hello Lulu, and Fossil, among many others.
