China's Fake Apple Stores Mimic Real Thing--Down To Product Displays

UPDATE: Reuters reports that Chinese authorities in Kunming have closed two of the city's fake Apple stores due to lack of authentic business permits.
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The following is perhaps the greatest Chinese knock-off of all time.

A blogger living the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming, in Yunnan province has discovered bit-for-bit rip-offs of the iconic and well-branded Apple retail stores.

The BirdAbroad blog describes a store housing display cases filled with what appear to be Apple products, that unmistakable Apple Store design, "classic Apple store winding staircase" and even Apple "employees" wearing blue t-shirts ready to assist customers with all of their Apple troubleshooting needs.

But, of course, there's more to this store than meets the eye. Bird writes, "this was a total Apple store ripoff. A beautiful ripoff - a brilliant one - the best ripoff store we had ever seen (and we see them every day).

There are a few hints at the store's inauthenticity, though. The chipping paint job, the rickety spiral staircase and the fact that the official Apple directory lists only four Apple stores in China, two in Beijing and two in Shanghai.

But what most makes this feel like this could be an episode of "The Twilight Zone" is the following notation by Bird:
"[T]hese salespeople [...], hand to God, all genuinely think they work for Apple."

According to the blog post, when Bird and her boyfriend attempted to take photos they were "quickly accosted by two salespeople" who said that photography was not allowed. The couple were welcomed with slightly more open arms when they "may or may not" have said they were American Apple employees on vacation visiting the Chinese store locations.

And as if the blogger thought she could escape the impostor retail outlets, "a 10-minute walk around the corner revealed not one, but TWO more rip-off Apple stores."

An Apple representative was not immediately available for comment.

Here are a few more photos, compliments of the BirdAbroad blog, where you can read a full account of the imposter Apple Stores.

Comments

[TakingBack America]

09:16 AM on 08/10/2011

Ladies and gentlemen... China has continuously destroy American markets by their feeble attempts to recreate products. This stems from Antiques & Collectibles, to electronics..
The people of the Orient can't come up with their own ideas. Never have.

Never buy china made unless you absolutely need to.

[mike72]

11:55 AM on 07/24/2011

AppleStoer Dot Com has been registered. Haha, it becomes part of the Amercian Culture. It is quite fitting and great reflection of what reality is all about in this super cool land talking all about super cool products made offshore.

We are the Appl Stoer Generation!

[mike72]

04:47 AM on 07/24/2011

Should I laugh at this story and the poor and pathetic Chinese dudes attempting to be as cool as Apple, or should I laugh at the poor and pathetic people here who got all freak out for seeing other poor and pathetic dudes attempting to violate THEIR BELOVED SUPER COOL MADE IN CHINA PRODUCT SELLING SPOTS THAT ARE SUPER-COOLY CALLED APPLE STORE ... NOT JUST A SIMPLE STORE ... BUT AN - YES - YOU - GOT - IT ... APPLE STORE.

Repeat after me, you poor and pathetic mind slaves - Super Cool Apple - A-P-P-L-E Store! Good boys and girls. :)

[mike72]

04:43 AM on 07/24/2011

Sooner or later, people will buy bottled APPLE AIR AND WATER to show how cool they are for drinking and breathing from a container THAT HAS A SUPER COOL APPLE LOGO.

Mind slaves ...

[mike72]

11:43 AM on 07/24/2011

From the GENUINE AND HIGH STANDARD APPLE STORES, no less!

[mike72]

04:40 AM on 07/24/2011

Folks, Apple made huge profit from selling Apple prodcuts in China and Japan. Guess where those products are sold? Not in the four tiny "genuine" and "high standard" Apple Stores in Beijing and Shanghai, but in hundreds of outlets like this around the countries. If these products sold in this store is genuine, the only crime it has is trying to making the store itself look cool and trendy ... like Apple Store itself.

For some reason, Apple has managed to NOT ONLY BRAND THEIR MADE IN CHINA PRODUCTS COOL, BUT ALSO MAKING THE SELLING STORE OF MADE IN CHINA PRODUCT COOL. STEVE JOBS HAS MANIPULATED YOUR MIND BEYOND YOUR OWN COMPREHENSION.

Get a grib people, stop being a Apple "mind slave!"

[StinkyMoBub]

08:17 PM on 07/23/2011

"Apple Stoer" ?

There's an app for that...

[Garrett Weinstock]

04:19 PM on 07/23/2011

omg thats disgusting how real that looks an they got fake apple sales people omg this sick

[CHINASUPREME]

08:54 AM on 07/22/2011

OH YOU MAD

[emrobin23]

04:12 AM on 07/22/2011

The price of cheap labor.

[Deckard1138]

03:43 AM on 07/22/2011

This reminds me of the "Henry Porter" magic wand I once saw for sale at Toys R Us.

[LDMerriam]

11:37 PM on 07/21/2011

Counterfeiting is business as usual in China: http://merriamassociates.com/2011/07/counterfeit-brands-from-china-and-in-china/

[boareater]

10:23 PM on 07/21/2011

Well are they selling genuine Apple products? If so then what's the big deal for Apple?

[LdyTyler]

09:16 PM on 07/21/2011

I would be furious if federal money was spent to defend American intellectu­al property rights abroad; in cases where American companies have moved their manufactur­ing overseas. It is not news that China doesn't view IP rights the way that we do. These companies knew that going in, and the cost analysis convinced them that the benefits outweighed the risk. There are plenty of companies that are learning this lesson the hard way. Look at what happened to Fellowes Inc. As far as I'm concerned, these companies deserve exactly what they get.

[AllowMeToObserve]

09:06 PM on 07/21/2011

And the Chinese government does nothing to stop this? That's comforting.

[Schoolgirl666]

05:41 PM on 07/21/2011

Sad that this country has never had an original thought!!!

[InvectiveMouth]

11:54 PM on 07/21/2011

Sad but true...

[huffingtor]

11:44 AM on 07/22/2011

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_inventions