And you thought Steve Jobs was the first to use store design as a marketing tool

The stories of Steve Jobs’ obsession with details and his effective use of Apple stores are not new. We are all mesmerized by an anecdote in Isaacson’s book that describe how Mr.Jobs was personally involved in picking color of the wood panel for the stores.

Just so you know there have been others.

Here are some quotes  from a book (click to find out which one) about a business. This describes what happened in 1824.

Using store design to attract customers:

[Redacted] took advantage of the latest ideas to attract business to his shop, starting with the shop window. While most other had green-ribbed windows, [redacted] had a myriad of small squares of plates of glass set in mahogany frame that it is said he polished himself each morning.

Remember how excited you were when an Apple store opened in your city or how you drove 50 miles to the city where it opened to see your first Apple store?

This design feature alone was such a novelty that, “people would come from miles around”.

What do we see when we walk by Apple store in a mall? Something unusual in the midst of the the same old boring mall displays.

On peering through the windows, prospective customers were intrigued by the unusual, a touch of the orient in the heart of smoky industrial street.

When we enter an Apple store the inviting open displays gets us,

The many inviting delicacies were displayed among handsome blue Chinese vases, Asian figurines and ornamental tea chests.

Of course finally who do we see when we enter the store? Those Apple store employees who seem to have descended from another world, with their blue t-shirts they are not allowed to sell or give to charity and with titles like Genius

Weaving his way through all the exotica was a Chinese worker in Oriental dress, weighing and measuring, promising something different,

And you thought Steve Jobs was the first to use store design as a marketing tool

Note: You are likely right that this article suffers from narrative bias, but the bigger point is so does any article or book about Apple or any other brand’s mystical characteristics.