Awkward Apple Store opening in Stockholm

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Wow…Swedes are more uptight with public displays of emotions than Canadians are.



  • http://twitter.com/cooksey87 Matt

    That’s almost how the smaller ones in the UK are too. That sort of over the top enthusiasm is usually seen as very fake here!

    • http://www.yourmaclifeshow.com/ Shawn King

      It certainly can be and generally is considered “an American conceit” – not that that’s a bad thing. :)

  • http://streakmachine.com/ Robert Falck

    Yes, we are, I suppose.

  • tylernol

    I gave up on instore pickup after I picked up my iPad 2 and got the applause line. I felt embarrassed and a bit goofy. Now I just stay up until 3 in the morning to order my Apple stuff in the privacy of my own home.

  • Boo

    Apple. For the love of bacon, please stop.

    You’ve already got my sale. Please don’t make me feel embarrassed about it by acting like Walmartians.

    • http://www.facebook.com/sam.alphaone Sam Sproul

      its not like you have to go to the Store opening

  • http://twitter.com/ryanarousseau Ryan Rousseau

    Wait, I thought this was a blog about the new iPod touch accessory.

  • Spanker

    Thanks for getting my stock to $700 !

  • Rnrobertnordgren

    I was there, it was awful and cheesy…

  • Wilhelm Reuch

    Where do you see emotion in there? Except embarrassment.

    Swedes behave this way on a football game or at midsummer night partying. After a great deal of alcohol. So having store personnel behaving like this when a shop opens has really hurt Apple’s brand now that this video is spreading (even in the media) and normal people here in Sweden are laughing at Apple and its ridiculous culture.

    • http://www.yourmaclifeshow.com/ Shawn King

      “having store personnel behaving like this when a shop opens has really hurt Apple’s brand…”

      LOL No, it really hasn’t. This is the way Apple has opened every one of its stores. It’s not hurting them one little bit.

      “people here in Sweden are laughing at Apple and its ridiculous culture.”

      Maybe but I bet they are buying Apple products just as much as people in the rest of the world are. So Apple says, laugh away.

    • http://www.tumblr.com/blog/his-divine-shadow His Shadow

      people here in Sweden are laughing at Apple and its ridiculous culture.

      Yes. This is part of Apple’s “culture”. Enthusiasm at a store opening. Which you won’t see again, because it’s a tradition at store “grand openings”, that thing that only happens once.

      You and proctology exams must go together like elephants and needle eyes.

  • RadicalBender

    That is the most Swedish looking mall I’ve ever seen.

  • http://twitter.com/kgbraund Kyle Braund

    nothing wrong here at all….lotsa fun. people need to chill

  • Alf

    It’s the 80/20 rule.

    20% because it’s Apple 80% because 100+ people just got jobs

    That makes Canadians happy!!

  • http://www.theuniversalsteve.com SSteve

    At least they weren’t line dancing.

  • CJ

    Love Sweden as a musician I don’t dig playing there for just this reason…

    • theStig

      That’s an astute and interesting comment. What style music do you play and where are you from?

  • Avenged110

    That really wasn’t all that awkward…seems similar to other store openings. Can’t wait to get this experience on Friday with the iPhone 5 :D

  • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

    Be nice to the Swedes. We’ve met a couple of them and they’re sweet folks who had no difficulty expressing their feelings.

    Granted, we were all drinking at the time.

  • Fredrik

    Openings like this just doesn’t work in Sweden, we only behave like that after lots and lots of beer. I don’t want to shop in a store where the staff is more loud and vulgar than an englishman!

    • adrianoconnor

      I’ll have you know that we English are very reserved! Unless there’s lots of beer involved. Then all bets are off.

  • theStig

    Apple did what they always do, and IMO that’s where they go wrong. The leaked Genius handbook for instance. If you apply half of what’s in there to swedes, you’ll alienate most of “us”.

    Apple would have been much better off opening the doors with just loud music (as they do in their keynotes) and a cool welcome to each of the clients.

    Integrity is important to Swedes. We have far less acceptance for, or need for, the american (and south european) style of larger than life personal presence.

    The above applies to all “former Nordic” cultures (Scandinavia, Germany, Holland, the UK and yes Canada).

    • http://www.yourmaclifeshow.com/ Shawn King

      “The above applies to all “former Norse” cultures (Scandinavia, Germany, Holland, the UK and yes Canada).”

      You may need to recheck your cultural history. Canada is most certainly NOT a “former Norse culture”.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=592003242 Jerome Herr

    I love Apple but this is so silly and so embarrassing. But such silly behavior is an American thing, it’s not Apple-specific. We Europeans can’t relate to that phoniness …

    • http://www.yourmaclifeshow.com/ Shawn King

      “We Europeans can’t relate to that phoniness …”

      LOL And yet, the European Apple Stores are as packed as the “phony” American ones.

      • http://twitter.com/imnoodles noodles

        Well, they only act like that on the opening, and they do make good stuff. That kind of over the top enthusiasm just feels fake and shallow to us swedes, and the opening has become a joke here.

  • Zeatrix

    Swede here: That’s the kind of behavior we’d expect from a religious cult and religion is not very highly thought of here. :)

    That being said, I visited the store the day after opening and it was nice and very crowded, probably will never buy from the store though, I prefer the web site.

  • Zeatrix

    I just thought of something: I can’t wait to see the video from when Finland gets their first Apple Store. If you think Swedes have a problem with showing emotions in public, Finns are in a whole other league.

  • VGISoftware

    Kinda like the “Swede” on “Hell on Wheels”. Yeah, I know. He’s Norwegian.

    Hey, my family’s Swedish! Bunch a drunks, actually. Pretty sad.

    But there are worse things than this harmless store opening caper. . .socialism? Yeah, I think so.

    At least the turnout looked pretty good. They’ll get over their silly embarrassment.

  • Frankhy

    It is not uptightment with public display of emotions, it’s embarrassment with blatantly FAKE emotions. Swedes love emotions, but dispise fakey stuff performed in order to sell some product. Seriously, if you are getting emotional about a brand outlet opening up in a suburb shopping mall, you really need to get out more, perhaps even taste a bit of real life and real emotionally meaningful activities. This is just sad.