An Apple Store "doppelganger" has been reported to be found in the south-central city of Kunming, China.
China's four official Apple stores are found in Beijing and Shanghai (two in each of these major cities). These stores were authorized by Apple resellers through an extensive application process. Apparently, an estimated number of 40,000 visitors enter these stores on a daily basis. Statistic wise, that is four times as much as any Apple store in the entire United States!
However, Apple's popularity has brought into light the discovery of a fifth hoax store this week by an expat blogger. The American woman, called BirdAbroad or Jessica, according to some sources, wrote about how deceivingly similar this store is to the original.
According to the blogger, the employees were all dressed in blue t-shirts embedded with the Apple logos and had Apple name tags. Shockingly, they were convinced that they were actually working for Apple.
However, the blogger began to develop suspicion when security guards in layman clothing demanded her to stop snapping pictures of the store. These photos highlighted the realistic details such as its wooden display tables, and iPads, iPhones, MacBooks, and other Apple products that did not appear to be fake.
The blogger realized how poorly constructed the stairs were as well as weakly painted walls, increasing her doubts.
Confirmation with Apple showed that it does not have a retail outlet in Kunming, but it does have a reseller. The reseller is not located near this Kunming location.
BirdAbroad is also doubtful of two other Apple stores in the area, one of which is titled "Apple Stoer."
It seems as if many fake Apple products and Apple stores are becoming prevalent in China.
