Tech Thursday – Fake Apple Stores in China? Not That Suprised

If you've been to New York City, you've seen the guys on street corners selling bootlegs of everything from watches to movies. Obviously, those products are not the real deal. But in China, there has been a growing number of fake Apple Stores popping up and then being torn down.

I have to be honest, when I read this, I thought, come on, you got to be kidding. You can buy knock offs of just about anything popular in China. But a whole store? That's a new one. What really did surprise me, was that no one is sure of they are selling real Apple products or just really good knockoffs. The stores look authentic as well as in store signage and displays that are made only for Apple. The employees even think they work for the real Apple.

A website called BirdAbroad broke the story and confirmed these are not real Apple stores. In fact, the store the author of the blog was in, was torn down the next day, and replaced with a bank and the fake store, moved to a nearby location. The author also got some pictures of the inside of the store as well, before the people who owned the store saw, and sent some security people after them to stop from having any more pictures taken.

So the mystery is continuing and many people are scratching their heads. Are they real Apple products they are selling? Are they authorized by Apple to do so? And what's up with the stores and lying to the people working there? Lots of questions. But to say I didn't get a little chuckle out of it would be a lie. But I do love my Macs and Apple. So I'll be watching to see what happens in the future with this. It should be pretty interesting.

What do you think about all this? Let me know.

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