I got the chance to call in at our Mission Viejo retail store last week on the way home from the PDC. It’s about 45 minutes from downtown LA (traffic depending) and I couldn't miss the chance for a visit.

What did I think? Pretty impressive. Okay so it looks a lot like the other guy and we’ll find out what customers think when the Apple Store opens about 10 stores down later this week. My sense is that some will love Apple hardware and continue to pay the premium as well as buy goods we simply don’t have, but for many I think they’ll be able to do a comparison of offerings almost side by side and I feel confident that the choice of hardware we have in there and the price points will serve us well.

A few things of note:

• The wrap around screen is very impressive – I loved it when they had Bing images up there. (see below)
• The signature PC’s sit prominently but maybe we need all PC’s in there to be signature (aka free of crapware)
• The Surface tables have some great new apps on I haven’t seen before including cool driving game from my friends at Vectorform.
• The staff are pretty knowledgeable – not just about the store and the kit but also good for location lunch suggestions :)
• There is a lot of attention to detail with items like the Zune HD’s customised with custom skins etc.
• The whole place has a very clean, uncluttered look and feel. Someone watched the iPod parody ad
• The checkout experience is similar to Apple with receipts email to you. I actually signed mine with my finger on a touchscreen PC.
• The wifi network needs a name change – retailguest ? wtf?

Here are a selection of my other photos