I got to the store and immediately was approached by an store worker and asked if I needed any help. At this point I was looking at a $1299 Macbook that I can’t afford (and I’m still pretty much a PC user anyway) so I gave the usual “no, just browsing” response that I always give to overzealous salespeople at retail stores.

I slapped myself a few times to deter any thoughts of actually making a frivolous purchase and headed over to the section with the iPhone accessories. There were a TON of difference cases – hard plastic cases, leather cases, button snap cases, etc. – they had everything you could think of. I found one that I liked, but noticed it was specifically for the iPhone 3g. Bummer. Picked up another one that would be perfect – but it was only for the 3g. Case after case, only for the 3g. It was like the first gen iPhone didn’t exist!

I had given up at that point and went over to Laura who was checking out Apple’s hard drive selection (which was dominated by LaCIE drives – UGH – that’s another story for another time) and had another salesperson approach us and ask for help. Instead of my usual nice way of saying ‘leave me alone,’ I said,”I need a case for my iPhone (showing her my phone with half broken case) but you only seem to have cases for the 3g, am I missing something?”

She says (nicely, but matter-of-fact), “no, sorry we only carry cases for the 3g.”

“I just bought this at the end of March, it’s not even a year old!” I exclaim. “That’s kind of harsh, nothing for older phones?”

“No, but you can probably find one online,” She says.

Awesome. Go all the way to the Apple store, and they point you right to the internet. Why have a store? Why put out new products and pretend the older versions don’t exist? Guess that is the apple way – move forward and no looking back. I love my iPhone, don’t get me wrong, but that was quite a frustrating trip to the Apple store.

Side note: Overheard while browsing the hard drives was another Apple sales associate having a conversation with a customer. She was talking to the customers about viruses and security and said:

“…there’s no such thing as a virus for our (Apple) computers. If someone was smart enough to write a virus like that, they’d be working for us!” I almost fell to the floor laughing at the smug way she said it, like it was impossble or something. If what she says is correct, however – the people responsible for these viruses should be sending their resume to Apple ASAP!