Fake Apple Stores that Look Like the Real Thing

In much of the world, piracy isn’t just something that exists, it’s a way of life. This is especially true in countries such as China (and Asia in general) where you never have to go far to find pirated software, movies, clothing, luxury goods, and even entire stores. It’s true. Due to the general lack of IP enforcement in China, people can usually get away with imitating a legitimate business and not risk legal punishment.

Case in point; Apple stores in Kunming, China. Kunming, while a major city in its region, wouldn’t be one of the first places Apple would choose to launch a new retail store. You can’t compete with cities like Beijing, Hong Kong and other hugely populated cities that also tend to be popular tourist destinations. When you see an Apple storefront in a city like Kunming, it’d be impossible to not notice.

And that was the case for the writer behind the BirdAbroad blog, who, while roaming the streets with her husband, stumbled upon not one, but a few different fake Apple stores. Now, normally if something is fake in China, it doesn’t take an exhaustive amount of effort to figure it out, but this is a bit different. At first glance, and to the untrained eye, these do look like legitimate Apple stores.

White walls, clean tables, sufficient space between demo products, staff in blue shirts, lifestyle posters at every angle – yup, this is an Apple store. Upon further inspection though, you may begin to notice that none of the staff have nametags, the stairs aren’t exactly up to Apple’s standards and some signage has misspellings. 

In rip-off shops I’ve seen, it’s never come off to me that the staff didn’t realize they were selling pirated goods, but in this case, the discoverer of these fake stores said that the staff did actually believe that they were working for the real Apple. They’re even trained to push and promote Apple product – all the while, it’s fake.

What can Apple do about this? As far as I’m aware, nothing. In cities like these, chances are that it’d be difficult for people to purchase legit Apple products, so until Apple spreads through China further, it may very well allow this to slide.