Okay Geek Farm
Apple using Japan retail stores as shelters, providing WiFi, food and power
Brandon DavenportDownload this EpisodeSubscribe on iTunesRSS FeedFollow on Twitter
Apple is a company that sells their products, makes money and pays employees like any other company on the face of the planet. They pay their employees to sell their products, and put a smile on their face for the 8 hours they have to work at Apple retail stores. It’s like any other retail job — but for Apple employees it’s a little more than that.
How Apple has helped the folks in Japan
Upon the first earthquake hitting Japan, an Apple store in Japan started swaying, violently. People wandering among it’s 5 floors were calmly lead to saftey under the strong wooden tables (the ones that hold Macbooks and iPads) on the first floor. After 7 hours of aftershocks (118 of them) the Apple stores were still open, but why?
With the phone and train lines down, taxis completely stopped, and millions of people stranded in the Tokyo shopping district, who had no access to television, the Apple stores became a safe haven for people who needed to contact family, and see the outside world.
In hours, hundreds of people were swarming into Apple stores to watch the news about Japan on USTREAM and contact their family and friends via Twitter, Facebook, and email. The Apple stores were the only places with WiFi and spots to charge phones and laptops. They were a safe places to sleep and the Apple store staff stayed around for days to help people learn how to use their phones, laptops and tablets to connect with loved ones — heck, even Android folks were there!
Emails from a Japan Apple store employee
Yesterday, Kevin Rose published an article on his blog, showing emails sent to him by a Japanese Apple store employee. The emails really show how much Apple employees cared for the folks in Japan, and how much Apple as a company cares for others.
The Email to Kevin Rose — Hi this is XXXXX in Japan. As you all must have heard, the 5th largest earthquake in recorded history hit us on Friday, 2:30pm Japan Time. As Alex often says on TWiM, stories on the ground are often quite different from the stories in the news, and there is a tech story that I’d really like to tell: the story of Apple Inc in Japan.
Full disclosure: I work at Apple at one of its stores in Japan. The earthquake hit while I was working on the first floor of one of their stores. As the entire building swayed, the staff calmly led people from the top 5 floors down to the first floor, and under the ridiculously strong wooden tables that hold up the display computers.
7 hours and 118 aftershocks later, the store was still open. Why? Because with the phone and train lines down, taxis stopped, and millions of people stuck in the Tokyo shopping district scared, with no access to television, hundreds of people were swarming into Apple stores to watch the news on USTREAM and contact their families via Twitter, Facebook, and email. The young did it on their mobile devices, while the old clustered around the macs. There were even some Android users there. (There are almost no free wifi spots in Japan besides Apple stores, so even Android users often come to the stores.)
You know how in disaster movies, people on the street gather around electronic shops that have TVs in the display windows so they can stay informed with what is going on? In this digital age, that’s what the Tokyo Apple stores became. Staff brought out surge protectors and extension cords with 10s of iOS device adapters so people could charge their phones & pads and contact their loved ones. Even after we finally had to close 10pm, crowds of people huddled in front of our stores to use the wifi into the night, as it was still the only way to get access to the outside world.
Anyway, I mention this not because I work at Apple now, or because I’m an admitted fanboy, but because I’m genuinely proud of the Apple Japan staff and their willingness to stay open to help people that day. And I’m also impressed with the way Apple’s products (and yes, Google’s, Twitter’s, and Facebook’s) helped them that day. Even after we had to close, many of the staff stayed outside the store to fixing iphones and teaching people how to contact family or stay informed via wifi.
TWiM, TWiT and Rev3 have talked about the power of tech & the cloud during the recent global events, so I wanted to let you know of one more example during the Great Tohoku Earthquake in Japan — see a follow up email on Kevin’s blog.
In Summary
Apple is still a hardend, coporate giant that sells products to consumers, pays it’s employees to sell those products, and repeats the cycle. Rarely does a company do something like this without getting anything in return. Apple hasn’t publicised this in any way, and isn’t getting any good press, besides organic word of mouth.
Props to Apple for doing this, and we hope other companies have the heart to allow people to sleep in their retail stores, use their products for free and provide food and water. If anyone has anymore info on this, send it our way — we’d love to hear more stories about companies helping the folks in Japan.
Read more — 5 Ways you can donate to Japan - #dryjapan
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