Chinese counterfeiters have had a field day pumping out knockoffs of Apple Inc's best-selling iPhones and iPads, but one appears to have gone a step further - a near flawless fake Apple Store that even employees believe is the real deal. The store in Kunming was stumbled upon by a 27-year-old American blogger living in the city, the capital of China's mountainous southwestern Yunnan province.
Complete with the white Apple logo, wooden tables and cheery staff claiming they work for the iPhone maker, the store looks every bit like Apple Stores found all over the world, according to the blogger, who goes by the name "BirdAbroad". But Apple has no stores in Kunming and only 13 authorized resellers in the city, who are not allowed to call themselves Apple Stores or claim to work for Apple.
It was unclear whether the store was selling fake or genuine Apple products. Countless unauthorized resellers of Apple and other brands' electronic products throughout China sell the real thing but buy their goods overseas and smuggle them into the country to skip taxes.
I feel that China is definitely living up to its reputation of being the 'Land of Fakes'. From food, to luxury brands, fake branded bags to watches and phones, they are really good at making counterfeit products, and now even of the famous 'Apple' company. It's amazing how detailed they are. Even the store layout looks very much like what a real Apple store would look like. They even made the same shirts for the staff working at the store, which made it hard to tell that the store was a fake. From the pictures above, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't even have known I was in a fake Apple store if I went there. Apparently, the differences are very subtle so most people probably wouldn't realise it's a fake store.
I feel that China is definitely living up to its reputation of being the 'Land of Fakes'. From food, to luxury brands, fake branded bags to watches and phones, they are really good at making counterfeit products, and now even of the famous 'Apple' company. It's amazing how detailed they are. Even the store layout looks very much like what a real Apple store would look like. They even made the same shirts for the staff working at the store, which made it hard to tell that the store was a fake. From the pictures above, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't even have known I was in a fake Apple store if I went there. Apparently, the differences are very subtle so most people probably wouldn't realise it's a fake store.
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