Apple stores may be unique, modern and stylish....but dangerous?
For many people, Apple stores are unique, modern and stylish. Eighty-three-year-old New Yorker Evelyn Paswall, however, would use a different word — dangerous.
How did she form this opinion? Well, on a visit late last year to one of the Cupertino company’s Long Island stores, the senior citizen failed to see the glass doors in front of her and walked straight into them, smashing her face and breaking her nose in the process.
As a result of the unfortunate incident, Evelyn is now suing the tech giant for $1 million.
“Apple wants to be cool and modern and have the type of architecture that would appeal to the tech crowd,” said her attorney, Derek T. Smith. “But on the other hand, they have to appreciate the danger that this high-tech modern architecture poses to some people.”
The store in question, located in Manhasset, has floor-to-ceiling glass walls at the front and rear of the premises, MacRumors reports, with doors in the middle at both ends. It apparently has a design similar to the Apple stores in Scottsdale Quarter, Arizona and Lincoln Park, Chicago.
In a lawsuit filed in the US Eastern District federal court, Evelyn claims that Apple stores should have markings on their doors to help prevent those with poor eyesight from walking smack bang into them.
“The defendant was negligent….in allowing a clear, see-through glass wall and/or door to exist without proper warning,” it said in her lawsuit.
The New York Post reported over the weekend that the store in question now has small white warning strips on its glass, though it’s not known if these, or indeed any kind of markings, were in place when Evelyn’s nose met with the doors.
Either way, her attorney obviously believes they have a strong case. “There were no markings on the glass or they were inadequate. My client is an octogenarian. She sees well, but she did not see any glass.”
He added, “The stereotypical Apple customer is a Gen-Y person or a teenager or a college student, but they have to realize that the elderly generation are their customers, too.”
Apple now has more than 360 retail stores all over the world — some with more glass frontage than others. Has your nose ever been unfortunate enough to acquaint itself with the doors of an Apple store?
This article was originally posted on Digital Trends
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