Apple Stores to Become 'Town Squares?'

"Jesus, Gandhi, Me." That's how comedian Bill Burr described the self-serving marketing of Apple and Steve Jobs.

The company has not stopped making big claims in the Tim Cook era. As Apple's SVP, Angela Ahrendts, put it, "Apple Stores will transform from simply commercial spaces to locations where the company will develop 'communities,'" James Vincent paraphrases in The Verge. Apple went on to describe how classes, movie nights, concerts, and other events will turn their stores into gathering places akin to town squares.

Vincent was not convinced. "The company has always been defined in part by onanism and self-congratulation, but has managed a certain degree of self-awareness. This year, it jumped the shark."

Apple's high-handedness aside, the debate over whether retail spaces can function as true public squares is an interesting one. And with malls and other brick-and-mortar outlets reportedly on the decline, Apple isn't the only store that wants to be something, well, different than your plain old store.