1 “Papering” Apple Stores
Apple Stores are a unique place. Clean, minimal, and chock full of expensive and high-end devices. But one particularly amusing conspiracy theory from way back in 2010 claims that the Apple Store is a facade filled with paid actors as buyers to make the store seem more lively and commercially successful. Yeah, seriously.
The originator of this theory claims that it was “surreal” because no one was buying anything, there were non-uniformed Apple Store employees, and certain people in the store appeared to be acting weird, like they were in an “Apple commercial.” In their view, Apple is “papering” their retail locations — referring to the theatrical slang term of giving away free tickets to make a theater appear fuller. At one point in an email to the now-defunct Gawker, the conspiracy theorist referred to the Apple Store as a “Disney set.”
Gawker took the time to debunk the theory in traditional, sarcastic Gawker fashion, but in short, everything was easily explainable. As an example, non-uniformed Apple Store employees were probably just on their lunch break and weren’t actually secret Apple agents. A former Apple Store employee even took the time to formally debunk the theory. “I can say for sure is that no one is ‘papering the store,” the employee told the blog.