Did the Apple store employee ask why he wanted a computer that comes in the smallest box, or did he just assume the customer is stupid or ignorant? He doesn’t say either way, but most people will make an assumption instead of asking. The downside to this approach in retail is that it invites a long story…
I expect Apple store employees to deal with both "I want the 15 inch MacBook Pro in Gun Metal Gray with 16GB ram and 1TB drive" and "I'm looking for a good laptop for my daughter for university but I don't know anything about computers"
Making any kind of judgments about their reaction to "I want the one that comes in the smallest box" is ludicrous; the behaviour itself is mildly sociopathic.
When you work with the general public long enough, you kind of learn to spot when people are fucking with you and to just leave them be. This is especially true when working with technical stuff like computers.
Good customer service is all about figuring out what people mean when they say ask for things. Sometimes they need genuine assistance, sometimes they just want to prove they are smart than you.
If one was truly not afraid to ask stupid questions, they would have humored the sales person. Just recently I got a discount on some laptop parts, entirely because I asked the sales guy questions about upgrading ram in a laptop I was buying, even though I already knew the answers, I just wanted someone to double check my assumption. So I asked if he could help me pick it out.
Turns out, he remembered that someone ordered, then cancelled the exact ram I was looking for, so he went to the upgrade center and got me a brand new stick of memory for the price of an "open box return."
Be nice to sales people, even if you build the things they are selling.
