Aside from prices and selection (for some reason the number in USD is equal to the number in GBP for almost everything, even when GBP is 1.6-2.2x the USD), it's size and layout of stores and staffing.

There were two main kinds of stores -- pale imitations of Best Buy, Circuit City, and Microcenter (out in the suburbs/small towns) (which is ironic since those businesses have had serious problems in the US market now, too, 10 years later), and urban small stores. The smaller chain stores (Dixons high street locations) had very limited product selection and you had to wait in a queue to get a salesperson to handle your purchase, rather than staff out on the floor to push products (often on commission) and then take the purchase to the registers. The big stores mainly had cookers and other white goods/appliances, with really limited selection of anything tech. This was 2000-2002. EU stores were a lot better in my limited experience (NL and DE). The only way to actually buy computer parts was to go to fairly sketchy flea market type buildings or fairs, mail order, or a small number of independent shops (at least in London; never found anything outside London).

Staff were even less educated on products than at a Best Buy in the US today, terrifying. Even getting people to take a model number and look it up in their inventory system was a minor production.

This is a culture difference. I as a Brit absolutely detest when sales staff are pushy and forcing their way into your purchase decisions. This is generally highly frowned upon in UK culture and is not something the majority like.

I do however agree on some of your other points, such as poor selection and useless staff.

Probably a European thing because Belgians don't like pushy sales staff either.

Actually, nobody likes pushy sales staff, ever.

Fine — but in that case, people's definitions of pushy vary widely.

I prefer if they don't approach me unless I'm obviously looking for help, but in my cases shopping in the UK it was "there is nothing useful on the shelf, I need to find out if there is a product by asking an employee" and not being able to readily get one.

> "for some reason the number in USD is equal to the number in GBP for almost everything, even when GBP is 1.6-2.2x the USD"

Price is set by willingness to pay. full stop. Cost for goods is almost always worked to, backwards, from price targets. Exchange rates don't enter into it, except as pertains to costs.

GBP prices remain 'close' to numeric USD, because people still buy products at those prices. Looking into why they do, leads to interesting questions and analysis about disposable income, taxes, psychology, etc - but it's largely irrelevant.

It is that way because it works.

I will never understand why this concept gets downvoted every single time it comes up. Price comes first. It's not really a secret. Everything else follows from that.

I agree partly with this but it fails to take competition into account.

> Aside from prices and selection (for some reason the number in USD is equal to the number in GBP for almost everything, even when GBP is 1.6-2.2x the USD)

Completely irrelevant to the discussion

I'm from New Zealand but have travelled in the US and lived in the UK. The difference is service.

You get it in the US. I remember it in every store. Initially I thought it was intimidating because I was not used to it. But after a few months and some great experiences I really enjoyed it.

You don't get it in the UK. High street stores, especially noticeable in places like shoe stores where you need service to complete a transaction. You could easily wait 10 minutes until someone was available to help you. And it could take another 10 minutes per pair of shoes you wanted to try on. So painful.

I never got into the helpful staff thing. I dislike being helped when in shops. Clearly I have been in New Zealand too long. Something that really irked me in the US was the way taxes worked. I never knew what I was going to pay, as taxes weren't included in the label price. It wasn't a large percentage, but I never could quite understand why anyone would take the time to make a price label which showed a price different to what I would pay. Does anywhere else do this? i have travelled a fair bit and have never encountered it before (My US experience was limited to California I should note).

(Completely off-topic here, but my understanding is that sales tax in the US can vary from county to county, and definitely varies from state to state, so it's simpler in the case of labelling, and impossible in the case of national advertising, to show the final price. Contrast with Europe where sales tax is nationally fixed, which makes it easy to show the final price. (and in some places illegal not to!))

In California it definitely varies county by county.

It also varies by product, including how the product is consumed. It is quite complex.

It's like this in Canada too. Very irritating. Especially because somethings are subject to tax and some aren't so it isn't even as simple as just adding a percentage to every price.

I'm curious what you think of New Zealand stores. I too live here and I have yet to find a store comparable to Apple's. Then again I don't get out much.