Large crowds wait their turn to go inside the first retail Apple Store in Switzerland, which opened in Geneva on Thursday. (KEYSTONE / Martial Trezzini)

The store is spacious and bright and is loaded with Macs, ipods, iphones and employees.

Apple says Switzerland has the highest rate of Apple user to PC user than any country. About 1 in 10 people in Switzerland use a Mac.

HELMICK: So why did it take so long to put a store in?
STEVE CANO: Well the first thing is to find the right real estate and we think the cinema is a very unique spot, but we wanted to be on Rue de RIve and there’s not a lot of real estate available on Rue de Rive.

That’s Steve Cano the Director of Retail International.

The store is a one stop shop and in a way it has to be.

Apple products are not as prevalent as PC items so if you want your Mac tricked out than you might have to go to several stores to find everything.

No longer. Here are personal shoppers, Apple “geniuses” and creative gurus all on hand to fulfill your every need.

ROBERT-TISSOT: Of course, it’s unfair.

That’s Alexandre Robert-Tissot. He is the owner of ART Computers.

ART Computers is Switzerland’s largest private Apple seller, essentially guys like Robert-Tissot built the Apple brand in Switzerland. And now the mothership is coming to take over with a main store right on Geneva’s version of Rodeo Drive.

ROBERT-TISSOT: Apple started to open their online store six or seven years ago and we were absolutely unhappy about that. We thought that it was going to take part of our business and in fact, in the first two years it took, but after that we had very big growth again.

Robert-Tissot says he expects the same this time… profits dipping a little… maybe for 6-12 months. But then expects it will up tick again as the Apple store gets PC users over to Mac.

And Steve Cano says its about brand not necessarily sales from one store.

CANO: There is a piece of the service that we provide that we think make Apple retail unique and we service all customers no matter buy, so we believe every customer has a choice and if they have a very close relationship with their reseller then we encourage them to go buy there.

And after all the store with all its glitz and all its highly protective public relations is supposed to show you that you want what Apple is selling, whether you buy it on Rue de Rive or not.

Apple opens its second Swiss store tomorrow in Zurich.

Alex Helmick, World Radio Switzerland.