Best way to buy a Macbook Pro at an apple store

Welcome to Apple Discussions!

It never hurts to get a rep, as they may be able to show you things about the machine you may not have known, and if they are well trained, they can answer all your questions and make you feel more comfortable about your purchase.

For custom configurations that are not listed in the store online by default, you will likely need to go online, though some stores have a fully featured configuration with the maximum custom addons all prebundled. For more customization online is better.

Ordering over the phone to the brick and morter store is not as likely to be doable, though some stores may offer it. Each store has their own policy, and I suggest calling them ahead to find out what it is.

You can at least for http://www.apple.com/retail/ set a genius bar appointment ahead of time, to discuss your needs.

That's certainly possible. They are high in demand items. But schedule yourself a genius bar appointment, or ask us questions about Macs, and we can help narrow down which machines is your best choice.

Hi hallor61809,

If you decide to visit the store for assistance I'd recommend making a "Personal Shopping" appointment and not a Genius Bar appointment. While technical the Genius Bar is available for pre-sale technical questions, the sales reps who handle Personal Shopping are really the preferred people. From my experience, both when I worked at the Genius Bar and prior to working at Apple the techs are usually swapped with repairs and triage and honestly will probably be more inclined to rush through your series of questions versus spending the appropriate time with you to get them answered.

The Personal Shopping reps are specifically designed for that reason, to spend as much as necessary with you and ensure your questions are answered appropriately.

At some point you want to get familiar with this:
http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/

And this:

Mac 101