Can you use your Apple Account Balance to buy something in the Apple retail store? If not, why not?

Generally no, only made more confusing now that Apple as renamed Apple ID balance "Apple Account balance".

"Please note that your Apple ID Balance is now your Apple Account Balance." - https://www.apple.com/shop/help/payments

Again it appears to depend upon upon the source of the funds in the account. If they come from an Apple Gift Card (that's a particular kind of card) then they can. If they come from an iTunes and App Stores gift card, or you depositing balance from a credit card into your Apple Account, no.

It appears to depend upon the source of the balance and where you live. For example, to me it seems you can if you have balance from an "Apple Gift Card" and you live in certain countries. In general though you can only use Apple ID balance for iTunes and App stores, and subscriptions for things like iCloud. Not the Apple Store. Again, this is all I glean from that document and links off it.

Redeem your Apple Gift Card - Apple Support

I don't work for Apple, I just read their documentation.

I’m almost positive that you can do this!!!?

I would suggest you try and see if you can, just be careful and make sure you read the confirmation page before you click on the final order now button, look to make sure that the payment method IS your Apple Pay account info and not a different payment method, I have a friend who just made that mistake on Amazon and overdrew her account for 150.00 because of not checking the payment method for the purchase of her order OOUUUCCHH lololol I hope this helps you get your answer !!! If not you can always call customer service and they’ll know if you can do this ok god bless and have a good day

I don't know where in the world you are located. What I see in the document is:

"

Where the Apple Gift Card is available, you can use your Apple ID balance to buy products and accessories at apple.com or in the Apple Store app."

So maybe now if you live in one of the 3 countries using the Apple Gift Card you can use balance from any source on it? I live in a place where the gift card is available, ergo I can buy anything I see at Apple.com? Maybe? What about walking into an Apple Store? I don't know. That's not what it says exactly so I don't trust it to also mean something it doesn't say.

I suggest you call Apple and ask. I totally agree that their documentation is often very confusing and non-conclusive. In fact for that reason I would call Apple twice and see if you get the same answer twice running because it wouldn't surprise me if the phone help people were trying to refer to the same documentation. Better yet, call an Apple Store because somebody on the phone may not hear you say "store" and think online.

When you get an answer, please let me know the response!

Thanks for the report. Apple doesn't like saying "no" in its documentation. There's probably something in corporate training about never say no to customers and kind of reminds me of Japanese with no real word for "no" -- If somebody replies to a question with, "We could investigate this further," it means "no." Sometimes "no" would add a ton of clarity to Apple's documentation but what you found is in line with what the first link I provided says about all the places you can buy things such the Apple Store at Apple.com but by omission not at Apple retail stores.

I agree with you. There's incredibly extensive studies on marketing psychology, expanding into corporate-think. I've never been in that kind of corporate or business setting so to me it is very apparent what is being done, plus kind of interesting from an analytical outsider perspective. I've been helping here a long time so I have kind of learned how to read as much into what Apple doesn't say as what they do in their documentation. :-)

To learn 'What you can buy with your Apple ID balance', click here --> https://support.apple.com/HT211187