Apple stores, Drugstore Wars and the use of "offer a brick to win a gem"

Apple Stores Success.
In an article in New York Times the author tells about the outstanding success of the Apple retail stores chain compared to all the competitors. The bottom line - he attributes the success of the stores to the "Genius Bar" located at every store and staffed with the diagnostic wizards whose expertise is available in one-on-one consultations — free. The offered ability to come and consult the wizards with the problems and to get the sometimes badly needed advice - that's what brings the people to the stores. They can also come and test the hard- and software before buying them.
The "genius bar" - "the brick" attracts people and as a result - sales.
Here is the New York Times article.

Drugstore Wars of the 80's.
In the great Drugstore Wars of the 1980's the competition was equal across the board. One chain of stores broke the deadlock by offering blood pressure machines in their stores. Customers could wander in, sit at the machine with their arm in the automated cuff, and have their blood pressure taken for free. No hassle, no pressure to buy anything, no charge for the service. Each machine was placed back in the pharmacy section so the customers walked the length of the store to get to the machine.

Equipping each store with an automated blood pressure machine required an investment, but it turned casual customers into consistent customers. Thousands and thousands of people suffer from high blood pressure, and the handy, free reading prompted them to use this certain drug store chain whenever they needed any of the items stocked there. They could pick up what they needed and check their blood pressure. Thus, the outlay of a few thousand dollars per store, with maintenance of a few hundred dollars every year, returned thousands of dollars more in revenue and profit.

See definition of the "offer a brick to win a gem" strategy.

Strategy: "Offer a brick to win a gem"

This is also one of the original 36 Chinese stratagems.

The idea is very simple - offer something of lesser value ("the brick") to gain something of higher value ("the gem").
I would say that this is probably one of the most used strategies.
"The brick" may be of real or illusionary value and may come in many forms - e.g. power, wealth, sex. When somebody flirts with the person in power trying to get him to do something, or tells him that "I could do this or that for you" - it is essentially "offer a brick to win a gem" in action.
It does not have to be an illusionary "bait" - the value may be very real. When store owners offer sales and discounts - they offer a little price reduction to get the profit or to get back the money invested in the "stale" product. Same thing when they offer to pay in many installments.
With kids - actually every time when you say "if you do this, you will get that" - using a "reward" - you use the "offer a brick to win a gem" strategy.
The simple applications of the strategy may look straightforward and maybe unexciting , but it may be used to reach the goal very effectively and in more sophisticated ways. As in the following examples:

Examples:
1. Apple stores, Drugstore Wars
2. Office Depot

"smoking on watch" - example of "besiege Wei.." and "create something.."

The story happened during a training course in the army.
The course itself was a some variety of the basic training for the 30yrs+ and medical staff so it lasted just 2 weeks.
Anyway, towards the end of the course, several guys were caught smoking cigarettes on watch. That was actually a pretty usual practice on the camp. What was unusual - that the camp commander decided to have them tried for it. After the guys from one squad were tried - everybody was stunned. Well, everybody expected them to get punished by some form of the kitchen duty or toilet-scrubbing. But they were heavily fined instead. On the next day the trial was to take place in the other squad.
In the morning one of the guys of the second squad approached his sarge and asked him politely if the sarge was aware that the whole affair was not that fair - anybody could've been caught since it was a regular practice and there were no punishments for it before. The guy went on and said: "look, people are really upset with this stuff and there are all kinds of talking, but I bet you would not want people to refuse to be sworn in over this (the ceremony was to take place the next day), do you?"
The sarge left without a word, but the trial set for the afternoon was canceled. In the second squad nobody was tried or punished!

Two strategies were used here:
1. "Attack Wei to save Zhao"(see the definition):
It would've been impossible to defend once being on trial, but here something else - very important for the sergeant suddenly came under attack - the ceremony! He preferred to cancel the court altogether lest risk the danger of somebody refusing to be sworn in.
2. "create something out of nothing"(see the definition):
Actually, just a hint on the refusal to be sworn in was used - there were no actual talks about that in the squad.

Strategy: "Besiege Wèi to rescue Zhào"

This is one of the 36 Chinese stratagems.

When it is hard to defend against the attack
and the enemy and/or his defenses are too strong -
attack something that he holds dear.

The name of the strategy was given after this story:
The state of Wèi attacked Zhao with the full force of its army and laid siege to its capital.
Zhao turned to its allies for help and they launched an attack on Wei's capital thus forcing the army of Wei had to rush home - abandoning the siege.
On their way home they were ambushed and defeated.

An example of this strategy application in fighting:
If somebody grabs your lapel and you launch an attack at his groin, eyes or throat, he will promptly shift his focus to the attacked point, thus allowing you to easily escape his hold.

"Carrot, rather than the stick"

Sometimes carrot works better then the stick.
Well, may be even most times.
Here are two examples of ingenious use of the "carrot".
I believe they where given by a professor at Boston University.

1. A secretary, due to various problems at home with a kid, was
arriving late to the office on a regular basis.
Every time she was "terribly sorry", but it continued.
Since it was the only problem with her and otherwise she
was very valued by the boss, he didn't want to use the "stick".
So, he decided to use the carrot. From that day on,
whenever she showed up for work on time - he would be
a bit extra nice to her, while if she was late - just
"neutral". After just a couple of weeks she started to arrive
on time!

2. At some small company an office manager started to dress
a little bit more provocative then it was comfortable for the
others. It was such a little bit too much that the boss really
didn't want to make an issue out of it. So, instead of commenting
negatively on the way she dresses, he started paying her
little compliments (obviously within the limits) on how well
she looks each time when she dressed less provocatively! Within a couple of weeks she changed her
dressing style to a tolerable level.

Strategy: "create something out of nothing"

This is one of the original 36 Chinese stratagems.
The idea is to use a trick or an illusion.
An illusion may come in a form of something incomplete - just a shell.

Strategy use examples:
Example 1.