Can I set up an iphone 6 plus at the apple store without a sim?

I was wondering(for reasons I'm not going to specify) if I bought a iphone 6 plus and brought it to the apple store, if they could set it up and everything without inserting a sim card. Sort of like I want to use it as an ipod. Like I said, just wondering. I don't want to change phones, I just want to know if they could bypass that without me having to give them a sim card.

No they won't. You can't bypass the sim activation and Apple won't do it as it defeats the point of their phone, that's why they invented iPods.

I was not able to set up my wife's iphone 6 without a SIM card like I did my Oneplus One android phone to use as a mini tablet.
I'm not sure it needs to be active but you Need the SIM card to set up an unlocked iphone