Apple Stores in Australia and Boston

[iMeowbot]

With "historical," they're referring mostly to the neighborhood around Newbury Street, not so much Boylston Street itself (where the store is actually located) - except insofar as they're thinking of Trinity Church, the original wing of the BPL, and that other church whose name I can never remember at the corner of Dartmouth and Boylston (behind the Copley outbound entrance).

Old South Church? But all that's on the other side of Exeter, not sitting on the edge of the Pike cut.

The Back Bay neighborhood associations want Boylston Street to look more like Newbury and Marlborough and Beacon Street, or at least Commonwealth Ave, than Huntington Ave.

This is where it all gets really silly, because they're about 110 years too late. Someone should have spoken up before the horse track was sold to the railroad [ed: nah, that was their Allston tangle, this parcel may have been trashed right up front -- and yep, the tracks were there before the fill went in!]

At any rate, I'd say that with the construction of the pencil sharpener on Exeter and Boylston and the new wing of the BPL, that whole concept went out the window (not even thinking of the new Hancock Tower, which is reflective for a reason - to "blend in" with Trinity Church: no, I'm not kidding -

It would have worked, if it was, oh, about a third as tall.

or the Pru).

That monstrosity does at least hide a big chunk of the Pike canyon, so it can be forgiven.

 

[schatten]

is it such a good idea to put a non-traditional-looking construction project in Boston? They might mistake it for a terrorist attack!

 

[Zargot]

Quote:
Originally Posted by johnmcboston
Careful here. [snip] Then I go by the apple store. Now Macs are real cool and I'm apple all the way - but why go in the store? Nothing will ever be on sale - that's their policy. Even older games or software never go on sale. (never mind therre's no bargain bin - even micro center has a 'get rid of this stuff' bargain bin.)

Funny, I picked up an iPod charger in a bargain bin at the store in Burlington a few weeks ago, and I know I've seen "bargain bins" at Rockingham and North Shore.

They occasionally have clearance stuff at the Southlake store here in Texas; I picked up a 30 gig iPod in December for $100 off... It was a display model that had a minor scratch on the screen but completely usable.

 

[johnmcboston]

The Back Bay neighborhood associations want Boylston Street to look more like Newbury and Marlborough and Beacon Street, or at least Commonwealth Ave, than Huntington Ave. At any rate, I'd say that with the construction of the pencil sharpener on Exeter and Boylston and the new wing of the BPL, that whole concept went out the window (not even thinking of the new Hancock Tower, which is reflective for a reason - to "blend in" with Trinity Church: no, I'm not kidding - or the Pru).

To cube or not to cube? This location is a tough call for what is become the standard glass Apple store. If you head down boylston st they took one store and replace the brick facade with all glass, and it looks terruble and out of place. At least there this store is the area is a bit more open and inviting to new design.

But Apple can do what it wants. Hard to swallow the 'cube or nothing' concept when looking at the photo of their Regent store (http://images.apple.com/retail/images/home-photo-regent.jpg). Now that wow's me more than some of the other stores. A nice blending of old and new. Photo below same as the link - both from Apple's web site. They have bright and visible, but a facade that's more in keeping with an older style...

 

[phillipjfry]

I wish Apple would have built their store in Indianapolis as opposed to one of the high-priced areas of Indiana. Its a good hour drive to there and they would at least see a lot more business if they would have just built in our capital. I guess this is just jealousy speaking since our store looks NOTHING! like these will...

 

[Sayhey]

Boston.com reports on an upcoming Apple "flagship" store design due to be built in Boston at 815 Boylston Street later this year:

Meanwhile, ifoAppleStore and AppleInsider have posted images from a proposal by Apple to build an Apple Store in Melbourne, Australia at 625 Chapel Street, South Yarra:

well the sydney store will be conveniently located between Haighs chocolates (on the opposite side of the street) and Red Eye Records (just around the corner)... I don't venture in to town much these days but those three things combine would be a might good reason....

What about the Sydney store? The modifications to a building has been approved by the City of Sydney.

While I'm happy to wake to a new thread on Apple stores, it would be good to include the real up-to-date information. As has been pointed out already, the Sydney store is the Australian store that is furthest along, having been approved by the city, while the Melbourne store is still just in the preliminary stages. Also, the big news of flagships stores likely to be built this year should include at least a reference to the upcoming store (approved and staff recruiting well on its way - the latter is something the Boston store is yet to do) in Glasgow at 147 Buchanan Street.

 

[butaro]

APPLE NEEDS TO BUILD MORE STORES IN CANADA!!

I mean come on, 3 stores in Toronto????? 1 in Laval(aka nowhere )
Where's Vancouver, wheres Montreal, Calgary and wheres Ottawa??????
Sure probably most of the world knows about Toronto but they could have spread out those 3 toronto stores to at least BC and MTL, i would love an Ottawa store though i mean come on its the Capital City!!!!!

(im from ottawa lol)

 

[tny]

Old South Church? But all that's on the other side of Exeter, not sitting on the edge of the Pike cut.

Maybe I'm forgetting where CopyCop used to be. I thought it was between Fairfield and Exeter, where the (visible part of the) Pike runs between Hereford and Mass Ave, near the Old ICA (which was an old Fire Station before that).

For those who aren't familiar with Boston geography, this particular part of Boston, the Back Bay, was built on fill over what used to be an estuary in the nineteenth century, so it's the only part of the downtown that approximates a grid: Arlington, Berkeley, Clarendon, Dartmouth, Exeter, Fairfield, Gloucester, Hereford in alphabetical order East to West from the Public Gardens to Mass Ave, crossing Beacon, Marlborough, Commonwealth, Newbury, Boylston North to South starting at the Charles River Basin. Referring to it as "traditional" would be a stretch outside North America: other than Boylston, the defining architectural feature of the neighborhood is late-nineteenth century brownstones. Boylston Street, though, is very much a shopping district, and the south side of the street has a couple of 50+ story towers and some 10-20+ story towers (in order of decreasing height, the I.M. Pei sheer-blue-glass John Hancock Tower, which does not harmonize with the neighborhood, despite the reflectivity, but is at least architecturally interesting, unlike its near neighbor, the hideous 1960's-style Prudential Center Tower that you can see in outfield shots from Fenway Park - the Ada Louise Huxtable quote about this building in the Wikipedia article is apt: "a textbook example of urban character assassination" - and the Berkeley Building/Old Hancock Tower)

 

[zim]

Finally, progress on the Boston Apple store. I was getting nervous that the officials were going to write them off. I welcome the change we need more of it!

 

[iMeowbot]

Maybe I'm forgetting where CopyCop used to be. I thought it was between Fairfield and Exeter, where the (visible part of the) Pike runs between Hereford and Mass Ave, near the Old ICA (which was an old Fire Station before that).

You're close. It's the next block down, between Gloucester St. and Fairfield St.

 

[puckhead193]

the boston store look awesome, I can't wait to attended

 

[devilot]

Opens "later this year?" That's so vague. If it's when my cousin is still at BU, it'd be a great excuse to go out and visit her... I've yet to attend a store opening.

 

[rswelling]

Uh Oh!

Check out THIS rendering of the new store in BOSTON! I think we might have a problem!

BOSTON APPLE STORE!

HAHAHAHA!

RS

 

[twoodcc]

these stores seem really nice

i wish there some like that around here. (even though i'm glad to have 3 in my state)

 

[ug.mac]

Where the hell is Apple store in Vancouver, B.C??!?!?

 

[gugy]

Apple stores taking over the world! very cool.

I look forward to Brazil to come soon.

 

[jhedges3]

Careful here. That works great for new customers, or when you shop for something new for yourself. For me as a consumer, the apple stores are a bit of a waste. (here come the flames).

When I'm at the maul with the apple store, I go through best buy all the time. I wanna sett what new things there might be, or what's on sale. They may even get an impulse buy out of me.

Then I go by the apple store. Now Macs are real cool and I'm apple all the way - but why go in the store? Nothing will ever be on sale - that's their policy. Even older games or software never go on sale. (never mind therre's no bargain bin - even micro center has a 'get rid of this stuff' bargain bin.)

And, usually there's nothing new. Any Apple hardware of software will have months of rumors and then a huge product announcement. If I just wander in the store on a random Saturday, I'm not going to find any 'oo, I never saw this before' item.

So unless I'm in the mood to play with something, or I have a specific purchase in mind, I'm probably not going to buy, there's no reason for me to go into the store. (Speaking of the sales-store part. The Genius bar, and the classes and such are completely different, and they're nice to have close by).

Your post confuses me. It seems to me that, for the most part, your experiences with the Apple store are consistent with those described in the Boston.com piece. In other words, you seem to be among the types of consumers that Apple is appealing to.

That being said, I’m not sure why you think that it only works great for new customers and that it’s a bit of a waste for you. If waste is defined as you not buying anything from them, especially impulsively, then maybe. But I think that’s missing the whole point of what that article was saying. The idea is that it’s not a waste if the experiences the store affords you impacts on you in other, perhaps more subtle, ways. Maybe it means you’re more likely to choose Apple, or to continue to do so, later. Maybe it means you think Apple is cool, because their stores are modern and functional. Maybe you’re happy to know that a Genius Bar is nearby.

I don’t go into them much either. But mostly because I don’t have the time and I prefer to use my own machines to, for example, check my mail. But it can be fun to get an impression of something. Like when my girlfriend wanted to buy a Mac Book it was useful to be able to go look at them with her. It really helped her feel better about getting one. And I think that’s part of the role of these stores.

 

[powermac_daddy]

I like the CAD rendering; other than that... release the MacBook Pro with 10.5 Now!

 

[Don't panic]

I can't wait to see how the Glasgow one's going to look now

the Glasgow's one will make you smile...

 

[stainlessliquid]

The community in that area of Boston is not going to like this at all and it was a very stupid move by Apple. This stuff happens here, where they destroy old buildings and build up some weird thing that sticks out like a sore thumb, everyone hates it and those places never last because they have almost no support from the people who live there. The most successful stores take strides to preserve the area so they dont piss people off, those places consistently have the most customers. Im surprised Apple doesnt know about that, its a very well known tactic among high class development firms.

 

[wmmk]

Aww crap! Now all the aussies will have access to more new xeon xserves for the mj bot! I'll never never be able to sneak in "repair permissions" posts before it swoops down at beats me by a nanosecond!

 

[iAlan]

The community in that area of Boston is not going to like this at all and it was a very stupid move by Apple. This stuff happens here, where they destroy old buildings and build up some weird thing that sticks out like a sore thumb, everyone hates it and those places never last because they have almost no support from the people who live there. The most successful stores take strides to preserve the area so they dont piss people off, those places consistently have the most customers. Im surprised Apple doesnt know about that, its a very well known tactic among high class development firms.

I luv the Apple Store designs, don't get me wrong, but Apple really needs to think about the impact their buildings have on the buildings around them -- a great example as mentioned elsewhere in this thread is the London Regent Street store which basically kept the original facade and rebuilt inside. And this is what all retailers along the street have done (I don't know if this is a requirement due to the buildings being 'listed' and therefore subject to certain requirements) and the SoHo store in the old post office (?) building is another example of keeping the old and incorporating the new.

 

[fotografica]

The Back Bay neighborhood associations want Boylston Street to look more like Newbury and Marlborough and Beacon Street.

Where on Newbury,Marlborough or Beacon St is there a 4+ story glass facade, open atrium storefront? It's fine by me as this isn't in the South End/Back Bay area. Between Copley Place,Shops at the Pru and the Hynes Convention Center the Apple Store will fit in just fine..

 

[stainlessliquid]

I like the design too, but I can gurantee that the shops around the Apple store are going to hate it and that most of the community is going to be very pissed with Apple's arrogance with a store like that. Tourists will love it, but tourists dont buy computers and ipods, the people who live there are going to be the customers and that design really alienates their neighborhood. I dont know why the city approved that in the first place. The Regent store is a perfect example of what they should do to an area like that, obviously Apple must be using someone else for the Boston store.

This crap is going to hit the local papers Im sure, and it wont be the kind of bad press that generates sales.

 

[g-7]

Why? It's not like an average Pole can afford a Mac on <$1000/mo. salary.
Apple might as well build a store in Bangladesh.

Mac are getting more and more popular here, you can see people using MacBooks in various places like hot-spots in malls or cafes. Macs are used at schools, graphic studios, TV stations (like TVN24, the biggest Polish news TV station, see http://www.apple.com/uk/pro/profiles/tvn/).

So maybe it's not that bad? Don't know about Bangladesh though.