New Apple Retail Stores in 2006

[Dr.Gargoyle]

you are not alone

Does this happen in other places in the world?

My closest store is about one hour away... by airplane. I buy all my Apple gizmos from the online store. The normal european premium, compared with the US online store, is about 15-20% extra.
Apple has a crazy policy when it comes to the expansion of Apple stores. I doubt it is optimal to build multiple stores in one city when you have many computer dense countries without any stores at all. I think that Apple could have had a much larger piece of the European computer market if there were more stores here. Especially since the European commision seem to had a huge chip on their shoulder towards Microsoft's monopoly. I just don't get how the strategist at Apple think... But they certainly think differently. Probably a result of an extensive use of illegal contraband.

 

[Sayhey]

New Detroit area store?

ifoAppleStore is reporting that there will be, at long last, a new Detroit area store. This store is to be located in the upcoming Mall at Partridge Creek (2007 opening.)

Detroit Region Gains Future Store
Yet a third store is planned for the Detroit (Mich.) metro region, this one at the Partridge Creek mall, now under construction in Clinton Township north east of downtown. Mall management announced today that when the mall opens this October 2007, Apple will among the tenants. The store is about 16 miles from the existing Somerset store.

This is confirmed by the mall managements press release.

TAUBMAN CENTERS PREVIEWS STORES, RESTAURANTS FOR THE MALL AT PARTRIDGE CREEK

Released: 04/19/06

New Center Taking Shape as Regional Shopping, Dining and Entertainment Destination
BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich., April 19, 2006 -- Taubman Centers, Inc. (NYSE: TCO) today previewed a selection of restaurants and stores coming to The Mall at Partridge Creek in Clinton Township, Michigan. The open-air shopping center, anchored by Nordstrom, Parisian and MJR Cinema 14, is scheduled to open in October, 2007.
The Mall at Partridge Creek will offer a cluster of distinctive dining options including P.F. Chang's China Bistro, Bravo! Italian Kitchen, California Pizza Kitchen and Claddagh Irish Pub. These destination eateries, found nowhere else in Macomb County, will bring a compelling selection of dining choices to residents in the market.
The Mall at Partridge Creek will also provide unique fashion and lifestyle options previously unavailable in Macomb County with offerings like Apple, Ann Taylor, Coldwater Creek, J. Crew, Brooks Brothers, and Delia's that will be joined by such favorites as Gap, Gap Kids, Baby Gap, Gap Body, Banana Republic and Eddie Bauer.

emphasis added

 

[Sayhey]

There is STILL a state with NOT ONE APPLE STORE. You who complain that your store is 2 or 3 hours away. . . . .AT LEAST YOU HAVE ONE ! How about a store in the Land of Enchantment !?? Albuquerque woud be good !

There are, in fact, nineteen states without an Apple store. Two, Rhode Island and Nebraska, are scheduled to get their first stores this year. Given Apple's obvious strategy of putting the stores where the people are, it would be easy to envision stores opening in, perhaps, seven more of that nineteen. By which, I mean I can see Louisiana (New Orleans or Baton Rouge,) Alabama (Birmingham or Mobile,) Kentucky (Louisville,) South Carolina (Charleston or Columbia,) Kansas (Kansas City or Wichita,) Arkansas (Little Rock,) and your state of New Mexico (Albuquerque) being targets for Apple's plans within the next two years. What Apple will do with the other ten states is a mystery. There is some hope in the fact that the recently announced store in Naples, Florida is in the smallest metro area to date (only 250,000 people.) That may buoy the chances of small markets like Anchorage, Alaska (260,000 people) and Portland, Maine (243,000 people.) The only problem with this comparison is that while Naples is relatively the same size as these other metro areas, it also is close to the Fort Myers/Cape Coral metro area that has a population of approximately 440,000 - or roughly 700,000 when the two are combined.

Here is a list of the 19 states without a store, from most populous to least, and their largest metro areas. As always 2000 census numbers.

1. Louisiana (New Orleans - 1,337,000)
2. Alabama (Birmingham - 921,000)
3. Kentucky (Louisville - 1,025,000)
4. South Carolina (Greenville/Spartanburg - 962,000)
5. Mississippi (Jackson - 440,000)
6. Kansas (Kansas City - 1,776,000)
7. Arkansas (Little Rock - 583,000)
8. New Mexico (Albuquerque - 712,000) - store planned to open this year
9. West Virginia (Huntington/Ashland - 315,000)
10. Nebraska (Omaha - 716,000) - store planned to open this year
11. Idaho (Boise - 440,000)
12. Maine (Portland - 243,000)
13. Rhode Island (Providence - 1,188,000) - store planned to open this year
14. Montana (Billings - 129,000)
15. South Dakota (Sioux Falls - 172,000)
16. North Dakota (Fargo - 174,000)
17. Alaska (Anchorage - 260,000)
18. Vermont (Burlington - 169,000)
19. Wyoming (Cheyenne - 81,000)

As you can see, once you get down to West Virginia it is hard to make a case why the metro areas not already planned to get a store should be placed very high on a priority list.

edited per post #122

 

[gauchogolfer]

How about an Apple Store in France, already? I think they're muttering about opening one in 2007/2008 in Paris. Maybe one down south here will arrive sometime after 2010. Any ideas why the love for continental Europe is so lacking?

 

[Queso]

How about an Apple Store in France, already? I think they're muttering about opening one in 2007/2008 in Paris. Maybe one down south here will arrive sometime after 2010. Any ideas why the love for continental Europe is so lacking?

How about putting the first one in Calais for all the English people using the Chunnel?

 

[gauchogolfer]

How about putting the first one in Calais for all the English people using the Chunnel?

Nah, I think Nice should be first, it's practically a colony

 

[Sayhey]

How about an Apple Store in France, already? I think they're muttering about opening one in 2007/2008 in Paris. Maybe one down south here will arrive sometime after 2010. Any ideas why the love for continental Europe is so lacking?

My guess is you will see an explosion of stores on the continent over the next 3 to 5 years. Rome will open this year and Paris the next, but there will also be German and Swiss stores in the near future. As to French stores outside of Paris, the English, Japanese, and Canadian models would suggest it is highly likely.

Just remember, as retail expansions go, this is extremely fast. Doesn't help if you're waiting for a store to open in your area, but the stores are opening at a much faster rate.

 

[bense27]

We need one in the Utica area...now....

 

[Sayhey]

Upcoming Milwaukee store confirmed

ifoAppleStore's tip in February that a second store is destined for the Milwaukee metro area is being confirmed by reports in the Business Journal. No confirmation from Apple as yet.

Apple to open store at Bayshore
Apple Computers Inc. is planning to open its second Milwaukee-area store this fall and it will be at Bayshore Mall in Glendale.

The Cupertino, Calif., computer retailer has signed a lease to locate at the mall, which is undergoing a $295 million renovation. A spokesman for Steiner & Associates, the owner of Bayshore, declined to comment on the lease, but an announcement is expected in the next several weeks.

Apple opened its first retail store in Milwaukee at Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa in 2004.

Apple will join a growing list of national retailers that have agreed to open stores at Bayshore as part of the renovation project.

 

[Vaphoron]

How about one in Frederick Maryland! There are so many freaking stores right around DC and Baltimore its crazy. They need to move one out here so I don't have to drive an hour to get something little or play around with the new toys.

 

[iRepublican]

We need one in the Utica area...now....

Maybe they'll put one in Marcy.

 

[Sayhey]

Midtown opening

ifoAppleStore is reporting that the new Midtown store in Manhattan will open on May 6th at 10:00 am.

Fifth Avenue Grand Opening
Apple has revealed the actual grand opening date for the Fifth Avenue (NYC) retail store–May 6th at 10 a.m. The construction will be finished, and general manager Jason Barlia and his team of employees will be in place to handle customers 24 hours-a-day right after the doors swing open.

I'm assuming that the "Apple revealed" part of that story is from the emails that are sent to people in the area announcing an opening as there is no notice on Apple's web site yet. Can any New Yorkers confirm this?

 

[DeepIn2U]

Toronto AGAIN May6ths

http://www.apple.com/ca/retail/eatoncentre/map/

sweet goodness!

 

[kashimo]

There is to be a store in Sapporo, Japan. Other possibilities are in Kobe and Naha

 

[Sayhey]

Apple has officially announced the opening of the FlatIron Crossing (their spelling not mine) store in the Denver metro area this week on May 6th at 10:00 am. There will be a sweepstakes as well as the usual giveaway of T-Shirts.

 

[Sayhey]

A nice article on the stores from Wired News

The Genius of Apple's Stores
By Leander Kahney
Apple Computer is firing on all cylinders these days, but of all the things contributing to its success, hardly anyone mentions its chain of retail stores.
The stores are as important to Apple as the iPod or OS X when it comes to driving the public's extraordinary interest in the resurgent company -- though it's hard to say which is more important, because they're interrelated.

I've been hanging out at Best Buy recently, shopping for a big-screen TV, and night after night I see the same guys checking out this model or that, learning the technology and pondering their options.

The same thing happens at Apple's stores: People go in to check out the iPod, but linger over the new MacBooks and flat-screen iMacs. Next thing you know, they're in there every weeknight wondering whereabouts exactly they'll get hit with a frying pan when they bring the new computer home.

Switching to the Mac is not a decision to be taken lightly, and the Apple store is where this mental transition takes place. Lately, there are lots of people making the switch. Sales of Mac computers are up -- despite the ongoing Intel transition -- and more than 50 percent of customers at its stores are "new to Mac," Apple chief Steve Jobs said at Macworld.

Consider this: Apple says its stores are now making more than $1 billion in sales per quarter. Just two years ago, the stores were making $1 billion a year -- and at that time they were the fastest-growing retail operation in history, beating the previous record holder The Gap to $1 billion annual sales in just three years, according to Ron Johnson, the executive in charge of Apple's retail operations. The company's 136 stores now account for about 17 percent of its total revenue.

These are extraordinary figures. Five years ago, before Apple opened its first store in McLean, Virginia, shopping for Apple products was a miserable experience.

Macs were sold at big-box retailers like Sears, where they were neglected, or small mom-and-pop shops with limited choices and high prices. Apple's only direct contact with its customers was at Macworld.

Given the history of PC makers running their own retail stores -- namely Gateway -- most critics gave Apple's shopping experiment short shrift.

"I give them two years before they're turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake," one analyst told BusinessWeek.

But the stores are going gangbusters. Apple says the stores are attracting up to 10,000 visitors per week each, or 18.1 million visitors a year in total. Each Gateway store, on the other hand, pulled in on average only 250 people a week, according to Johnson....

 

[Sayhey]

Zurich?

The on again, off again rumors of an Apple store in Zurich, Switzerland just went back to the on again status. Thanks to ifoAppleStore for drawing our attention to the latest twist in the story in the form of an article from the Swiss newspaper Bilanz about the possibility of an upcoming store. As my German is restricted to my middle school days and what I can glean from the choppy translation using dashboard, here is ifoAppleStore's summary of the development.

The Zurich (Switzerland) newspaper Bilanz has a story that confirms the future Apple retail store in that city. A source tells the newspaper that the store will open in 2007 at Bahnhofstrasse 77, in a 2,970 square-foot space. The story says that Roger Brustio, head of Apple Switzerland, confirmed the existence of a subsidiary named “Apple Retail Switzerland GmbH,” but he wouldn’t confirm the future store. The story notes that Apple reseller Dataquest has a retail store near the future store location.

 

[Sayhey]

Boston Update

A news report in the Boston Herald gives an update of Apple's continuing battle for its plans for a downtown Boston store.

Apple Computer Inc. is scheduled to unveil new plans for its first Boston store next week.
Based on documents submitted to City Hall, the company still wants to demolish the existing two-story building at 815 Boylston St. - across from the Prudential Center and currently home to a street-level Copy Cop - to make way for the new store.
Its latest architectural rendering depicts a new three-story modern building with an all-glass facade, circular staircase and glass skylight. The three levels have high ceilings, making the building flush with the four-story building to its right. Open floor plans feature circular and rectangular Internet-surfing and listening stations.
The plans also call for a “green roof” with plantings designed to provide insulation and absorb less heat, thereby reducing the amount of air conditioning needed.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company is expected to formally present its proposal to the Back Bay Architectural Committee on Wednesday. The meeting would mark the start of Apple’s official quest for a certificate of appropriateness from the commission, which reviews all exterior changes to buildings within its district.
Previous plans presented informally in March drew darts from the committee. They also included a modern, all-glass building front.
William Young, a city employee who’s the commission’s senior preservation planner, would not comment on changes from those early plans.
A spokeswoman for Apple also declined comment. Its Apple stores do extremely high-volume business, generating more than $1 billion in sales per quarter.
Apple has said that rehabbing the existing 1906 building is not feasible. It would cost an extra $2.9 million, delay an opening date by six months, and still result in a building that’s not suited to its retail operations.
A report by Boston Affiliates, a historic preservation consulting firm, says the building lacks the “high-style architecture, overall quality of ornamentation and materials and designs by the city’s leading architectural firms” that characterize the historic district.

Included in the Herald's story is an artist's rendition of the proposed store.

 

[NewSc2]

is it just me or does anybody else not see the point of having a 24-hour store?

 

[Sayhey]

Philly and LA area stores to open on May 13th

Apple has officially announced the opening next Saturday, May 13th of the Suburban Square store in the Philadelphia suburb of Ardmore, Pennsylvania and the Simi Valley store in the Los Angeles suburb of the same name.

 

[Sayhey]

Two interesting rumors spotlighted over at ifoAppleStore. First, it looks like there might be a second store opening in Honolulu. This according to the Honolulu Advertiser.

Apple Store may open in Kahala Mall
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

Apple Computer Inc. is looking to attract new customers and increase sales in Hawai'i with a second company-owned retail store at an O'ahu shopping center.

The maker of the Macintosh computer and iPod audio player, which opened its first local Apple Store at Ala Moana Center three years ago, is negotiating for space at Kahala Mall that could become another retail outlet for Apple by the end of the year.

Ron Yoda, Kahala Mall general manager, confirmed "ongoing" talks with Apple for store space, but said no lease has been signed....

and the second story ifo is highlighting is a Presse Océan story about the possibility of a second French store, one this year, as well as the long rumored store in 2007.

France Store This Year?
Details are scarce, but Apple V-P Europe Pascal Cagni has told the Presse Océan newspaper the company could open a retail store in France during 2006, as well as 2007. The Champs Elysées has been identified as a location for a long time as a future Paris store, and it will reportedly open next year. However, a 2006 store opening seems to indicate a mall location somewhere in the country.

ifoAppleStore

 

[Sayhey]

4 new stores - one Canadian, 3 US

Apple's "Search Jobs" webpage has four new locations listed for upcoming stores. They include the fifth confirmed Canadian store, this one in the already rumored Chinook Centre in Calgary, Alberta. The US stores include a store in the ABQ Uptown Center (the first store in Albuquerque, New Mexico - and the first in the state,) a store in upcoming Coconut Point Mall in Bonita Springs, Florida (the second planned location in the Fort Myers/Naples SW Florida area,) and a third store San Diego's upcoming Otay Ranch Town Center.

 

[Sayhey]

Ahhh ... seems I may have missed one last night. Apple's "Search Jobs" webpage also has a new listing for a Cherry Hill, New Jersey location. I'm assuming this would likely be a store coming to the Cherry Hill Mall. This would be the sixth store in the Philadelphia metro area.

 

[Sayhey]

The countdown to Fifth Avenue store has "officially" begun as Apple has posted a page to mark each second until the grand opening on May 19th at 6:00 pm. Anyone lining up now?

 

[puckhead193]

The countdown to Fifth Avenue store has "officially" begun as Apple has posted a page to mark each second until the grand opening on May 19th at 6:00 pm. Anyone lining up now?

won't be home
although imagine walking around with an apple shirt that says "fifth avenue" seems pretty snobby.
is their any news on the Smithaven NY store?