I call it a temple because the architecture conveys a nearly religious aesthetic, a place to worship Apple, beyond any other Apple store you’ve ever been to. The top floor’s a vast open space, enclosed by spartan stone walls which support a massive glass ceiling. The rows of tables in the main room feel like pews.
I can’t tell you – and the pictures can’t show you – how utterly open and expansive the room feels. Apple says it has more demo units than any other store in the world. To give you an idea of the space, the walls are 45 feet tall, and could fit 11 Apple 5th Avenue Cubes inside. It’s the spareness that’s breathtaking. It’s cold. Not literally, but the stone walls, the glass, the sheer space rob it of any sense of warmth or feeling. The only sense of life in room is the products. It’s a temple to them, really.
Located on the Upper West Side at 67th and Broadway, the massive store will have an all-glass front and a huge glass roof (watch the amazing fly-over from Gary Allen at IFOAppleStore. Allen’s also got a cool mockup). The store’s glass facade will measure 54 feet tall, 75 feet wide and 30 feet deep.
In anticipation of the store’s opening before the end of the year, Apple has removed the big black tarp which covered the construction site, replacing it with a latex wrap. The wrap looks like a red curtain that’s been opened slightly to reveal the teasing message: “Opening soon. Apple Store Upper West Side.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — On opening night, Microsoft’s first retail store here drew lots more visitors than the long-established Apple store right down the street.
Microsoft’s store might be a plank-for-plank remake of Apple’s groundbreaking shops, but it’s got one thing Apple’s stores lack — walls of Xboxes.
Hit the jump for more retina-burning retail pix, Microsoft-style.
Here’s a video of the opening of Microsoft’s first retail store in Scottsdale, Ariz. As the video proves, Microsoft’s business plan is to shamelessly copy Apple, right down to the whooping and high-five ritual when the store first opens. If you blur your eyes slightly, you’re inside an Apple store. From the wood floors and tables to the staffs’ brightly-colored tshirts. Shameless.
There’s frustration over stuff like dropped calls and tethering troubles, then, you know, there’s Frustration.
The latter was apparently what fueled Donald Goodrich, 38, to threaten to pull a gun on his iPhone at the Kenwood Towne Centre Apple Store in Cinncinati.
To prove he meant business, Goodrich flashed the employee a gun hidden under his jacket.
The cool-headed employee told Goodrich she’d get his phone fixed and walked him over to a Genius. She then told her manager of his iHomicidal intentions, who called police.
Goodrich was charged with aggravated menacing, causing fear of harm to an Apple employee. He’s expected to be arraigned this morning.
No word on exactly what drove him to want to kill his phone.
Staff at an Apple retail store in Seattle are planning a walkout over “abusive” management, the first labor dispute to hit the company’s super-successful retail chain, IFOAppleStore is reporting.
Employees at Apple’s Alderwood Mall store claim the store’s management is “abusive” and cite unspecified violations of state and federal labor laws.
Apple’s human resources department hasn’t properly investigated their complaints, and even an appeal to the head of the chain, Ron Johnson, went unheeded, the staff told IFOApplestore.
Workers are planning a walkout at 1PM on October 3 if no action is taken before then.
The threat of industrial action is unusual for Apple’s stores, which have a reputation as a good place to work and an unusually high retention rate for retail.
Citing anonymous sources, The Loop says managers are being offered better money and in some cases, relocation expenses. They are then encouraged to recruit their former colleagues with similar incentives.
The strategy seems to be in line with Microsoft’s playbook. Earlier this year, Microsoft reportedly tried to lure iPhone developers to the Zune platform with cash incentives.
Which means that Microsoft’s retail strategy can be summarized thus:
Copy the idea of retail stores
Hire Apple’s former real estate head George Blankenship as a consultant
Locate Microsoft’s stores next to Apple’s stores
Put in face-to-face help desks, but call them Guru Bars instead of Genius Bars
Hire Apple’s staff
What’s next? Stock the stores with Apple products?
Microsoft’s first retail store is scheduled to open in October near Apple’s retail store in Mission Viejo, Calif., at The Shops.
A 10-year-old girl was dragged, bug-eyed, out of the Apple store in Lakeside after her mom found her looking at porn on one of the iPod demo models.
“I called to complain and was told matter of factly by staff this happens a lot as people come in and download it for a laugh,” mom Helen Goodman told website the Echo.
“I don’t find it funny and all my friends think it’s disgusting, but Apple say there is nothing they can do to stop it.”
C’mon. There has to be a way to make the Apple store kiddy-safe — or maybe there’s something else behind the looks of wonder on those retail store field trips?
Milan’s first Apple retailer is not in the heart of the fashionable city, as we noted last week, but that didn’t stop people from turning out in groovy headgear and giving stadium cheers for the first to walk out with the signature inauguration tee after camping out overnight.
Giving a touch of style to the event, web designer Marco Tognoli came adorned in Apple logos from old iMac G3s, topped by this fanciful conical hat with a real apple on top:
@macitynet.it Party time: a headband of iMac logos.
Proving Apple fans will live up to Milan’s reputation for daring fashion to open Apple’s second Italy store. (Hit the jump for more pics).
Apple decides to open doors in Milan — recently named more fashionable than New York — so you’d think it’d be somewhere the city’s whippet-thin Pradamatons would want to be seen sashaying into.
Instead, Apple is opening its first Milan store this Saturday in a place called Carugate. It’s 15 km away from the city center, a place best known to locals because Ikea also calls it home.
It’ll be in a mall — note the pic above of a woman with a grocery cart — and hopefully the inside layout is a bit more interesting than the storefront. And instead of having 24/7 access, like many Italian malls, it’s usually closed on Sundays.
Rumors were that Apple’s first Milan store would be a former Stefanel store in Corso Vittorio Emanuele, a pedestrian shopping zone favored by locals and tourists who stroll from the Cathedral to Piazza San Babila.
Next time I need anything, I’ll be heading to the reseller in the chic Brera area — used as a fashion shoot backdrop and where staff wears “Steve Jobs for Mayor” T-shirts.
Apple’s Fifth Avenue store sells the equivalent of a Mercedes-Benz C300 in iPods, MacBooks and iPhones per square foot.
As our own Leander Kahney found out on a recent visit to New York, Apple’s Fifth Avenue location is recession-proof, filled with people waiting in lines to buy Apple gear in one of Manhattan’s most famed shopping streets.
But don’t take his word that the store is heaving, here’s what Bloomberg says:
Apple’s Fifth Avenue emporium probably has annual sales of more than $350 million, said Jeffrey Roseman, executive vice president of real- estate broker Newmark Knight Frank Retail. The location is 10,000 square feet, putting its sales per square foot at a minimum of $35,000, based on Roseman’s estimate.
Those sales trump tony jewelry sellers along the famed street — currently earning about twice as much: Tiffany & Co. rakes in just $18,000 per square foot, Harry Winston between $12,000 – $13,000.
Leander noted the place topped by a big glass cube seemed more like a hip bar than an electronics shop, something not lost on the Bloomberg reporters:
Some people even use the Fifth Avenue store as a “pick-up place,” said Consolo, who passes the location every day on her way to work. Tourists used to ask how to find Bloomingdale’s, Saks and Louis Vuitton, she said. “Now they say Apple store, Apple store,” Consolo said in a telephone interview. “It’s the main event.”
Maybe someone will make a movie about Breakfast at Apple?
As Microsoft begins hiring for its first retail stores, the giant is showing it’s usual flair for naming. What Apple calls a “Genius,” Microsoft is calling a “Retail Technical Advisor.”
Microsoft is hiring for its first two stores in Scottsdale, AZ and Mission Viejo, CA., which are due to open in September. While Apple is at pains to emphasize that its retail jobs are “More than a retail job,” Microsoft puts the word “retail” in its job titles.
According to the job listings, here’s how Microsoft breaks down other jobs in the store compared to Apple.
Concierge = Retail Customer Service Associate-Full Time
Personal Shopping Specialist = Retail Sales Associate
One to One Trainer = Retail Trainer
And here’s how Microsoft pitches its store to employees, compared to Apple. Where Apple says, “Be the face of Apple,” Microsoft says “You have unique experiences, skills and passions—and we believe you can bring them all to Microsoft for a rich, rewarding career…” in retail. Which is more compelling and less BS?
Microsoft:
You have unique experiences, skills and passions—and we believe you can bring them all to Microsoft for a rich, rewarding career and lifestyle that will surprise you with its breadth and potential. Just imagine the excitement and satisfaction of what you can do, where you can go, and the difference you can make with the resources of Microsoft behind you.
Apple:
Be the face of Apple—help people learn about, shop for, and get the most out of their Apple products. That means we’re not just looking for people with retail experience. Creative pros, technical experts, and business consultants have a place here, too.
Artist's impression of a new Apple Store in "Emporium Melbourne," a contorversial shopping center being planned in Australia.
Just weeks after getting permission to tear down his historic mansion, Steve Jobs is embroiled in more wrecking ball controversy.
Preservationists in Melbourne, Australia, are up in arms about the imminent destruction of a historic art deco building in favor of a new Apple store.
Developers have just received permission to rip down Lonsdale House — described as one of the city’s finest examples of art deco architecture.
In its place they’re building a new shopping center called “Emporium Melbourne,” and are angling for Apple to be the anchor tenant. See the artist’s impression above.
Apple already has four stores in Australia, most notably the huge landmark store on Sydney’s George Street, which drew a huge crowd when it opened last year.
The Save Lonsdale House campaign say there’s no reason the building should be demolished, except to make more room for delivery trucks. In the past Apple has been sensitive to historic buildings. The Apple Store in New York’s Soho district, for example, is housed in a historic post office.
Last month, Jobs reached a deal to save his historic Jackling House mansion in Woodside California, which he’d been trying to demolish for years. Jobs will pay $600K to angel investor Gordon Smythe to have the mansion dismantled and moved.
Melbourne's finest example of art deco, Lonsdale House, is going under the wrecking ball to make room for a new Apple store. More info at http://blog.adonline.id.au/lonsdale-house/
A hip purveyor of denim goods in New York called Self Edge has launched an iPhone payment system.
Code named (ironically?) “Square,” it consists of a small, plastic card reader that fits into headphone jacks of iPhones (or iPod Touches) and transfers swiped credit card info to an app.
According to coolhunting, it works like this: a store employee totals up merchandise, then the customer adds a signature with their finger via touchscreen. The customer then adds the email address where they want the receipt sent to.
Kiya Babzani, co-owner of Self Edge, told Cult of Mac that Square has plenty of plusses for retailers in a system “expected to expand beyond retail and credit card use.”
“There are no recurring fees for Square, so it costs nothing to sign up. Current fees are 2.5% (+.50 cents) per transaction, extremely low compared to regular credit card rates, they normalize the fees so even if the payer uses an AmEx card, you still pay the same 2.5% which is unheard of in the credit card processing world.”
Another nifty feature: the receipt includes a map showing where the purchase was made, nice if you have to prove those distressed denims were somehow a business expense.
What’s the customer reaction to the iPhone system so far?
Babzani says: “Most people are loving it and are interested in where the product will go once it’s rolled out on a large scale.”
I just visited Apple’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue for the first time — you know, the subterranean one with the glass cube on top that was co-designed by Steve Jobs.
While the architecture is fabulous, the most notable thing was the huge crowd in there at 6.30 PM in the evening on a weeknight. The stores in San Francisco and Los Angeles are often crowded, but the 5th Ave store was heaving. I don’t mean just crowded; it was literally packed, wall to wall.
There were lines for the Genius Bar (OK, expected); there were lines for the checkouts (also expected); there were lines for the iPhone 3GS (not expected); and there were lines for the new MacBooks (set up at a special stand. Also not expected).
There were lines for all the machines in the store. People were hanging about the tables for a chance to use the demo iMacs, MacBooks and iPhones.
It was hard to look at anything on the shelves without asking someone to get out of the way. It was almost impossible to move down some of the aisles because of the crowds.
It more resembled a hip NYC nightclub than a premium consumer electronics manufacturer in the midst of an economic downturn.
