To celebrate Apple Retail’s tenth anniversary, Gary Allen just drove 3,200 miles, crossed 12 states, and burned 100 gallons of gas.
His destination?
Apple’s first store, Tysons Corner (Virg.) in the suburbs of Washington D.C.
Apple opened the store at 10am on May 19, 2001 — 10 years ago today. Critics said it would be a disaster and that Apple would soon be shutting its new shops. But a decade later, the chain is one of the most successful in retail history.
Allen left his home is Berkeley, Calif., five days ago.
Allen is the webmaster of ifoAppleStore.com, which has been detailing Apple’s retail stores around the world for the last six years (and has turned into an amazing resource). He’s been keeping a road diary at ifo-roadtrip.com.
He was greeted this morning by staff at Tysons Corner with cake and a round of applause.
At about 9:40 a.m. an employee invited me inside to tour the store. When I walked in, the staff applauded, and I applauded back and congratulated them on an amazing 10 years. The staff offered me a piece of birthday cake for the occasion as the Genius Bar customers puzzled over what was happening.
Allen notes that the store’s birthday wasn’t officially celebrated.
“The store opening wasn’t memorialized, as it turns out,” he said via Twitter. “Just an experience, in keeping with Apple’s tradition.”
He notes that there is still a Day #1 employee working at the store — Specialist John.
Allen has visited about 90 Apple stores around the world, and is famous for camping out overnight for the grand openings of stores in Japan, London and China (hence the name of his site: IFOAppleStore, or “In Front Of”).
Why? “It’s all about the amazing people I meet along the way, both inside and outside the stores,” he says.
Allen has a good analysis of what makes the stores so successful over at Macworld: Ten years of the Apple Retail Store: What went right
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
20 responses to “Apple Store’s Biggest Fan Travels Cross Country To Celebrate 10th Anniversary”
Emmm cake, get me to the Apple store.
pilgrimage to the Apple Store,wedding in a Apple Store, almost a Religion
The cake is a lie!
i like the hippy in the tie dye shirt
I realize this is Cult Of Mac, but, geez, Gary…
That guys awesome! I’m a huge Apple fan but have never even bought a product from an Apple store. Hopefully planning a trip to the cube in NYC for when iPhone 5 comes out. I don’t have to pay for a hotel if I’m waiting outside a store, BONUS! Seriously jealous of this dude.
What a tool!
I think I’ll honeymoon at the Apple store… what a wonderful experience that will be..
weird
sick