“It started with one store at Tysons Corner Center in Virginia, just outside of Washington,” Doug Gross reports for CNN. “Ten years and more than 300 stores later, it’s become a retailing venture unique in the world of consumer electronics. The Apple retail store, the stylized and shiny public face of the Cupertino, California-based gadget giant, turns 10 on Thursday.”
“As the 2000s were just dawning, it was far from a sure thing. ‘Around the time Apple started to roll out, Gateway’s products were going the other way,’ said Adam Hanft, CEO of marketing and branding firm Hanft Projects, referring to the PC makers (they of the cowhide-designed boxes) who eventually gave up on their own retail-store model in 2004,” Gross reports. “‘If you go back and look at what all the pundits said, they all thought Apple was crazy to get into the retailing business.'”
Gross reports, “By the end of the 2010 fiscal year, Apple had opened 317 retail stores, 233 in the United States and 84 in Europe, Asia and other countries… Some Apple stores, such as the flagship New York City store on Fifth Avenue, are even design symbols in themselves. That one, open 24 hours a day, is a distinctive 32-foot glass cube.”
“In a 2000 video shown to Apple developers, CEO Steve Jobs strolls through the as-yet-unopened Virginia store, showcasing then-novel features such as the Genius Bar and nooks for children’s activities,” Gross reports. “With nary an iPod or iPhone in sight (the iPod was launched in October that year, with the iPhone following in 2007), Jobs introduced the concept that the stores would be more than just retail space.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “I’m not a genius.” Au contraire, mon ami!
This guy, on the other hand, not so much:
I give [Apple] two years before they’re turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake. – David Goldstein, Channel Marketing Corp. President, May 21, 2001
Related articles:
Apple Store: ‘The best damn retail experience in America!’ – December 2, 2010
Apple’s retail stores generate huge sales – December 27, 2007
Piper Jaffray finds ‘gravitational pull’ at Apple Retail Stores – November 26, 2007
Apple thinks different with cash register-less retail stores that bring in billions – November 23, 2007
Apple makes retail seem ridiculously easy – May 29, 2007
How Apple’s Steve Jobs is revolutionizing Manhattan retail – May 08, 2007
Fortune: Apple Inc. is America’s best retailer – March 08, 2007
How Apple Retail Stores beat Best Buy, Neiman Marcus, and Tiffany – December 19, 2006
“We are carrying six digital MP3 players…” says Steve, and we see a Creative Nomad….! Little did we know that he was already preparing to unleash the iPod just a few months later.
The apple stores will never fly. “Genius Bar” give me a break.
Wow, 10 years ago, Apple store sales 6 MP3 players, 6 personnel organizers. What a difference 10 years make.
Don’t forget; at the time, Palm was flying high, everyone was buying Palm Pilots for birthdays and holidays.
i had one. may still have it somewhere…
probably still works. they were pretty much indestructible.
I’ve never seen the red phones behind the genius bars I’ve visited. I wonder if those still exist. 🙂
He looks so different. You can really see how much weight he’s lost.
That what I was thinking.
Whats more amazing to me is as we hit what they’re calling Apple Store 2.0, they’ve really come a HUGE way… old school iMacs , G4 Powerbooks, pre-ipod/iphone/ipad… wow
“I’m not a genius”…..LIAR!!!
Congratulations to Apple’s success, well-deserved due to their incredible products (hardware and software)!
Also, to Steve – YEAH, you are a genius!
Crikey Steve Jobs said ‘sit a spell’ @ about 1:50 when talking about kids.
Granny (from the Beverly Hillbillies) just did a happy dance.
Look at those curvy Macs! Still running Mac OS 9.x by default, I believe. The only Mac name to survive from those days is “iMac.” But the Store concept itself (the “look & feel”) is still very similar to the Stores we still have today (with the addition of iPods, iPhones, and iPads). I guess “genius” ideas never get old.
What a concept. All the idiots out there that laughed at them really look “STOOOOPID” today.
Been 21 years since I left Reston.
Wonder if its changed any…..;-)
(There used to be a great Tower Records near Tysons…still going strong, I bet)
wow…Reston is around 30 years old so yeh its changed a bit in 21. Reston Town Centre also has it’s own Apple store. Also found with in a few blocks are offices held by the likes of Rolls Royce, Microsoft, Google, Northrop Gruman, Sprint, Accenture, and many others.
Tower Records at Tysons no longer exists — went out of business 4-5 years ago.
Niffy
where is the video of Ballmers tour of the first Microsoft store? That should be hilarious!
I couldn’t find the Grand Opening video but here is the video of the ‘after closing’ sale they are preparing for….
LOL
memories…sigh….
Yea I’ve only known the skinny Steve jobs. That guy looks like a stranger.
I love seeing what’s changed and what’s stayed the same. I especially love the photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono in the back (covering the video projection screen). It’s come full-circle now that The Beatles are in the iTunes Music Store.
I can’t wait to until we are at the 10 year anniversary for the Microsoft store. lol
Yeh, the shop that’s in its’ place in 10 years time might have some special offers on or something!
I sure miss the vibrant Steve.
Thanks for the memories.
I remember going to the newly opened Apple store in Michigan that also had a Gateway kiosk near by. I stopped at the Gateway place to get their reaction as the girl said she didn’t believe Apple would make it- too large of a store to make any money on- the rent alone was going to eat their profits away.
Wonder where that girl now works…..
That’s funny…..Apple Stores generate more revenue per square foot than ANY retailer in the world. That girl now works in the Aunt Annie’s pretzel store…
My local Apple Store was one of the first batch (Saddle Creek- Germantown, TN) and is still going strong. Was there the other night and some of the same peeps are still there giving great service. Others, long moved onward and upward, have rendered great service and we remember & thank you. You. Know who you are.
Gotta love Steve, all thru the decades, such infinite fresh enthusiasm and intelligence and common sense.
Lots of changes yet still, always, that delightful pleasure of using Apple universe.
The story of Steve Jobs coming back to Apple and the incredible turn around is an amazing story. I bet some day there will be a movie about his rise, fall, and then rise again with Apple.
I was in line there the first day it opened… I drove from college in central VA (Go JMU!) to be there. My friends thought I was nuts, got teased a little… But guess what, they ALL use Macs now!
I still have the t-shirt I got that day. Still new and in the tube!
And the dance of the money grubbers has exactly what to do with Apple news???
Posted to wrong article… Sorry!