“After following Apple retail for 14 years, I’ve reached a happy ending, and am gracefully backing away from the crazy world of following the company and its stores,” Gary Allen writes for ifoAppleStore. “No more stories or analysis, or flying out to far-flung locations to join overnight crowds, waiting for the excitement of new store opening.”
“Back in 2001, It seemed like I was the only person studying the stores. In fact, most onlookers were skeptical of the stores’ future success,” Allen writes. “More recently, interest in Apple retail has expanded to financial analysts, designers, architects and other special interests. Now, everyone is interested in the Apple stores — and most of them also seem to be writing about the stores. Who am I to keep up with them?”
Allen writes, “My final advice is: don’t overthink Apple. Instead, remember Steve Jobs and his boundless enthusiasm and joy — especially on stage — for what the products can accomplish and make possible.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’ll miss ifoAppleStore.
Good luck in your future endeavors, Gary!
Whaaaa? What is ifoAppleStore? Have I missed out?
Darn it!
Same. I have followed Apple since the 1990s and I never heard of it.
Paul,
Garry Allen is a man who had the time, energy, resources and most importantly the passion to ‘Camp Out’ In Front Of (ifo) Apple Stores for their grand openings. I remember reading about him and wishing that I could do the same thing.
But I never knew that he had a website, until today.
Looks fascinating.
Thanks for the info.
My comment was actually sincere. Not sarcastic at all. Some people may have thought it was.
Looks like I did miss out.
What?! Noooooo!!!
I read it daily. Although he has been sparse with stories or a bit late, I still checked daily. Will miss the site. There are others that seems to have the inside and scoop on all things Apple lately.
i met Gary’s son and Ron Johnson at an Apple store opening in Burlingame over 10 years ago. nice family
Great job, IFO Apple Store.
Looking forward to another adventures.
A great site with lots of good info in the early days that you just couldn’t find elsewhere. Trying to keep up with 450+ stores may be moving too far out of the realm of labor of love and into just labor. Thanks for all the effort over the years.
ifoMicrosoftStore gave up after a couple of weeks and sold the domain to a midget porn website operator.
Just before the debut of the Apple Watch?!?!? That’s odd.
It’s also a shame.
Thank you for all your hard work.💥😃
I visited the site once in a while… usually when I read a rumour about how Apple Staff were being treated. It seemed like the site to go to, to get the facts straight.
Oh well… as Gary Allen mentioned there is no shortage of stories on Apple. I will however have to find another source that focuses on the “retail” side of Apple, being it directly impacts my career.
Hope the archives stay, will miss the site
Gary did a fantastic job “studying” the stores. I never thought about it that deeply, but that’s exactly what he set out to do, and that’s what he achieved. ifoAppleStore (weird name!) really was a wealth of info about the evolution of Apple Stores.