“Rumours are beginning to circulate that Apple is planning to open at least one of its own stores in Australia by Christmas,” Tim Gaden reports for APC Magazine.
“According to reports in the Whirlpool forums, Apple has already begun sourcing stock for the new retail venture. Despite the standard non-disclosure agreements, a poster claims to have confirmation from a third party manufacturer of Apple accessories that orders have been placed,” Gaden reports.
“Once rumours get started, they are hard to stop,” Gaden reports. “Is it true that Apple has bought the Gowings Building in Market Street, Sydney, to house its new store? It has all the urban chic of an Apple Retail Store and is in a great location in the heart of Sydney’s shopping precinct.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s only logical.
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Not quite as interesting as Fresh Pussy Down Below
ipod mate?
OK, down under is being taken care of. It is now
time for an Apple Store down here on the bayou!
OS X 11.0 Alligator
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As an employee of an apple reseller here in Aus, this is bad news. Apple australia SCREWS their resellers here. we are in a situation where our own supplier is our competitor now, and in doing so theyre ruining the chain of loyal, mostly indie owned businesses, that have supported the brand through the good times and the bad.
Oops, I meant OS XI 11.0
Oh well, who cares.
About bloody time too!
It’ll make a nice change from shopping on the internet.
I might even buy Kimmie a prezzie if it’s open for Christmas!
Awesome!
Having been in both US Apple owned stores, and indie stores in Australia and purchased computers from both, I can tell you that the experience in the US Apple stores is a heck of a lot better.
In my experience, approx. 50% of the Aussie stores were quite poorly managed, had poor product displays, were badly located shopfront wise, and really did their best to screw the customer. I realise it’s a tough business to be in, but it is also their choice to market Apple’s product. Witness the Buzzle collapse as an example of how badly run some of these companies were. The other half were a great deal better, but still not quite up to the standard to which Apple maintains in the US. The pricing of Mac’s in Australia had also been ridiculously high historically, which also didn’t help (although it’s better now, it’s still a very hard sell when comparable PCs are half the price.)
Still, any store selling Macs is a $#@!load better than any store selling Wintel PCs. These stores are only slightly less dodgy than buying your computer from a Saturday morning market.
I picture Australia as a demented cross between Crocodile Dundee and Wolf Creek. With a Apple store. And “Who Can It Be Now?” playing in the background.
Am I close?
notatotalsucker
You are right on the money! Some of the indies are just as you say. I have had terrible service from some in Melbourne over the years with three Mac purchases. Including paying extra money after the Xmas holiday period to go to the front of a service line to get a laptop fixed.
I actually knew more about the products than the store staff did!
If we get the same Apple service that the US gets then bring on the Apple Stores. I can hardly wait. The folk who work in the current Indie stores would be able to pick up a spot in the Apple stores. Well! most of them anyway.
Yeah grok, we are all demented. Love it actually! would rather be demented than anything else.
Wrong song though!
Must be ‘I come from the land down under’
Don’t forget it. OK.
The Gowings building was purchased for A$69 million by Amalgamated Holdings, not Apple.
What about one in New Zealand… Honestly Renaissance sux! We need you Apple!
It would be the best store in Sydney if Apple replaced Gowings!!!!!!!!!
I want Apple here now!!!!!!!!!!
Be a dream to work there! Where do i sign up ?!!!
This relates to my post about the new Apple reseller store opening in Bondi Junction.
This store is (and their previous store in Taylor Square was) the most “Apple store like” of the retailers in Australia in terms of store look and feel.
One big difference is the quality of service.
As a switcher, I can truthfully say that the experience I have had at this store is shockingly poor.
There are other resellers with great service, but there store experience is lacking (they look like the PC hack shops that you can buy a no-name PC cobbled together frankenstein style).
Then there is the in between resellers, ok stores, OK service, but still lacking.
I remember in one store the so called “service technician” having an arguement with a customer (who’s issue was that there iMac just wouldn’t boot at all) infront of everyone in the store!
If Apple bring their formula of retail store to Australia, the ONLY way is UP for Apple in this country.
It will do two things
1) Show Australians what the TOTAL Mac experience can be/is.
2) set a standard of service/retail experince that the other resellers will have to meet (or maybe exceed) to survive.
This is capitalism and market forces Squidge, working to the benefit of consumers – which is all good.
Maybe if you and your brethren were not so damn smug, condecending, rude and obnoxious to customers, Apple would be happy with how it is represented in Australia.
I personally have fed back to Apple how rubbish my experience in Apple resellers in Australia has been and I’m glad to think they may have listened.
my 2 cents
Luke
PS – and yes i did feedback to the resellers at the time. That is when I really got angry, cause the response was more rudeness and the suggestion that if I didn’t like it, I didn;t have to buy Apple products!
It surely is true that most of the Aus Apple resellers are quite hopeless – from both a sales and technical perspective. It is also true that Apple Australia screw the resellers down as much as they can. Apple Aus have played quite poorly in the past – again look at the Buzzle debarcle – brought on by the greed and stupidity of both the resellers involved and Apple Australia.
I think that Apple run stores in Aus would be a good thing overall – too many indie resellers have screwed up too may Macs (instead of fixing them) and they’ve also screwed up too many sales and customer perceptions of Apple products.
I can only hope that Apple US take a keener interest in the way Apple Aus operate and stomp on some of the less savoury practices Apple Aus get up to.
its about time…
im excited. the apple resellers here are dodgy as.
this is good news though. i think i will have to go through the sydney store, well at least until they open one in Melbourne… *Hint Hint*