“In a move that showcases the state’s growing popularity as a site for retail expansion, Apple Computer plans to open within the next two weeks its first Utah store in downtown Salt Lake City’s Gateway shopping center,” Lesley Mitchell reports for The Salt Lake Tribune.
“Apple, which is counting on a dramatic grand opening, is not responding to any questions about the new store, which will carry computer hardware, software and related products such as iPods. But Gateway mall employees confirm the store, hidden behind tarp and wood barriers, will open sometime before the end of the month. Several of the company’s most avid fans believe opening day in Utah will be Nov. 25 – the day after Thanksgiving,” Mitchell reports. “‘Apple tends to be really secretive – it’s kind of like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,’ said Scott Bitter, partner with MacDocs in Salt Lake City, an Apple retailer and repair outlet. ‘They tend to keep things under wraps until the absolutely last minute. They like to be as dramatic as possible and really put on a show.'”
Full article here.
More info about Apple’s current roster of Apple Retail Stores here.
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Gateway, you know, the ones who “recommend Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional,” have zero retails stores left open, but Apple Store Gateway is on the way! Apple now has 128 stores open with today’s Apple Store Brea, CA grand opening celebration. If you’d tried to tell someone this would happen just a few years ago, they’d probably laugh in your face. See how quickly things can change?
Related articles:
Apple to hold grand opening celebration for Brea, California Apple Store this Saturday – November 09, 2005
Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ ultimate goal: ‘to take back the computer business from Microsoft’ – June 16, 2005
Beleaguered Gateway closes all retail stores; Apple poised to open 77th outlet – April 01, 2004
Willy Wonka!?!? Actually, that’s a pretty interesting comparison!
LOL!!
Jake
APPLE STORE BREA, CA OPENING TODAY @ 10 in the BREA MALL!!!! SOO EXCITED!!! BE THERE!!!
Of course the first year in ten years I have to work the day after Turkey Day and Apple decides to open a store in SLC. Meh.
Hmm this is going to be interesting effect on the Mormon population of Utah.
A Apple/cult/church/Store opening in the epicenter of their religion/cult.
The Apple Store can be a tremendous hit as they all look like churches, but on the other hand opening the Mormons mind to the wealth of information through the internet can be seen as a threat to the Mormon establishment.
Well, I guess if one beleives a bunch of marlarky, they always will.
http://skepdic.com/contents.html
MDN word: “Act” Like act now and toss your dated malfunctioning, virus innfected PC for a brand new PowerMac Quad.
(help I’m trapped in a MDN cult)
Yes Jake…
Put a Top-Hat on Steve Jobs, give him a cane with an big apple logo, add a floppy hair style and Bingo!
So, for all those who have seen the film (Willy Wonka) we now know what the inside of 1 Infinite Loop looks like. And Jonathan Ive is a Oompa Loompa… the secret is out.
All we need now are 5 special edition iPods with a very special invitation included.
More wives means more computers….
…at least if you are practicing polygamy!
MacDude:
Um… I think us “Mormons” are quite aware of the Internet. Since Utah is in the top 5 states in the US with the most Internet connected households.
Though I am excited for the Apple store, there is probably a dozen or so Mac shops in northern Utah as it is. So we know what Macs are…
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I would guess that out of all the computer users in Utah 1 out of 10 use a Mac, and going up!
Long live Apple!!!! (in Utah)
MW: Pressure
I have been watching this store go up and can’t wait! Great new development in downtown too. Good job Apple! This was definitely needed in Salt Lake City, Welcome!
Actually Utah has one of the highest per capita computer and internet usages. http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635157158,00.html Im a Mormon and I have two Macs (G4 iMac and G4 iBook).
I don’t think the Gateway Shopping Center in SLC is named after Gateway computers. Could one of our Utah friends help out with this?
If Apple wins in Utah it will quickly control the majority of the world’s population: the Mormons are the only ones reproducing! People in every other religions are either deciding that it is alright to be gay, it’s not safe to have kids because to many marriages end in divorce, or having kids only leads to the evils of soda can and candy wrapper pollution. In two generations there will only be about eleven protestants and 19 catholics in all of America- Mormons think that each kid is a step in the ladder up to God, and the’re breeding like lab rats!
Have your little Apple babies, Mormons!
I can’t wait until they have a store within 50 miles of me. Then I could ditch this POS called Windows.
MDN MW: Local, as in I want a store near me. How fitting!
I sure wish Apple would open a store in either Portland, Maine or Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It’s a two hour drive to the nearest store in either New Hampshire or Massachusetts, which definitely limits my visits.
Howdy! I am a Mormon too and I have 3 Macs (switched November 2004). Is that okay with everyone else?
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Welcome Apple to Utah!!! (finally!!!)
MDN MW: ‘for’ as in I am FOR the Apple Store and Macs all the way!!!
To ditchms: You don’t need a store near you to ditch Windows.
No, the Gateway Mall was not named after the ill-fated computer company. More than likely it has to do with the renovated architectural style it received (The Boyer Company developed it), and the fact that parts of it used to be the old 1908 Union Pacific Depot. More info (if you care): http://www.boyercompany.com/gateway/home.html
And yes CJ, we’re breeding so fast we don’t know what to do with all these rodent kids of ours. At least they make for a soft climb on the way up. (sheesh…)
-Another Mormon with a Mac
To CJ: as a Mormon all I can say about your comments is . . . well, I was laughing out loud!
MDN MW: ‘ten’ as in each Mormon family has at least TEN kids (just kidding, of course. My wife and I only have FIVE. But hey, they ALL love Macs now. What does that say for FUTURE sales of Macintosh? Hehehehe)
This IS a good analogy. Apple is SO like Willy Wonka’s secret factory — at least from the outside looking in. (Don’t know if there are any chocolate rivers at One Infinite Loop, though — but can you imagine seeing Apple’s secret product development lab!?!).
That’d be a blast if Apple ended up doing some kind of promotion like the Golden Ticket. Imagine: 100 iPod nanos are actually gold-plated when you take them out of the box — and if you get one you’ve won $25,000 worth of Apple gear (take up to five years to spend it), a couple dozen nanos for friends and family, chance to be in an Apple ad or commercial, and a personal tour of Apple with the other 99 winners conducted by Steve Jobs!
Man, what a promotion! And next MacWorld Steve could come on stage dressed as Wonka (the Gene Wilder Wonka, not the freakish Johnny Depp Wonka).
of stores. This has to be how McDonald’s started. Over how my
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million or is it billion served. Browsing shoppers everywhere
will all get a good peek at Apple, won’t they?
CT ======]———- Season’s Greetings, Apple style!
Online shopping — and then there’s mad money, you know…when
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people feel like spending some cash and look for something in malls
and end up buying things they’ve always wanted or feel like giving
at the spur of the moment. Apple should be there for these shoppers…
and all else who can enjoy the “hands on” approach.
CT =======]———– considering the possibilities
Great new stores! Keep ’em coming!
I for one would like to see an Apple Store come to the Louisville area! Elizabethtown needs one too and a Bowling Green, Ky store would do well!
Maybe someday….
As a California ‘Mormon’ my family has 3 macs & 6 iPods. We’ve done our part to keep Apple profitable!
As a member of the LDS (Mormon) church and a Mac user I’ve always noticed an interesting similarity in that in both situations I have to dispell myths about my lifestyle.
For example, I have just two (2) children and just one (1) wife (if you want many wives check out the Fundamentalist Mormons who are not affilitated with the LDS church). In addition, I really have not had any problems finding software for my mac, and there really are no viruses for OS X.
Actually, I’m sure most Mac users would in some way have a sense as to what being Mormon sometimes feels like.
In any case, I’m glad that when I go to Utah to visit familly there will be an Apple store nearby.
-MoTab
PS – Sincere thanks to MacDocs who are an awesome team of mac specialists!
The reason Utah is so connected to the internet is because the Cult of Mormons can spread their ridiculous theories amongst themselves. Also, it allows them to continue their abhorent process of Proxy Baptisms by going online to do genealogical studies–I find it particularly horrible that they give proxy baptisms to Jews who died in the holocaust.
Of course, those of us who take glee in reading all things anti-Mormon, enjoy books such as Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven (which underlines the Mormon hiearchy’s tacit support of polygamy) and Martha Beck’s “Leaving the Saints” which describes criminal sexual abuse by leading Mormon apologists, including the crazies who continue to claim that there was a great civilization of caucasians in North America prior to the birth of Christ.
Oh, well, this is a Mac board. And I went so far off topic to be condemned as a Gentile by the Saints. Oh yeah, I forgot, I grew up in Utah and made it a point to defile young Mormon virgins. And I married one, who has remained a perfect non-Mormon for the last 25 years.
Damn. I just went off topic again. It’s a well proven fact that owners of Macs believe in evolution, understand that faith require no proof, believe God favors no nation or people, and the only decent part of Utah is Park City. LOL.
I know, I’m obsessed with tweaking you Mo’s.
“MacStore: You don’t need a store near you to ditch Windows.”
I do because my parents are dumb, lol. They don’t shop online so I can’t use their cards. I have enough from my job to get one, they just won’t travel over 200 miles just to get a computer :'(
Oh well. Just a year and I’ll be 18 and I can have my own credit card!
MDN MW: Kind, my parents should just be kind and take a Saturday like today to drive me
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