“When Apple Computer Inc. opened its first Apple retail store in 2001 in a shopping mall in McLean, Va., critics saw the initiative as an expensive, dubious gamble. But as Apple prepares to take the wraps off its latest, most ambitious store yet — on New York’s Fifth Avenue, opposite the Plaza Hotel and Bergdorf Goodman — there are few doubters left about Chief Executive Steve Jobs’s retail strategy,” Nick Wingfield reports for The Wall Street Journal. “On Friday evening, five years after opening its first store, Apple will unlock the doors to a subterranean store that sprawls beneath the plaza in front of the General Motors Building, just across from Central Park. In keeping with Mr. Jobs’s penchant for eye-catching designs, all that will be visible from the street is the entrance, surrounded by a roughly three-story-high glass cube jutting from the ground, reminiscent of I.M. Pei’s glass pyramid at the entrance to the Louvre museum in Paris.”
“The store is located in one of the most highly trafficked tourist and retail corridors in the world. If it is successful, it will enhance Apple’s visibility as the company attempts to grab a bigger slice of the computer and electronics industries. Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Co., says an Apple executive told him the store will be open for business 24 hours a day, a first for the company. ‘It really is the center of gravity of Fifth Avenue,’ says Robert Futterman, Apple’s real estate broker, of the new store location. Apple declined to discuss details of the new store ahead of its official unveiling later this week,” Wingfield reports. “The Apple stores have attracted even more foot traffic because of the swell in consumer interest in the iPod, Apple’s hit digital music and video player. Analysts say the stores give Apple a strong distribution channel that could help it enter new categories like cellular phones and other home electronics.”
“Mr. Jobs, a major stickler for design details, has been intimately involved in helping to turn the stores into hip, visually memorable shopping destinations. Mr. Jobs is one of the named inventors on a patent Apple secured several years ago for the design of a signature glass staircase featured in many Apple stores. A person familiar with the matter says Mr. Jobs himself was involved in the design of the glass cube atop the new Fifth Avenue store,” Wingfield reports. “In a recent interview, Mr. Jobs admitted that at one point he ordered workers to replace the metal bolts holding together the glass panels that make up the cube over the company’s Fifth Avenue store. ‘We spent a lot of time designing the store, and it deserves to be built perfectly,’ Mr. Jobs said.”
More in the full article here.
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Wired’s Kahney: Apple’s retail stores are genius – May 02, 2006
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Mr. Jobs is arrogant with the whole cube thing… which is something cool.
Too bad the international market is still neglected by Apple; come on, we want a serious Apple store in Mexico!
Umm, this article says nothing about “How Apple’s retail strategy beat the odds.”
Just come across the border we have lots of Apple stores.
I fear the day some nut drives into it.
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We need Apple stores in Australia too. The majority of Apple Authorised Resellers here in Australia are a complete joke! Incompetence rules! And, of course Apple Australia can’t be choosy with what’s available to Authorise out there.
C’mon Apple – please take even a mild interest in your foreign interests. Who knows – it could (will) pay off
I love immigrants. and cubes. G4 Cube 4 Life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ron,
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he’ll just have to run the gauntlet of Border Patrol and now even the National Guard
I don’t know the history of Steve Jobs’ perfectionism. You do.
Steve Jobs patented a staircase??
Only in America…
I vote for more Apple stores in Australia too !!
Tourian…
we have many many estores in Mexico….
There is one store, for example, in Costa Mesa, Aztlan, we have two of these a stores in San Diego, North Mexico, there is even one in Mission Viejo, North Mexico. There is even one, Jefe, in Glendale – the Meixco City of north Aztlan!
si quieres more estores, zhu need to come een an take-a over more places like-a Irvine and Brea. You’ll have to come up with a better name for Irvine, like maybe Oaxaca or someting.
Arriba! Arriba!
what’s with the title … that’s the title on the WSJ story, why should MDN change it?
The full story lists a number of things the stores do right:
=> they hire people who know the products
-=> most hire people who know how to fill out sales slips
=> they make the products accessible to casual browsers
=> they place their stores in upscale, high-traffic areas
=> they include the Genius Bar – point #1 squared!
-=> non-hostile, non-rushed, non-judgmental help for expert and newbie
Originally it was hoped the stores themselves wouldn’t generate too much of a loss while helping to convert ‘switchers’. A profit would be good, but brand stores like Gateway’s were not doing well and a profit At The Store seemed too much to hope for. Let’s just hope they will raise the company’s bottom line and market share – consider them part of the advertising budget. They seem to be doing well, as advertising, and making a nice enough profit is … more a delicious sauce than mere “gravy”.
We NEED an Apple store in Montreal. Why do those buttheads in Toronto get one and we don’t? (I say buttheadswith affection for other Canadian’s who read this).
“Mr. Jobs is arrogant with the whole cube thing… which is something cool.”
Arrogant? That’s a dumb statement. Jobs has a penchant for design, something that sets him apart from most CEO’s and something that gives him a huge edge over other corproate leaders.
This story about how particular he is about the design of this store is just an example o how he refuses to settle for second rate. It’s a big part of the reason why Apple makes sucha great products and a big part of why Apple is so successful and respected.
Arrogant? No. If more company leaders were “arrogant” as you put it in this way, they would be more successful.
Buster,
Buttheads at ‘The Center of the Universe’?
Say it ain’t so.
You got that one right.
Yep, yep.
Supertim,
I couldn’t agree more!
Buster,
There are 2 retail stores in Toronto.
Why none in Montréal? Probably because your city is in decline, and his been for 30 years. Once, Montréal commanded an empire. Now it manages a trendy boutique, on a street with little foot-traffic and a lot of shuttered storefronts. Montréal is like what Ireland used to be…a place where people are from.
Great place to visit though. Always have a really good time there. Just remember who brings ya your money…I know you resent it, but keep smiling nonethelesss as you serve us our drinks while we romance your women…You <strike>want</strike> need us to come back, and you know it.
Another round please. Can you step on it a little this time? There’s a good boy…
Make the hardware, make the software, provide the content and sell it from your own store. Apple has it sussed.
As an Aussie (now living abroad), I too would love to see an Apple store Down Under.
However, we are all our own worst enemies. Australia isn’t shifting enough hardware I don’t think to warrant a store (yet)… Look at the current locations of stores – US, UK and Japan, with the odd European one starting up as well. These are all large Apple purchasing countries, probably due to a larger population more than anything.
I’d love to see the numbers, but I’ll bet that they outsell Aussies 10 to 1.
I’ve tried unsuccessfully to switch a few people to Macs, but the fact that the hardware still costs a lot more than a PC makes it hard, even though you clearly get more for your money (and which they don’t see the value of.)