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2003 - November 11-30-2003 - Tokyo The Ginza (Tokyo) Apple store opened today with a loud and energetic welcome by the staff to a line of over 1,900! The sidewalk in front of the store was packed for hours as passersby tried to get a peek inside and take photos of the event. The first person in line arrived at 6 a.m. on Saturday, 28 hours before the store opening! Read my exclusive account, direct from the Ginza! Also check Apple's page of photos of the event, which includes first-in-line Devin on page three. I visited the Bic electronics department store, and have posted photos that show typical Apple retailing in Japan, along with some current product pricing in Japan. A tipster says the La Encantada (Tucson) store will open Dec. 13th. [later delayed until after the first of the year] 11-28-2003 - Tokyo I'm in Tokyo covering the grand opening of the Ginza Apple store. I've taken some photos and am putting together a video report. I've also gathered up some details about the store. My tip on the spiral glass staircase for the Ginza (Tokyo) accidentally mis-placed the location of the structure: it will appear at the Osaka Apple store, which open in Fall 2004. 11-26-2003 - California I left San Francisco at 11 a.m. today for the Ginza Apple store grand opening! Follow me across the Pacific Ocean and right to the front door of the store, through my daily reports, photos and videos. 11-25-2003 I've posted a video report on the progress of construction at the San Francisco Apple store. 11-23-2003 I've posted new photos of the high-profile San Francisco Apple store, which is scheduled to open in "Spring, 2004." The structural steel is up, the interior walls are in place, and you can clearly see the skylight over the interior stairway--all glass, no doubt. Construction "No Parking" signs assigned to DPR Construction expire on Jan. 1, 2004, but that's just a technicality, not an indication of when the store will be finished--continue to expect a Spring 2004 grand opening. The North Point (Geo.) Apple store will open on Dec. 6th. I ran across another type of Apple grand opening, complete with a free T-shirt giveaway: it was on Nov. 8th in Burwood, New South Wales (Australia), and the opening of this AppleCentre closely resembled a U.S. retail store event. AppleCentres are independently-operated stores, but with a States-side retail look, and are located around the world. During a recent analysts' meeting Ron Johnson mentioned an that Apple's retail stores would be doing more to generate revenue from business customers. Now the marketing materials are out: a bright blue "Let's Do Business" brochure leasing and financing options for business, a "Big Support for Small Business" card explains that, "Apple has everything your business needs" and space to attach a business card, an elaborate 6-panel, fold-out brochure titled, "Businesses run better on a Mac. Here's why," and includes a biz card cut-out. One of the brochures mentions, ""Every Apple Store has a Business Specialist and an on-site finance expert to answer your questions." 11-22-2003 Whoa!... the power of eBay. That Washington Square (Ore.) grand opening T-shirt sold for $51, apparently to a bidder in California. 11-21-2003 Apple has posted the day-by-day holiday hours for all its retail stores. Most are open until 6 p.m. on Dec. 24th, while the SoHo, Valley Fair (N. Calif.), Walden Galleria (NY), and Tices Corner (NJ) stores will be open regular hours on Christmas Day (!). On the other hand, most stores are open on New Year's Day, with only Aspen Grove (Colo.), Pasadena (S. Calif.), Sagemore (NJ), The Grove (S. Calif.) andTices Corner (NJ) being closed for the first day of 2004. $33 for an Apple store grand opening T-shirt?! Yikes! Check eBay for this Washington Square (Ore.) item that has a few bids. Paco Underhill is a "retail anthropologist" and in 2002 was interviewed by Business Week magazine, and asked about Apple's retail stores. He's a long-time Mac user, and generally had favorable comments, but also had some suggestions on improving the stores to match the behavior of customers. 11-20-2003 It's difficult to keep up with all the in-store events, but here's a big one: the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally the biggest shopping day of the entire year, Apple's retail stores will hold a, "Someone you know loves music" event. According to Apple's Web site, "Whether they’re Mac or Windows users, you’ll find a scintillating array of gifts, plus, a few surprises in store for you." That last phrase may refer to some type of discount (10% off?) on iPods during the Nov. 28th event. When you hit the Apple store to buy an iPod, be sure to pick up the new AppleCare service for it. Apparently with some repairs statistics under its belt to help determine pricing, Apple just launched the $59, 2-year warranty. 11-19-2003 Thanks to Keith ("The Man") in Tokyo, I now have photos of the Ginza Apple store: all coverings are down, and it's rather typical outside, with stainless steel on the lower floors, glass above, a giant Apple logo on the Ginza side, a similar one on the Matsuya-dori side, and a very subtle Apple logo on the back of the building. Big news-- there will be other tenants in the building, on floors 6, 7 and 8, including several law firms and a "cosmetology research institute." The building directory lists Apple as being on "1F-6F," so that leaves a mystery for what's on 6F...offices? The front, glass windows are still obscured with black plastic sheeting, so it's impossible to see inside. See Keith's entire photo collection, which includes a nice video panorama of the intersection. The Ginza store will hold a grand opening "Monitor Campaign," which apparently is Japan's version of a contest or sweepstakes. The conditions of the "campaign" are a little strange: it's officially and "evaluation" of Apple's products, and the winner must submit his/her evaluation within six months of being selected. Check the full rules on Apple's Japan Web site.
By the way, how does Apple know there 13,988,702 visitors to their stores? They must be counting each person that comes into the store... but how? I now know that they use very discrete, video-based customer counting equipment by ShopperTrak (Chicago). The sophisticated system provides real-time analysis of store traffic for both in-store (staffing, etc.) and headquarter (marketing, financial) purposes, and uploads the data to HQ periodically. updated 11-18-2003 What exactly will the Osaka store's spiral glass staircase look like? I can only guess it will resemble the current glass stairs at other high-profile stores--with a twist! Apparently spiral glass and stainless staircases aren't that uncommon, but all-glass spiral staircases are rare indeed. The "associated" architect on the Ginza project, Gensler, has some experience with impressive stairways--follow the above link to see some example by a British company that may provide a glimpse into the future. I should note the pseduo-Steve Jobs Web site has a page devoted to stores... the single, lonely entry gives away that the site really isn't connected to Steve. If it were, the stores would have a more prominent position and lots more entries! Oh, and it mentions "parody" at the bottom, too. Also, for "The Illustration Of The Year of Steve Jobs," I definitely have to nominate this Esquire entry! 11-16-2003 Check photos of the Washington Square (Ore.) store grand opening... Merritt and Ken were first in line at 6:30 a.m. Note that this store looks exactly like the Corte Madera store: all-glass front, narrow stainless steel above the glass with an Apple logo. Apple's Ron Johnson notes that store costs are reduced by standardizing and reusing designs. Apple has deployed special applications on their in-store computers to help visitors pick holiday gifts--for themselves or others!. The app has lots of graphics and roll-overs, and operates like a browser. It's much simplified from the Internet version of the gift guide. You click an on-screen button, and the multi-stage process begins with "Someone You Know..." loves Macs, taking photos, loves making movies or loves music. You make your choice, and the screen then displays products in that category with several choices, and so on. You continue selecting categories until you've narrowed down the choice. You're then instructed to visit that area of the store to try out the product, or ask an Apple Specialist to retrieve one for you to purchase. There is also a set of four special cards that promote the three categories of products, and have "snowy" photos of people taking video, photos and listening to music, and one card that promotes Apple's "Top Gifts." The "Photo" card promotes the iBook G4, .Mac account, Canon PowerShot 5400 Elph camera, Adobe Photoshop Elements software, and Canon i960 Photo printer. The other two cards similarly promote five items, some as inexpensive as $14.95 (DVDs) ,and others up to $1,599 (Powerbook G4).
11-14-2003 Will the manager of the Ginza (Tokyo) store come from Japan or the United States? Speculation has been rampant, but I can reveal that for now, the manager will represent the American side of the Pacific, no doubt until the store is humming along and a Japanese manager can assume the helm. The Japan version of Apple's Web site has posted the floor-by-floor layout of the Ginza store: 1F - Home / Pro The building was designed by architects from Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (Calif.), the associated architect was Gensler (worldwide), the structural & facade engineer was Dewhurst Macfarlane and Partners Inc. (London-NY), the mechanical and electrical engineering was done by Flack + Kurtz Inc. (NYC), and the lighting design was by ISP Design Inc. (Miami). Project management was provided by Sato Facilities Consultants Inc. (Tokyo). Much of the scaffolding has been taken down from around the Ginza store, and you can now get an idea of what the store will look like. I've received photos, and am attempting to obtain permission to post them. On the Matsuya-dori Street side the scaffolding is completely down: the ground floor is still covered, the second and third floors appear to be dull, darker, brushed metal, and the three upper floors are entirely covered with greenish glass. On the Ginza-dori Street side, scaffolding and plastic still cover the lower three floors, but you can see the upper three floors, which are all glass floating away from the side of the building. Behind the upper floor glass on both sides, you can see what appears to be the interior, structural walls of the building. There is still white sheeting over two key areas of the store's Ginza side at the third-floor level--- one that appears large enough for a giant, cut-out Apple logo, and another smaller rectangular shape. Nowhere on the building do you see any indication that it's an Apple store (unless it's newspaper-sized print!). Surf the Spymac.com Web site, and check the latest photos in the gallery. I've added a weather "bug" to our Ginza page... for anyone who'll be standing in line for the grand opening! 11-13-2003 The on-line radio show "Your Mac Life" announced that it will begin a series of live broadcasts from Apple retail stores with a show from the Lenox Square (Atlanta) store on Dec. 1st. 11-12-2003 Apple is pushing sales in Australia by opening a store-within-a-store inside five branches of the David Jones retail chain. According to the news.com.au Web site, the stores will be "Apple branded and staffed by trained Apple employees." A pilot program has been running in a Sydney branch since May. It sounds as if Apple Australia has discovered what Apple America learned two years ago: retailers don't do well on their own. The story stated: "Apple Computer Australia marketing director Arno Lenior said the retail experience did not work in the past as the company 'let other people tell the story for us.'" The reaction from long-time Apple retailers has been negative. I note Time magazine's naming the iTunes Music Store as "Invention of the Year." Writer Chris Taylor said there were other contenders, "But for finally finding a middle ground between the foot-dragging record labels and the free-for-all digital pirates and for creating a bandwagon onto which its competitors immediately jumped, Apple's iTunes Music Store is TIME's Coolest Invention of 2003." 11-7-2003 On Tuesday Gateway president Ted Waitt will spotlight a $15 million store re-design rushed in time for the holiday selling season. A previous press release states, "The new stores provide a high-touch consumer electronics and PC buying experience that is unmatched in the marketplace." The pilot store was in Mission Valley (San Diego), and about 100 stores have been completely made over, with another 80 receiving a "moderate" redesign. The remodeling extends Gateway's ongoing move to a "branded integrator" rather than a PC company. A News.com story says the remodeled stores will have a "living room" motif. Check the company's retail plans here (updated with photos). Some stores have reportedly been very lightly remodeled-- just a couch and some different paneling.
11-6-2003 The Washington Square (Ore.) Apple store will open at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 15th. During a revealing 37-minute presentation to financial analysts, vice president of retail Ron Johnson dropped several tidbits of information about the retail stores, including: a new Genius Bar reservation system, a sharper focus on store sales to small businesses, that less than 6% of applicants are hired to work in the stores, that the Ginza store will have a stainless steel facade, that employee turn-over is the lowest in the retail industry, that the stores will have a special holiday marketing promotion (Someone You Know...), that retail stores will begin performing more in-store repairs, that 1 in 5 store visitors come for the Genius Bar, that smaller stores sell 90% as much as large-style stores, there will be a holiday marketing effort, and expanded services are planned for the Pro Card. He also said there will be 80 stores open by back-to-school of 2004. Read this exclusive round-up of Johnson's remarks. 11-4-2003
In a press release about the Ginza grand opening, Apple said they've had 23 million visitors to their stores since the first one opened in 2001. After returning from an out-of-state trip, I learned that the Old Orchard (Ill.) store will open this weekend, and the Corte Madera (N. Calif.) store grand opening was generally a non-event. The former store will be Apple's 70th, leaving three other stores to open to meet Apple's previous predictions. The Corte Madera grand opening had no overnighter, the early crowd was light (only 15 in line by 9 a.m.), and there was no "running high-fives" when the doors were opened--those in line mostly strolled inside and said "Hi" to the employees. There was reportedly no spark and little excitement, although the eventual turn-out by Mac enthusiasts was very good. At the Legacy Village (Ohio) grand opening on Oct 24th, store manager Dan Norman told MacObserver that 1,000 T-shirts were given out by 11 a.m., and estimated total first-day visitors at 4,000. The Web story says the store is 30,000 square feet in the newly-opened mall, which seems a bit large--the store would have to be 300' x 100', or almost the size of a football field. More like 3,000 square-feet. Thanks to Frank Mc Cart for the unusual photo of the Sagemore (Ohio) store opening, where someone parked a specially-painted pick-up truck in front of the store! 10-29-2003 Just in time for Halloween, Forbes magazine has posted some amusing, printable and wearable masks that include a "pirate" likeness of Steve Jobs. |
Apple chief financial officer Fred Anderson gave a presentation at a Lehman Brothers conference, and outlined the company's current position and market. Some of his remarks touched on the retail stores. His slides included an updated store 
Exciting news! I'll be flying to Tokyo on Nov. 26th to provide full coverage of the 
The Ginza (Tokyo) Apple retail store will open at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 30th!! It's the first Apple store outside the United States. The 4-story building is at 5-12, Ginza 3-Chrome in central Tokyo, amidst the most noted retail district in the world. Apple will give away 2,500 special commemorative T-shirts for the occasion. Apple officially lists the building as four stories, but there is a 5th-floor Studio Training Center, which will host hands-on classes for prices of 11,000¥, 16,000¥ or 22,000¥. Check Apple's Web page on the store (