Minneapolis can be brutal in the winter, with temperatures well below zero. In the summer, mosquitoes cruise like Huey Cobras on patrol. But I’m compelled to visit this land of contrasts to find out what makes it so attractive to Apple–they already have two retail stores on the southwest side of Minneapolis. I head for the Mall of America, and right to Camp Snoopy. I decide to ride the Mystery Mine Ride, and get teamed up with a stranger with a twitchy index finger. Arthritis, I ask? Nope, single-button mouse syndrome, she says. Ah…a Mac fan. So what’s new, sweetie? She points northeast towards the huge Rosedale Center mall, and tells me… Apple will open a retail store there to capture even more revenue from the region’s Mac addicts.
Thousands of miles away on Regent Street in London, that huge, block-sized mixed retail, office and residential development is coming into sharper focus. An Apple retail store will occupy two floors in the middle of the block, leaving space on either side for smaller, as-yet unknown tenants. It’s possible that Apple will have to forego the usual stainless steel facade in order to meet architectural preservation requirements for the district. The total size of the retail space will be 20,000 square feet, with an additional 3,000 s.f. back-of-house. Mark your calendar– the store will open in November, in time for the holiday shopping season.
Apple has posted job openings for the future (but unannounced) Danbury (Conn.) retail store on the "Jobs" Web page.
Listed on the "Jobs" page drop-down menu are the new locations of Pittsburgh (Shadyside) and Kansas City (Country Club Plaza, Mo.), the future retail stores I announced here first. However, no open positions are yet posted for these two new stores. Perhaps it’s a trend — both stores will be part of historic urban shopping districts, rather than located within newer malls.
Where do old Apple retail store graphics go when they’re taken down? Well, they’re shipped back to Apple, who previously turned them into small pieces, but will now allow independent resellers purchase them at cost for use in their stores. The large window graphics reportedly cost $45 and the smaller wall sections fetch $20. The first of these displays are now showing up at independents.
You’ll recall that last Nov. 6th I reported on a financial analysts’ meeting, where Sr. v-p Retail Ron Johnson talked about several future in-store service programs. Now the Apple Insider Web site says those programs will begin April 1st, and provides complete details on the realigned, free Standard level of service, and the new $99 ProCare level of service. The story also details ProCare rapid repair service, ProCare advanced reservations at the Genius Bar, special discounts, and on-demand workshops. The Standard service program is designed to get a new CPU up and running exactly how the purchaser desires, with loaded applications and added peripherals, email and network set-up. The ProCare program is meant to focus the stores more sharply on small businesses, and to provide businesses with improved services– although ProCare service is available to anyone who buys a CPU at the stores. The story also mentions that Apple will no longer charge a consultation fee for "ordinary" customers at the Genius Bar.
It’s funny how television affects the nation’s behavior–Donald Trump gets a TV show and suddenly everyone is waving their hand and saying, “You’re fired.” Now I’ve come across a piece of audio tape that claims to be from some type of Apple retail store meeting, and it sounds exactly like….Howard Dean.
No…I have no idea what happened to the Nike shoe promotion at the retail stores. I do know that some employees are wearing the shoes, and that the blurb about the promotion on Apple’s retail Web page has disappeared. It sounded like a strange pair-up in the first place.
More details are emerging about Apple’s plan to open the mini-stores that I revealed back in early February. The stores will be installed on university campuses over the next 18 months, most likely as special areas of existing student union or bookstore retail operations. The stores will sport some of Apple’s typical graphics and design features, while the selection of merchandise will spotlight the student-favored iPods, iBooks and Powerbooks, along with iMacs, digital cameras, camcorders, Airport products and software. The store staff will be Apple employees, but the stores will be administered by the host university.
How do you know when it’s closing time at an Apple store? Well, first the staff dims the lights to signal "outta here," and then finally the screens of the demo computers flash white letters on a black screen– "Thanks for shopping the xxxxxx Apple store. We’ll be reopening again at 10 a.m. tomorrow. Thanks and have a good night."
Those two 10%-off cards on eBay sold for $65.97 and $56, and the buyers will shortly help to pump more money into Apple’s revenues!
A long article in today’s The Wall Street Journal is titled, "Show, Don’t Tell," and explains how H-P and Microsoft believe that lots of consumers don’t understand what computers are capable of doing, and so the companies are now installing 15′x15′ "lesson centers" in certain retail stores to promote certain product combinations: computers and digital cameras, or camcorders, or digital music, or home office. Well, if you’ve been to an Apple store, you get the picture! In addition, "experience specialists" will staff the centers to present task-specific demonstrations, all designed to increase sales (15% by one H-P survey). The participating stores include J&R Electronics, Circuit City, CompUSA and Micro Electronics, and the lesson center staffers are from MarketSource LLC. The story does point out that Apple and Sony have used the same technique for years.
The ThinkSecret Web site has a long special report on a lawsuit filed by some of Apple’s resellers, in which the resellers question Apple’s wholesale pricing of products for its own stores vs. their authorized resellers. The plaintiffs claim Apple’s own retail stores receive bigger discounts on merchandise, and that Apple’s accounting practices don’t accurately reflect the true costs of operating the stores. The story is accompanied by copies of Apple store invoices that appear to show the prices differences.
I love barbeque and I love baseball, which took me 1,791 miles east to Kansas City (Kan.), where both are king. I started by visiting Gates & Sons Bar-B-Q (1026 State Ave.), where the noise level is high and the ribs are meaty. After sitting down with my rib slab, beans and potato salad, I got to talking with a guy wearing a "T-Bones" baseball cap. Turns out the guy’s a cousin of someone who’s a friend of one of the players— and a Macintosh user. He told me some good news! Apple is coming to town, but on the other side of the river, as part of the outdoor (and very scenic) Country Club Plaza shopping district.
Here are some additional photographs of the SouthPark (NC) store grand opening, courtesy of Steve from the Charlotte Apple Computer Club.