I continue to believe that the Lucky Bag concept at grand openings is overdue for retirement, but apparently it’s still a tradition at the Ginza and Shinsaibashi (Japan) stores. Both of the Japanese-language pages promote sales of Lucky Bags (¥40,000) as part of the nation’s Jan. 2nd New Year’s tradition, along with a music DJ [...]

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The recruiters have landed in Toronto for interviews with Yorkdale retail store candidates.

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MacWorld news editor Phillip Michaels visited three California Apple stores over the holidays, and in a column noted they were all full of customers making purchases. He praised the stores’ "good selection of Mac merchandise and conscientious employees."

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If you can’t wait long enough for the perfect space to appear (see below), you might consider moving into an expanded area of an existing mall. In this case, Apple might have to wait just as long, since construction on the new section of the Dayton Mall (Ohio) won’t be finished for a while. But [...]

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New stores are just a waiting game for us consumers, but it’s a waiting game for Apple, too. Take that perfectly nice mall along I-264 about five miles from the Atlantic Ocean in Virginia Beach (Virg.). Apple wants to move in, but the Lynnhaven Mall just doesn’t have "the" space. So while we wait, Apple [...]

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The CRN Web site has a story about the on-going lawsuit filed against Apple by former and current resellers, alleging unfair business practices. The lawsuit is set for a Jan. 25th court hearing, when a trial date might be set.

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The St. Paul Pioneer-Press has a story on Sr. V-P Retail Ron Johnson, and his recent visit back home, and his visit the Mall of America (Minn.) retail store. The story describes Johnson as a, "laid-back guy with floppy hair and a big smile," and quotes him as saying about the retail operation, "The exciting [...]

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A Regent Street (London) grand opening Lucky Bag and T-shirt sold for about $675 earlier this month, a profit of about $197 over the purchase price, but a loss of about $678 over the stated value of the items if sold individually.

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Is Apple’s retail sales philosophy working to sell products? Well, not according to one posting on the MacRumors forum. A Mac enthusiast helped sell five computers within 10 minutes, after watching the staff sell nothing in the previous hour. Apparently engaging the customers, rather than letting them wander around on their own, results in more [...]

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The speculation over the location of future Apple stores is (nearly, sorta) over! Since Apple won’t share its extensive spreadsheet of potential sites, I decided to create my own list of potential store sites, based on a scoring system that takes into consideration the size of the city/metro area, extent of Internet use, number of [...]

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Apple’s retail store feedback page now includes an offer for a $10 discount on your next retail store purchase over $100, if you fill out a 20-minute on-line survey of your shopping experience at an Apple store.

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Apple has posted the position of Business Consultant on its job listings Web page, specifically for the South Coast Plaza (S. Calif.) store. It’s apparently part of an on-going effort to increase revenue from small and medium-sized business customers.

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WTAE-TV reports that a male and female burglary team used a brick to smash the front window of the Shadyside (Penn.) retail store on Dec. 12th and rip laptops from their security cables, taking a total of $9,000 worth of merchandise. The entire crime lasted just 19 seconds, according to surveillance video, which is in [...]

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I’ve updated the listing of administrative retail positions to include a Field Operations Specialist and Retail RMA Specialist.

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Here’s the first photo of the Bullring (UK) Apple store. Based on the hiring notices, and Apple’s usual store timetable, it should be open in early April, 2005

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A few days back I talked about China’s fast entry into the computer age, and how that might encourage Apple’s retail plans. A column in The Wall Street Journal noted: China is the second-largest consumer of PCs behind the U.S., is #2 in Internet users (although a distant second to the U.S.), has 15 million [...]

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Almost all the Apple stores are open until midnight on Thursday the 23rd for hard-core shoppers, but they’ll all close at 6 p.m. on the 24th. Check the individual holiday hours Web page.

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The ThinkSecret Web site has an article on Apple’s retail loss prevention program, and claims the stores are vulnerable to several different types of thefts.

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Thanks to Mike for photos of today’s St. Louis Galleria (Mo.) store opening.

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The future Bullring (UK) store space has now sprouted a "Coming Soon" sign, adjacent to The Gap and Debenhams stores in Birmingham, England.

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