Thanks to Vincent for the photos of the future Sendai (Japan) retail store, slipped into a tiny space along Ichibancho Street, a busy covered shopping street that comes alive at night with neon lights–think a narrow Fremont Street in Las Vegas. The two-story building housing the future Apple store is a bare 25-feet wide, but is 130-feet deep. Check the rear of the building in the photos for a look at its unique construction. You can’t see it in the photos, but a placard on the front of the building that normally names the future tenant says only, “Untitled.”
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In an effort to further speed up sales of the ever-popular iPod, Apple will be creating a special express sales area at one of the existing ‘music’ display tables, staffed with employees equipped with the new hand-held POS devices. Short of shooting you out of a cannon, you can go in, buy an iPod, have your receipt e-mailed or printed, and be on your way quickly. Look for the special signs pointing the way.
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The popularity of iPods has reached the level where they deserve their own counter at Apple’s retail stores, but so far only at the SoHo (NYC) and Ginza (Japan) stores. This blogger has photos of the new Ginza iPod Bar, featuring a new wall logo and services, apparently as part of the original Genius Bar on the second floor of the store in Tokyo.
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Apple has rolled out an entire ensemble of new red-colored T-shirts and sweatshirts to punch up the holiday shopping season, featuring some clever and witty slogans. They’ve also created sweatshirts specifically for the employees armd with the handheld, wireless POS terminals, with slogans that highlight their run-and-gun check-out capabilities.
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Over the past four days retail store employees began using that handheld POS scanner to complete wireless purchases of small items right in the store aisles, something calls “EasyPay” on its Web site. Apple is using a Symbol Technologies PPT8800 model that features a handstrap, card swiper and Windows CE. After swiping a credit card and the product barcode, the handheld POS transmits information to the main POS system via the store’s Wi-Fi network, which then sends an e-mail receipt directly to the buyer. The sales staffers are clumsily carrying a supply of draw-string bags, stuffing them into a draw-string bag and wearing it, usually over their shoulder. After the product is bagged up, the customer is out of the store, pronto! The e-mail receipt idea is also being used for gift purchases, so the gift receiver can return the item to the store if necessary. Follow-up: Customers and employees have noted that the devices sometimes freeze up or don’t work correctly. Customers reportedly have been reluctant to give out their e-mail address for the receipt.
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Apple has formally announced the grand opening of the Sendai Ichibancho and Fukuoka Tenjin (Japan) retail stores— December 3rd and 10th respectively. Check the Web pages for information and maps. [Sendai/Fukuoka]
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Talk about sweatin’ with the oldies! The Century City staff had to endure two weeks with no air conditioning, until workers arrived to track down the problem.
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You may recall that Apple’s only publicity about its new stores comes from e-mail to registered Apple users in the region, one week before the store opens. Prior to that, Apple’s PR team steadfastly refuses to say anything about specific stores, or to even acknowledge they exist (even though the backlit-logo is burning brightly!). No radio, no TV, no newspapers, no magazines, no Web page, no blogs… etc. So what happens if the e-mail doesn’t get sent? Ask the crew down at the new Beverly Center store, where the Nov. 19th grand opening crowd was tiny (they didn’t even hand out all 1,000 commemorative T-shirts!), and the Black Friday shoppers could be counted on just a few fingers. Apparently the e-mails generate the buzz, that leads to word-of-mouth, which leads to shoppers.
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Apple retail staffers are studying real-time financial results for Black Friday, but a visit to several stores shows that traffic was heavy and focused on the iPod display tables, and also the iPod accessories and speakers. Apple’s discounts conspicuously left out the iPod– – not unexpected since that’s where the revenue is— but apparently customers weren’t upset by the pricing strategy. Interestingly, the Genius Bars were open for repairs and advice, instead of being converted to point-of-sale duties as in previous years. However, a quick review of Genius Bar reservation times showed that you could easily wait 2-3 hours for the next available appointment.
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Apple discounted iMac G5s and iBooks by $101 on Black Friday, took $30 of a .Mac account, $11 off a Mighty Mouse, $31 off an Airport Express, and $51 off an iSight camera. Certain iPod cases, accessories and speakers were also discounted. Overall, the saving amounted to 20% to 30% for the day. The stores were outfitted with placards stating, “The feast after the feast,” and “Feast on This.” Staffers wore red T-shirts with the rear slogan, “It’s the thought that counts. It’s just harder to gift wrap.”
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This year’s “Something For Everybody” holiday wish list is a tri-fold card that virtually mirrors the Black Friday sale card, focusing on the same group of products: iBooks, iPods, iMacs, Airport Express, iSights, the Mighty Mouse, Bose and JBL speakers, and iPods accessories. Last year the retail stores had a tabloid-sized catalog of holiday gift ideas.
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Apple’s plan for Rome (Italy) may not be as grand as the Regent Street (London) store, but may rather be a standard, 30 foot-wide store. That info coincides with information from Jonathan, who points to the newish Parco Leonardo indoor mall near the city’s airport as a possible location. He notes that a city-center retail location would suffer from lack of parking and traffic congestion which, in turn, could limit visitors to a store. The mall complex includes a 24-screen cinema, hotels, an office park, 3,800 residences, and almost 600,000 square-feet of retail space with 215 stores.
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Today’s deals at the Apple retail stores include $101 off the price of iMac G5s and iBooks, $68 for .Mac accounts, $38 for a Mighty Mouse, and $98 for Airport Express. Genius Bar wait times are extended!
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Apple has now posted an official recruiting page–for its future Rome retail store, confirming the information I revealed five days ago. The page [Italian / English] confirms the store will open during 2006 at an undisclosed location.
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Belinda Carlisle believes that “Heaven Is a Place on Earth,” but this video shows that heaven is actually an Apple store and it’s employees.
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