The “Hollywood Reporter” reveals that CBS has committed to a comedy pilot titled “Genius Bar” that, “explores the interactions between people who work at a place similar to the Genius Bar at the Apple stores and the cool, hip and beautiful employees at a nearby Abercrombie & Fitch-type store.” The series was pitched by former [...]

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The just-opened Arndale (UK) store features identical,, re-designed interior that debuted last weekend at the Columbia (Md.) and Providence (RI) stores: stainless steel walls, center-located display tables, back-lit wall graphics, trio of bars, etc. However, this store dispenses with the front window glass of those stores, and has an entirely open entrance. Interestingly, Apple did [...]

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Three years after starting this Web site, I’ve learned more about Apple’s retail stores than I ever imagined. I’ve also learned more about Web hosting, servers and software than I ever thought I’d have to! The evolution of the site has been pretty dramatic, and today it takes one more small step by offering the [...]

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It’s unlikely that Apple will ever open an official retail store in the Czech Republic, so it’s good to hear that reseller iStyle will open the country’s first Premium Apple Reseller store in Brno on October 3rd. Tipsters say a second iStyle store will open in Prague later this year. Before this, the country had [...]

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Boston’s Redevelopment Authority (BRA) will present Apple’s proposed Boylston Street architectural plans to the public during a meeting on Oct. 4 at Fisher College–about four blocks from the proposed store site. The neighborhood Back Bay Architectural Commission gave the early design its conditional approval, but the BRA has not yet voted on Apple’s application to [...]

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The Arndale (Manchester, UK) store grand opening will be this Saturday at 9 a.m. in space U23, with the usual commemorative T-shirts and a giveaway prize that includes a 20-inch iMac. It’s not clear if the store will occupy two levels, like other adjacent stores in this section of the mall. Several new stores opened [...]

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Right now, the Regent Street (London) store stands as the architectural wonder among Apple’s 164 stores. The mosaic façade, dramatic arches and historic building lead visitors inside to a brightly-lit, two-story space with a swooping glass stairway. But the London store could have a companion, if speculation of Apple’s future Paris store location are correct: [...]

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One of the key attractions of Apple’s stores is the ability to go hands-on with the computers, which are hooked to the Internet. You can surf, send/receive e-mail, iChat or just test out all the applications that are loaded onto the display computers. In turn, the key to those capabilities is keeping the computers running [...]

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Rumors of an official Apple store in Australia have been increasing lately, especially with the jobs postings for a Retail Sales Consultant, one of two that will be posted inside the downtown Sydney branch of the Myer Department Store. The position will work 29.5 hours, the job listing says, and work Thursday through Sunday. Perhaps [...]

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The Los Gatos (N. Calif.) city council has been accused of playing politics for denying a permit request for the retail space at 25 N. Santa Cruz Ave. in that city. Politicians in the small, trendy town are admittedly picky about what types of retail stores open in the downtown, limiting them to products that [...]

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Monte arrived…at 9:15 a.m. the day before the grand opening, and joined about a dozen people who did an overnighter for the Village Pointe (Neb.) store. The management for the outdoor mall set up signs and stanchions welcoming the waiting line. A local high school teacher drummed up support for the opening among students, who [...]

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Today’s grand opening of the Mall in Columbia store followed a tradition set by the Fifth Avenue opening–a wedding proposal! After the couple embraced, store manager “G” invited the group of 140 into the store to examine the new layout. The store does have a POS and a small, two-seat table for children, the latter [...]

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(Columbia, Md.) - At 4:45 a.m. I headed to the second level of the Pine garage near Macy’s to begin my wait for the grand opening of the Mall in Columbia store. Mall security told me the night before that they won’t open the building until 10 a.m., but that waiting outside the closest entrance [...]

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I have posted the first exclusive photos of Apple Computer’s re-design of their retail stores–it’s a continuation of the Fifth Avenue NYC) store design which, in turn, is a magnification of the mini-stores. Strangely, it’s not what’s new at the store, but what’s not visible–there seems to be no POS counter (although later it was [...]

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The waiting line formed at 9:30 a.m. this morning for the Village Pointe (Neb.) retail store, and the stanchions are set up for the overnight crowd. Mall management says it’s permissible to be in-line on the property over-night, and the weather seems cooperative.

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Bloomberg News reports on an interview with Sr. V-P Retail Ron Johnson, who said the retail store redesign to be revealed this weekend will include larger tables to allow twice as many products to be displayed. Besides Apple’s gear, the design will also allow 50 percent more third-party products to be displayed, Johnson said. The [...]

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Apple has posted selected projects from this summer’s Apple Camp program at the retail stores, including two videos and two song tracks. Sr. V-P Retail Ron Johnson recently said 20,000 youth campers participated in this year’s program.

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The retail store Concierge service reservation system was out-of-service late Tuesday night for an upgrade that is not all that obvious. The Web addresses have changed and the screens are different, indicating a complete software re-write that takes out Flash and adds in WebObjects. Sadly, Genius Bar reservation availability is still limited. At 10 a.m. [...]

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Apple has officially confirmed the grand opening of three stores this weekend: Village Pointe (Omaha, Neb.), Mall in Columbia (Md.) and the long-awaited Providence Place (RI). The latter store has been on Apple’s waiting list for almost three years. The Providence and Columbia stores will be the first featuring reconfigured interiors as announced by [...]

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Apple has been drawn into yet another architectural battle, this time along a quiet neighborhood street in the Marina District of San Francisco where they intend to rennovate a 40′x95′ space at 2125 Chestnut Street into a new Apple store. The space is now occupied by Walgreens, who will move next door after the long-time [...]

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