Apple will realign its current $99 per-year ProCare service, splitting it into separate computer and personal training services, each priced at $99. The split will occur on May 2nd, leaving advance reservation, priority repair and other Genius Bar services on up to three computers under the existing ProCare service banner. Apple wll then move the personal training component of ProCare provided by Creatives out under a new “One to One” banner, and price both services separately at $99. The change will be announced with new store windows and dark-blue employee T-shirts starting Wednesday. The current Talk Mac service for non-Mac users announced in Nov. 2006 will morph: it will become Personal Shopping, it remains a free service, expands to include Mac and non-Mac customers, and no longer requires a registration code to make a reservation via Concierge. Advice: If you’ve been considering ProCare, and also want/need one year of personal training, purchase now to avoid the price hike. [USA Today story. [brochure]
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Residents of Liverpool (UK) will no longer have to make the 35-mile drive to Manchester to enjoy an Apple store–they’re getting their own next year when the sprawling Liverpool One urban project opens in city center. The project is more than retail, also encompassing 42-acres of residential, office and open space set among five distinctly-designed districts. According to the developer, it’s intended to create, “a new and compact focal point for urban living and leisure in the 21st century Liverpool.” It will be the 14th store in the UK, behind the nine existing and four other planned stores.
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Turning to the southwest, Apple will plant a retail store among the 500-acre super-regional urban complex known as SanTan Village in Gilbert (Ariz.). The project includes retail, offices, commercial, residential and entertainment venues southeast of downtown Phoenix, intended to provide a complete live-work-shop experience. The retail section of the project will open October 26th, no doubt when Apple’s store will open. It will be the third store for the Phoenix area, and fourth store in the state.
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Apple will open a third New York City store at 14th Street and 9th Avenue in the city’s meatpacking district, according to CFO Peter Oppenheimer during today’s financial results conference call. The district is changing rapidly, with the addition of upscale retailers and hotels taking the place of meatpacking companies over the past year. The store will be inside the former Western Beef building, now managed by Robert K. Futterman & Associates, the same company that handled the Fifth Avenue store deal. The building has been completely renovated for $10 million, according to city permit records, and occupies a very prominent corner location where three streets come together. Futterman originally wanted to lease the 52,000 square-foot, three-story building to a single company at $5 million to $6 million a year, according to news accounts. A restaurant that occupied the 12,000 square-foot ground floor space earlier this year was reportedly paying $300 per square-foot per year.
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Apple’s retail store operation posted increased revenues for the second fiscal quarter of 2007, but the results broke a three-quarter run of sequential revenue increases. Retail revenues totaled $855 million, up from $636 million in the same quarter of 2006, but down from $1.1 billion in the previous quarter, which included the holiday buying season. The retail segment reported profit of $32 million, with another $174 million in so-called “manufacturing” profit. Macintosh shipments at the stores totaled 275,000, up 78 percent from the same quarter of 2006, but down from 308,000 in the previous quarter. The stores hosted over 21.5 million visitors, CFO Peter Oppenheimer said. read more…
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The closure of the iPod-only popXpress store in the Picadilly district of London (UK) reported here last month was born from the stuff of spy novels. Indeed, the store not far from Apple’s Regent Street location has closed. But other popXpress branches on New Street and in West London are still open and doing business, says Jonathan Cole, chairman of parent company Computer Warehouse Group. So why did the one store close? According to a Cole, the late Russian security officer and dissident Alexander Litvinenko ate at the Itsu sushi bar next to the popXpress store in Nov. 2006, and was poisoned with the radioactive substance polonium-210. He died three weeks later amid accusations the Russian government ordered his murder. The attention drawn by this international incident prompted the sushi bar’s parent company, Pret a Manger, into expansion plans, which led to their making Computer Warehouse Group an offer “they could not refuse,” Cole said. Itsu aquired the store’s lease and now plans to open an “international meeting place” by expanding into the former popXpress space.
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Being an Apple retail store employee is a pretty unique experience for many reasons. But it’s not an easy to get a peek inside the life of a store employee and know what the process involves. Now an ex-employee has posted his/her recollections of the job, from the application process to quitting the job–and why. [Note--Material now removed at the writer's request.]
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Today’s grand openings at The Galleria in Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) and Park Meadows Mall in Lone Tree (Colo.) were well-attended by enthusiastic crowds. Thanks to Enzo for the photo of The Galleria store, showing the V2.0 design in a narrow space. Thanks to Bryan for this photo of the long line at The Galleria, and the inside crowd. Also check this flickr collection of The Galleria, Nick’s blog on the Park Meadows opening, and a video by Steve of the Park Meadows opening.
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The grand opening of the five-story Mondadori Multicenter in central Milan (Italy) was important enough for Apple’s CEO of Italy operations to attend, perhaps because the store includes a large Apple sales area. Enzo Biagini viewed the 1,200 square-foot space on the second level that includes displays of laptops, iMacs, MacPros and Cinema displays, as detailed in a story and photos on the setteB.IT Web site. The interior design includes white-painted walls and wood display furniture similar to U.S. Apple stores.
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Retailer Target has agreed to carry the Apple TV device at an undisclosed number of its stores, according to the AppleInsider Web site, and will even have a live demo unit hooked up to a flat-screen TV at some stores. The Web site notes that it’s the third reseller to sell the device after Best Buy and CompUSA.
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I’ve posted the grand opening video of the Roma Est (Rome, Italy) store, showing the 9 a.m. crowd at one of the two main entrances to the mall, the crowd that formed in front of the store, and the packed store itself.
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Apple has scheduled the grand opening of its fifth Colorado store for April 21st at the Park Meadow Mall in Littleton. And in Florida, The Galleria store will open the same day in Fort Lauderdale, making 13 stores in the state. Both grand openings will feature the usual commemorative T-shirts, grand prizes and first prize sweepstakes.
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The construction barricade was removed from the front of The Summit mall Apple store in Birmingham (Ala.) in preparation for its Saturday opening. Thanks to Jeremy for the photos of the storefront.
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Dell Computer has cancelled plans to open a second retail store, at the West Palisades shopping mall in Nyack (NY), but didn’t explain to a reporter why their plans had changed. The company’s only store now is at the NorthPark Center (Dallas, Tex.) mall and is within eyeshot of an Apple retail store. The first store, which opened in August 2006, continues to operate as an order-only, no-inventory retailer. Dell first confirmed the store cancellation to the ChannelWeb Web site.
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A new Dashboard Widget has appeared on the desktops of Apple stores, at least those in the UK. The Widget displays the status of the stores’ Business Consultant (BC), Genius and iPod Bars, and Personal Training (PT), along with customers waiting for service. The Widget also includes tiny traffic signal-type lights indicating the status of each position.
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