The presence of a large university is always a positive factor when Apple considers retail store locations, so perhaps that’s one reason the company will open a retail store at the Grand Arcade in Cambridge (UK), home of the prestigious university of the same name. The city centre shopping mall will feature a glass roof over a two-level street-type area, and a huge atrium. The city is a retail dream, with 602,000 residents in the metro region, 22,000 university students, and 3.5. million tourists each year. The mall is scheduled to open next March, and the Apple store will open at the same time.
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Patrick
October 18, 2007 at 6:30 am
Stuart
October 18, 2007 at 9:19 am
a much happier formerspecialist
October 18, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Stuart
October 19, 2007 at 3:07 am
John
October 22, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Nate
October 23, 2007 at 3:45 am
John
December 8, 2007 at 7:10 pm
John
December 26, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Your comments...
Not a bad move this but the fact that Apple has no store in Northern universities like Leeds (where I study) seems a bit bizarre. With over 70,000 students and a population of over 750,000 one would think it would be an ideal shopping location for the firm. Many if not all of the other large brands have locations in the city, from Levi and Gap to Harvey Nichols. See the wikipedia article on Shopping in Leeds for more information:
Great news and I’ve applied. It’s funny as I mentioned it in the forum’s wish list in 2005, but it was said it was unlikely because of the students? (and their pesky discounts).
They’ll be in competition with the brand new John Lewis which is set to open this November in the Grand Arcade.
Cambridge is a really nice place to live, if only the house prices weren’t so high.
Not Always. If you look at the map of Apple Store more are not closes to many major University. Many are located in high end malls outside urban areas. The best example is Philadelphia. The city has several major universities and college with in the city. If a student want to go to an Apple owned store you must drive or take long public transportation trip outside the city. All these schools have very strong Mac following. The best examples are University of Pennsylvania and Temple University both schools have a very strong Mac support. Yet Apple has chosen to place their stores in high end malls away from a very strong Mac community.
I think the difference with Cambridge is many of the Universities are just part of the town centre which is where the Grand Arcade is set, so the community wouldn’t have far to go.
I’ll be surprised if they don’t open in Leeds, I’ve some Mac using friends living up there, but; I guess there’s rich pickings (students & business) in Cambridge and a brand new shopping mall to move into.
Wow, so Cambridge is now “a retail dream, with 602,000 residents, 22,000 university students, and 3.5 million tourists each year.” Either the residents have been remarkably fertile since 2001 or nearly half a million tourists (or other people) must have decided that Cambridge is a such a nice place that they became Cambridge residents! Even a combination of reproduction and immigration such growth seems unlikely — the 2001 census shows that in 2001 the Cambridge population was just 108,863!
Of these nearly 28% were in their 20s. Although even this can’t explain the apparent fecundity, the age distribution would probably suit Apple: see
Presumably the error is mixing the city of Cambridge with the county of Cambridgeshire, which also includes the cities of Peterborough and Ely and the towns of Huntingdon, St Ives, St Neots, Wisbech, March, etc. [IFO - Thanks for the clarification. I'll edit the story to reflect the population region.]
Is this still going ahead? Apple appeared briefly on the Grand Archade confirmed retailers list but have since been removed. Is this due to Cancom opening a Premium Reseller branch a few hundred yards away?
In reply to Nate . . .
Although the Apple Store is still not listed on the list of “Confirmed Retailers” on the Grand Arcade site , MacWorld’s UK site has a report of Thursday, 6th December 2007 that Apple is recruiting staff for the Cambridge store in the Grand Arcade, as well as for stores in Liverpool and Milton Keynes .
Apple is now on the list of confirmed retailers for the Cambridge Grand Arcade. The list is at (hope this appears-my last attempt at getting a URL into a comment on the site failed, so I’ll leave off the http this time) http://www.grandarcade.co.uk/Retail/Confirmed+Retailers.htm