Puerto Rico Petitions for Store

December 14th, 2007

A group of passionate Puerto Rico Apple enthusiasts have formed a group that hopes to convince the company to locate an official retail store on the island. The iWant MUG has over 940 signatures on a petition, and will hold a rally at the Plaza Las Americas (San Juan) mall on January 8th, where they hope Apple will locate. The group notes that the island attracts 26 million visitors each year, with buying power of $12 billion, providing an excellent sales opportunity for Apple. The rally will form in the mall’s parking lot to gather signatures and take photos/video of the event. They’ll have lunch in the food court wearing their white “iWant an Apple Store in Puerto Rico” T-shirts, and then adjourn to a nearby bowling alley for a family event. Check the group’s English Web page, and then explore the rest of the Web site.


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    Puerto Rico is a part of the United States. Dealers there should be able to get product directly from Apple. It would be better for everybody, Apple, the dealers and the customers. But an actual store would be a good way for Apple to start dealing with Spanish speakers, while still in the US and still working in US dollars.

    The dealer in Guam has to get his product through Singapore. This despite the fact that it is the United States. The customers are Americans, using US dollars with many being military dependents living the rest of their lives on the mainland US. (Oh when my kids were born I was stationed in Guam and they couldn’t get new Apple product right away so I bought a PC.) The schools in the Marianas are US tax supported, but there is no Apple presence. The people have have free association with the United States which means if they simple decide they want to come to the US they can. But they will have never seen an Apple. Why not have Guam, a part of the United States be treated as if it were a part of the United States.

    I have heard that the Apple dealer in American Samoa knows that if anybody wants anything they have to wait forever, so they greatly over charge for everything. Double prices in some cases. Apple lets them get away with it by denying Apple dealers to ship there. For instance the closest American dealers in Hawaii can not sell to American Samoa (or any where outside Hawaii) by contract. As long as you are matching Apple’s prices, why not sell any where? But the point is that the schools in American Samoa hate the higher prices and want to use PCs.

    Imagine if you had to move to one of these places, Puerto Rico, Guam or American Samoa and your Apple support dropped to these levels. Would you become frustrated? Would your spouse say I’m going back to PCs. Your kids wonder why you use something that you can’t get serviced like their friends’ PC? Remember, these place are the United States.

    Admittedly these are small markets, but do you believe that Apple market share should spiral up or down.

    If anybody has more up to date information on these locations, please post.

    Mark Wilson December 15, 2007 at 12:48 am

    I think that it’s a great idea they want an Apple Store in Puerto Rico and I hope that they get it too. Maybe even two or three stores.

    I wish they were so worked excited about becoming a state.

    Same goes for Guam and American Samoa.

    Former MG December 15, 2007 at 7:12 am

    FYI; Puerto Rico is not part of the United States, it is not a state, it is considered a US territory. Being which it is not part of Apple US.

    United States Apple dealers can not sell and ship products to Puerto Rico because Apple considers it being “out of the country” and thus against dealer’s contracts.

    I’m no expert in how dealers in Puerto Rico obtain their products, But they may charge higher prices because of how they order their Apple products. I know dealers in Alaska and Hawaii do not get free shipping from distributors like the dealers in the continental United States.

    Pete Sacke December 15, 2007 at 8:21 pm

    I sure hope this will happen and soon. CompUsa is not an option anymore, even when their stores in Puerto Rico were the ones with the highest sales compared to the ones in continental US.

    Puerto Rico for Apple is Latin America. We don’t have the same support or prices. The online Apple Store will not sale anything to us living in the island, I tried many times, if I wanted to buy anything from them I would have to have it sent to my relatives in the US and have them ship it to me, is more expensive that way, but now that CompUsa is leaving we hope that Best Buy might bring more Apple products.

    Honestly it would be better if Apple opens a store here, Plaza Las Americas were the rally will meet, is the Largest shopping center in the caribbean maybe Latin America also. I really don’t know what are they waiting, we have the same Federal Laws, same currency, same shipping companies, maybe this time they will listen….!

    Carlos Cedre December 16, 2007 at 3:57 am

    Please add the US Virgin Islands to that list of abused Apple users.
    Really! What is this Apple Latin America deal anyway? I have been in the VI for 40 years and have never heard the island referred to as Latin America! We have four US Post Offices (that use domestic shipping rates), three or 4 MacDonalds, a couple of Radio Shacks, two K-Marts, a Wendy’s, a bunch of Pizza Huts and Dominoes, and even a Home Depot.. They don’t charge us outlandish “Latin American” prices..
    Come on Apple, get your head out of the sand. The least Mr Jobs could do is allow us to purchase direct from Apple and get delivery without having to deal with the so called middle man - Apple Latin America and their outlandish extra costs

    Carleton Butler December 16, 2007 at 7:08 am

    My point was that places in the United States should be handled by Apple US, not Apple Latin America or Apple Asia. I did not say that everything had to be at the same price. There could be more for shipping. Americans are used to a certain level of customer service. If they don’t get it from Apple, they may buy PCs.

    Apple dealers in the US do not pay for shipping. I’ve worked for one and worked with two others. Distributors are at a different level with different contracts.

    The lack of geographic knowledge in this country is unbelievable. Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia are not states but are part of the United States of America. They all have (non-voting) representatives in Congress, US Post Offices with US zip codes, US area codes, carry US Passports and are born US citizens. Under Peter Sacke’s definition, when Hawaii was a territory, the Japanese did not bomb the United States.

    Mark Wilson December 17, 2007 at 1:21 pm

    After a nightmarish experience with CompUSA in Carolina, Puerto Rico I would be very happy to see Apple open a store here where a Mac Genius can solve your problems on the spot.

    Nieves Aponte December 18, 2007 at 3:13 am

    Puerto Rico may not be a state or depending which ignorant you talk to, they don’t consider us a Part of the USA, when we do a lot of things in similar ways they are done in the US.

    We go to war for the USA, our national guard has to do tours in iran and iraq, we spill our blood for the flag of the USA, but Steve Jobs and Apple don’t consider us good enough to have an Apple Store in Puerto Rico.

    Did you guys know that stores in Puerto Rico who are part of a chain, make 10 times what those stores do in the USA? We buy till we are broke and beyond, but hey that is what matters high commerce. I remember the largest store CompUSA had was in Ohio, and they would do around 500K in christmas, in Puerto Rico when CompUSA arrived they hauled in over 2 million dollars in one store alone.

    It is like this with many other stores.

    What these groups demands is not impossible. I am pretty sure that if Apple has the economic power to build a store in NYC, a store in PR would cost them a couple of times less than whatever they pay for in NYC, and would have an ever greater volume of sales than those stores easily.

    Now if that happened, a lot of resellers would get screwed, but you know what? Most of them, their services suck badly. Bringing an Apple Store to Puerto Rico, would raise the competition to offer better service. Of course if we had an Apple Store in Puerto Rico, there would be more macs sold per square mile, this would raise the bar and more places can offer more services than an Apple Store could offer and everybody wins.

    The only thing I am not too sure about, is iWant being successful in delivering this note to “El Jobso”… I honestly think they should do some kind of demonstration up in infinite loop or better yet draw a campain and floor it in YouTube so more and more people are concious about their pettiton and it creates a lot of noise.

    Hopefully this will break an ear open someone in Cupertino and something could happen.

    I am Puerto Rican, born and raised in San Juan, PR. I live in the USA now, but I love my country and want the same good things you have in USA over there because my people deserve it.

    I hope they raise and ear somewhere (its a saying we have down there… )

    Gilbert

    Gilbert Palau December 19, 2007 at 9:20 pm

    We want an Apple Store first Metropolitan Area then South, East, West.

    I’m 100% with Gilbert Palau said.

    Roberto Coreano December 20, 2007 at 11:11 am

    Ever since “West Side Story”… Puerto Rico is part of USA. Still, we are still a Colony. Not a State, Not an Island. White House sent the Resident Commissioner To choose either being Independent or being a State. They have no choice but to be a State. Puerto Rico has being always dependable to USA using their currency, USA passport and now (Incredibly enough) Charging Taxes. The only thing is that the governor of Puerto Rico wants to start charging up to a 20% of taxes. WTH????? Puerto Rico would be the MOST expensive country ever. I heard from a group of people from Puerto Rico that if the iPhone were to arrive there.. The cost would be greater than 600 dollars (USA Dollars). Basically, it will be $850. If it would be like that… No one could buy it. Puerto Rico is a middle to low class rate country. Don’t get me wrong. I WISH there would be an Apple Store in Puerto Rico too. There a re a LOT of Mac users there as well. But from the looks on how the government is working recently… Better leave Apple Store out of PR, until that problem is fixed. Happy new year everyone.

    Puerto Rican January 2, 2008 at 7:01 am

    Dear Mr. Pete Sacke,

    Marketing and politics are two VERY different things. Your statement that “what is not a state, is not part of the US” cannot be further from the truth…. if your statement is correct then Washington DC is also not part of the US… forgot that one?

    Marketing is not necessarily dictated by politics or territorial clauses unless existing laws limit them. In the case of Puerto Rico, which greatly differs from other territories, is that Puerto Rico is a commonwealth just like many other states in our nation.

    We do not need to changes current politics. The only thing that has to change is Apple’s corporate strategy. Local CompUSA stores were the top sellers in the nation! Ask an Apple employee. CompUsa is gone and so will be the sales that they used to make every year. Stock holders should press for stores (not one, many), so they don’t loose the market share already established in the island. AND THAT’S A POWERFUL REA$ON!

    Israel Melendez January 4, 2008 at 2:42 pm

    Does Anyone knows why apple isn’t giving the permission for a store to be opened in Puerto Rico? Is there a problem with the location? As far as I know, there is also another reseller store, called modernika, which maybe a problem for competition. There are also a few resellers in the metro area, but they are not under the name of “Apple Store”.

    Angel Benitez January 4, 2008 at 9:23 pm
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