Even with 40 new Apple stores popping up every year, there are still some folks who are 12 hours away from a Genius Bar. In fact, one community in Montana has the distinction of being more distant from an Apple retail store than any other city in the contiguous United States. The small town of Loring (pop. 126) is 585 miles away from the nearest store as the crow flies, The Gateway store in Salt Lake City (Utah). But if anyone in Loring actually wanted to drive to an Apple store, the closest one would be the Twenty Ninth Street store in Boulder (Colo.).
Of course, there are cities in Alaska that are more distant from an Apple store: Anchorage is over 1,400 miles from the nearest store in Lynnwood (Wash.).
Loring is actually a small rural community that was originally a rail stop. Now, the town’s only distinction may be its distance from an Apple store. Because of the highway system in the area, it’s actually a shorter drive to Boulder, even though Salt Lake City is closer by air.
Of course, Loring is surrounded by by a huge, 573,000 square-mile “black-out” zone where there are no Apple stores, extending from Seattle, to Reno (Nev.), to Boulder (Colo.) and Minneapolis.
