Apple claimed in 2004 that over 100 million people in the U.S. were within 15 miles of an Apple retail store, and a population analysis seems to confirm their statement. The location of new stores is carefully analyzed, taking into consideration available spaces, registered Apple product users, population and other demographics. How well do the stores reach out to everyone? Take a look at a Cenus Bureau map of population density overlaid with the location of Apple’s retail stores.
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“The country”
What country?
Hi John,
If you can’t recognize that geographical map, then I think its time to call it quits :) .
Best Regards.
And ALASKA!
Pity poor Montana too. Or not. If you like your private space to be measured in miles, that’s the place to be. Not exactly retail country.
Look along the south coast though. Lots of population in the deep south needing catered. Presumably once Apple kit adoption picks up down there from other stores and retailers.
(All said as a Scot thousands of miles away. Hah #1!)
Well I live in a highly populated growing area in far north suburban Chicago. And it takes me a half hour to get to the closest store. So something is wrong with this picture. The area I live in is largely affluent, has a lot of families with disposable income (well, maybe not in these economic times, but normally) and the area here is due. Lake County, Illinois has one Apple Store – at Deer Park. And that is at the SOUTHERN tip of the county.
For the past several years I have been questioning why northern Lake County, IL has been ignored by Apple. It seems ludicrous that other areas of the country that are less densely populated but are on equal footing with us are getting stores. In the past couple of weeks it was officially announced that Naperville, a far WEST suburb was getting a store, but that area was overdue as well. But at least THEY will have a store.
So when I see an article like this, it really pisses me off that Apple is blowing us off up here. I can understand it if we were in that 10% and we were living in a more rural area. But that is NOT the case here. I don’t think any of us in our neck of the woods should have to truck on down to Northbrook, Old Orchard or Woodfield (all in Cook County, closer to the city) or even Deer Park, which is not easily accessible from us.
Maybe some clown from Apple Retail will read this (don’t know if they pay attention). And maybe they’ll forward it on to the idiots that work on demographics and retail strategies. I’m not counting on that. Waht I am wondering is why Chicago, the third largest market in the country, so badly lags behind some other cities in getting stores, particularly in the right areas of Metro Chicago. Very disappointing.
The chain’s still growing Gary. It’s not like Apple Stores have been around forever.
You’re within only mildly inconvenient range of several stores, which is probably the problem. The more are clustered like that, the less likely perhaps your locality will get one too.
The strategy as described here and elsewhere is clearly that Apple Stores are places worth a journey. It’s fifty miles for me (over to Glasgow) and most of the countries getting the iPhone right now have a grand total of zero stores to choose from. There’s only one Apple Store in continental Asia for instance … opened just in time for the Olympics.
I think Apple are doing just about right, the rate they’re opening these up. They’re able to keep doing it no matter the state of the economy (American or worldwide) thanks to their cash reserve. And unlike so many companies, they haven’t stretched so much that morale suffers and the atmosphere they’re so careful about is lost.
It’s 20% of Americans who live in rural areas according to the given statistic. They, like you, will have to keep driving for the foreseeable. Only more so! (Nothing new there.)
Several other areas that are (or probably should be on the radar) in addition to the ones noted:
Mobile AL area
Lansing MI area (including Michigan State Univ)
El Paso TX
Dayton OH
Toledo OH
Fort Wayne IN
Philadelphia PA – some areas
Columbia SC
Little Rock, AR
Corpus Christi TX and TX gulf coast area
Wichita KS
Chattanooga TN
Portland ME
They accomplished an awful lot in a short span of time, but there’s still some holes to fill. And some cities could use more stores. (For example, Ohio only has 4 stores in the state – Columbus and Cincinnati only have one each and Cleveland only has two with none in Akron, Dayton, Toledo, or Youngstown/Canton.)
John, I agree with you. Sometimes I forget there is the rest of the world, an issue we Americans truly have to get over. ;)
Unfortunately I am looking at the continental USA for now as a benchmark for my ranting. I’m not trying to take away from anything you said, but remember that the story above talks about the fact that 90% of US customers are within 15 minutes of an Apple Store. Not outside of the USA. So my point is that if that statement is true, there needs to be a focus on areas of the US that really need a store and should have one. Yeah the chain is relatively new, so there is still some work to be done.
I’m very impressed with Apple’s efforts in the UK. They seemed to be serving England quite well (I know that doesn’t help you) but I’m sure there will continue to be significant further expansion in all of Britain in the near future. There needs be a bigger presence in the rest of Europe and Asia, but that will come too.
So maybe I have to be a bit more patient. I’ve been trying that for some years now so it is becoming more difficult. But I hope we’ll get a store closer to us soon.
This isnt the case of Canada…
Gary, it’s a nice enough store in Glasgow. My own town Edinburgh has long been rumoured to get one at some point. One each makes sense here as the cities are 1 million and 0.5 million respectively, and compared to America there’s still less market penetration by Apple here in general. So far Edinburgh’s been making do with a solitary and very small Apple Specialist, and some shelf space at a department store. Without leaving town, the only way to pick up anything new in short order is by apple.com/uk who are fortunately pretty quick!
Britain’s doing very well with Apple Stores. Better coverage already than Canada! Right now it looks like Apple will keep expanding for some time to come. Just look at the current rate of new store openings in the US.
They’re concentrating on where their customers already are. The more they extend their reach in the rest of the world (mainland Europe’s looking at us here with envy!) the more risks they take, but the greater the reward.
The 90% line is false. They’d have to be 7-Eleven.
July 2002: Ron Johnson says 85 million will live within 15 miles of an Apple Store by Thanksgiving 2002.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FNP/is_14_41/ai_90189069
May 2003: Apple says 90 million live within 15 miles of an Apple Store.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/may/20retail.html
Feb. 2004: Ron Johnson says 90% live within 15 minutes.
http://www.ifoapplestore.com/the_stores.html
March 2004: Ron Johnson says well over 100 million people within 15 miles.
http://www.ifoapplestore.com/stores/sf_opening/sf_press_talk.html
http://www.osxfaq.com/radio/special/spc3.html
April 2004: Ron Johnson says 100 million live within 15 miles.
http://www.ifoapplestore.com/stores/risd_johnson.html
May 2004: Apple says over 90 million people live within 15 miles.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/may/20retail.html
Oct. 2004: Apple says over half the US lives within 15 minutes.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/oct/14retail.html
July 2007: This post says a recent article says an Apple spokesperson says that half the population lives within 15 miles.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=332451
Chalk up 90% within 15 minutes to being a wild misstatement.
And furthermore… :) if 80.8% of the population don’t live in cities and Apple has 0 stores outside cities, 90% living within 15 minutes is impossible.
Oh, guess my first post didn’t make it thru or I forgot to hit the submit button. It had quotes from Apple over the last 5 years years (some on this website) that show the actual stat is that either half or over half the US population live within 15 miles of an Apple Store.
I don’t know what possessed Johnson to claim 90 percent/15 minutes that one time. He meant to say 90 million/15 miles judging from the quotes from around then.
Dear Gary,
They teach geography everywhere . It’s not you forgetting anything in the article. There is nothing wrong with ” we Americans” . Thank you.
Good correction with the article, but it should be 15 miles, too. if I remember, I’ll try to find that “half the population within 15 miles” quote tonight or tomorrow.
I really enjoy your site!
I think your map is missing some red dots, that helps fill out a few of the empty spots in the northeast that you mentioned:
Lehigh Valley, PA near Allentown
The Pier, NJ, in Atlantic City
At least one store missing from Long Island
Holyoke, MA, near Springfield
There also seems to be an extra dot in north western Ohio.
You missed one in central California; Fresno. Perhaps the dot north of Fresno is the intended dot, just a couple of counties too high.
tangotommy — Thanks to you and others who pointed out missing or misplaced dots. I’m working to fix them. Also note that I edited the original story to correct the “miles/minutes” portion of the story.
One more thing to remind me how sad I am I just moved to Sofia, Bulgaria! . It’s amazing, actually, to see how methodical Apple is about expanding their chain. I lived in the DC area this past year and was just spoiled with several great stores: the original at Tyson’s Corner, one at Pentagon City (where I purchased my iPod Touch a couple weeks before the actual release date), and the greatest store ever in Clarendon! At that store, I have purchased the U2 special edition iPod, a first gen Mac Mini, and my present iMac and white and black MacBooks. Yeah, they’ve got a lot of my money. By the way, I will be in England for Thanksgiving, and I look forward to spending some time in one of their great stores!! Cheers!
Boise Idaho??????????
On the map showing the Arizona stores, all of the stores except the Southernmost one (in Tucson) are in the wrong county. They are all in Maricopa county (the blue one that kind of looks like a lowercase “r”. You have them in Yavapai. Maricopa county has a population of just over 4 million, while Yavapai has just over 200,000.
It still says minutes. Amy Barney at Apple PR might be willing to give a quote if you want the latest. I bet they haven’t updated it since 2004.
Here’s the progression of the stat just for fun.
July 2002 – 85m/15 miles by Thanksgiving 2002
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FNP/is_14_41/ai_90189069
May 2003 – 90m/15 miles
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/may/20retail.html
Feb.(?) 2004 – 90%/15 minutes
March 2004 – 100m/15 miles
http://www.ifoapplestore.com/stores/sf_opening/sf_press_talk.html
I think he said “well over 100m” in the audio file. Probably meant 100,003,000 as “well over”. :)
April 2004 – 100m/15 miles
http://www.ifoapplestore.com/stores/risd_johnson.html
Oct. 2004 – over half the US/15 minutes
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/oct/14retail.html
There’s a huge difference between 15 miles and 15 minutes, gotta be a goof unless they built about 500 stores between April and October.
July(?) 2007 – half the US/15 miles
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=332451
The original article isn’t available.
Thanks for doing this – it really puts things in perspective.
The Virginia dots are not very accurate. You should only have 6 of them:
4 tightly bunched in the DC area; just extend the two you have there with two more to the west and just south of the MD border.
1 in the middle by itself (Richmond)
1 in the just west of the lower right corner of the state (Norfolk).
I know that it is just a dot on the map and nothing really changes in my life, BUT all of the Hawaii store dots are on the wrong island.
Everyone — Thanks again for the corrections and updates. I took an older imprecise map of dots and overlaid it on the Census Bureau map, thereby creating some approximations in location. It’s really meant to be viewed by 4-feet!
tingly — OK, I fixed that “minutes” problem in the news item. And I appreciate your help in finally documenting the statements. You found more than I did.
Mark W. — Hawaii should be fixed.
Mark — I’ve tried to massage Virginia into shape.
Tom — I’ve moved the Phoenix region stores.
This is exactly the kind of map we need to determine if Apple is placing stores where they are needed. Excuse all of the criticism Gary. Thank you.
Will you do one for Canada?
thanks
Eric Lewis –
Probably not…..
They don’t have many obvious holes west of Texas anymore.
Try a population cartogram map… see site
I don’ see the Maine store on the map. Perhaps it needs an update.
Bradley — Thanks for spotting the map error. I misplaced one red dot, and have now moved it to the correct location for the Maine store.
Interesting map. The county with the most store is Los Angeles with 10, followed by Orange, San Diego, and Santa Clara with 5. Riverside Co. seem to be the most populous county without an Apple store; its population is 2 million. The city with the most is Los Angeles with 6. There’s an empty spot around the Long Beach area.