About 75 percent of Apple’s retail stores are installed inside shopping malls, so our most common view of the locations is stainless steel. But Apple’s architects–Bohlin, Cywinski Jackson–have created some extraordinary store designs over the past seven years when the location allows and regulations demand it. The Regent Street and Buchanan Street (UK) are particularly good [...]

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Construction work to create a 1,295 square-foot mezzanine level at the University Village (Seattle) retail store is nearly complete. The open-air store north of city center will close from October 6th to 24th to finalize the construction, and it will then re-open with additional space. Work began on the store last August with a temporary shut-down [...]

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Apple’s two-day debut of retail stores in Switzerland last week is just the beginning, as construction is underway for a second store at Bahnhoffstrasse 77 (Zurich), possibly by year’s end. The store is located in city center, on the ground floor of an office building, and is now surrounded by a white construction barricade. According [...]

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Construction workers were finishing up major details of the new Royal Hawaiian (Honolulu) retail store just hours before the grand opening. Veteran grand opening attendee Mike said when he arrived Friday morning, “Workers were hanging the white Apple electric sign, but the wall is still not done.” However, by 5 p.m. the back-lit logo was lit, [...]

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The city of Chicago will gain the rare distinction of having two high-profile stores next year when a street-level store opens at 108 North State Street, an enormous high-rise complex that is still under construction. The location is in the midst of the old downtown section of the city, about a mile from the existing [...]

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After almost a year of speculation, the Gothamist Web site now says that Apple has finalized the location for a Brooklyn (NYC) retail store, at 176 Bedford Avenue, formerly occupied by the Salvation Army thrift store. The run-down building on the northwest corner at North 7th Street has a 60-foot frontage and 40-foot depth, and [...]

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A newly-hired Apple store Genius in Portland (Ore.) can expect to be paid $17 a hour, according to an applicant for the position who has posted his hiring experience on the MacBlogz.com Web site. Aviv Hadar said he was curious about Apple’s hiring process, and so applied last July and ended up receiving a hiring [...]

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The second retail store for Louisiana will open tomorrow at 10 a.m. at the Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie, north of New Orleans. The store brings Apple products somewhat closer to the city that remains devastated by Hurricane Katrina. A store in Baton Rouge, 82 miles north of New Orleans, opened in early March and [...]

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The newest UK retail store that opened Thursday at Cabot Circus continues what will apparently be the traditional design for future stores: a two-story model with a glass façade, covering stainless steel inside, and highlighted by a back-lit Apple logo suspended in between. Photos by Sam show that the store is a duplicate of the one [...]

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The second store in as many days has opened in Switzerland, this one is Zurich at the Glattzentrum shopping mall northeast of city center. Unlike the store in Geneva that opened yesterday, this store features the typical stainless steel storefront topped with a back-lit Apple logo, open entrance and standard interior details. Like most other [...]

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Are you attending one of the six Apple store grand openings that begin today? It’s going to be a record-setting week of new locations. You can quickly and easily post your photos of the opening to the IFO Web gallery via e-mail. Just create an e-mail message, make the “Subject:” the name of the store and [...]

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Today’s grand opening of the first Apple store in Switzerland (Geneva) has generated a flood of photos from attendees and coverage from the local media. The unusually-designed Rue de Rive store drew a huge crowd that was controlled with bicycle fencing on a 55-degree, sunny day. The storefront is dark wood paneling set among the [...]

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The Apple reseller @Work in Italy will open another location this Saturday in the city of Alessandria, a city of 92,000 residents about 55 miles east of Torino. The store will be along a stone-paved pedestrian walk at Via Migliara 17, in a temporary space until the permanent store can be opened next February in the basement [...]

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The current United States credit crisis is unlikely to affect the expansion of Apple’s retail initiative, which has pumped out about 40 stores each year since the chain debuted in May, 2001. An analysis of the company’s financial statements reveals that the unavailability of credit and the government’s remedies may actually offer opportunities for Apple’s [...]

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After 104 days of long waiting lines, jammed counters and an uncharacteristically complicated purchase process, Apple has provided some relief for iPhone 3G buyers at its retail stores by creating an on-line registration procedure. The company has posted a series of Web pages that allow iPhone buyers to review eligibility, pricing and AT&T rate plans, and to then [...]

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