Residents of the Salt Lake City (Utah) region may feel the pangs of withdrawl starting May 10th when The Gateway retail store closes for three weeks to complete a renovation. The closure will mean the closest retail store is 423 miles away in Las Vegas (Nev.), or over six hours by vehicle. Apple customers could also shop at several Best Buy stores or the Simply Mac reseller store. The reconstruction is part of an on-going upgrade for some earlier stores, including a relocation of the Genius Bar to the rear position. The Gateway opened in Nov. 2005 and is the only Apple store within a huge area of the upper Rocky Mountain states defined by existing stores in the Minneapolis, Seattle, Las Vegas and Denver regions. This closure seems to create the largest black-out zone ever created by a renovation closure.
The Gateway stores sits in the middle of a huge black-out zone (red on map) covering the upper tier of states divided by the Rocky Mountains. The closest store is Las Vegas, with the Denver-area stores being further away because of a round-about highway system.
View The Gateway Renovation Black-Out in a larger map
