The grand open of the second Microsoft retail store in Mission Viejo (S. Calif.) on Thursday was attended by a throng of screaming teenage girls attracted by a pop singer, Microsoft executives in business suits and and a group of adults who were curious about what the store would look like. The company used a [...]

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As the new fiscal year begins and the enormously important holiday shopping season approaches, Apple will roll out substantial changes to its retail employee job titles and duties, essentially making a U-turn to the simpler days of 2001. According to those who have seen the plans, Apple will consolidate three sales floor job positions into [...]

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A spokesperson for the Tacoma Mall (Wash.) has confirmed that Apple will open a store inside the mall by next year. Mall spokesperson Sarah Bonds told The News Tribune, Apple will occupy a portion of the 100,000 s.f. formerly occupied by the Nordstrom department store, which moved to another building within the mall. Job listings were [...]

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After just one year of slowing down the growth of its retail store initiative, Apple says that it will resume the previous pace of opening stores, perhaps as many as 50 this year. In financial documents filed with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, Apple said that, historically, it has opened between 25 and [...]

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Apple has formally announced the grand opening of its first retail store in France, located inside the underground Carrousel du Louvre shopping mall adjacent to the famous Louvre museum. According to photos posted by MacGeneration Web site, the store occupies a strangely-configured space, and includes tall stainless steel walls and a spiral glass staircase leading [...]

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The waiting line has formed outside The Shops at Mission Viejo (S. Calif.) for the Thursday morning grand opening of Microsoft’s second retail store. By 11 p.m. there were 75 persons in line, mostly teens or their parents hoping to get free tickets to a Microsoft-sponsored concert in the parking lot by singer Justin Bieber. [...]

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It’s a long journey for the stone that Apple’s architects selected to enhance the retail stores, mined from a mountain quarry in Italy, precision cut into individual pieces by craftsman in nearby workshops, and then shipped in crates to new Apple stores around the world. Now it’s revealed that he process of creating the stone [...]

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The last three months of each year always bring a rush of shoppers to Apple’s stores, creating record revenues but also challenging the stores to maintain the “surprise and delight” that visitors have come to expect during the holiday buying season. This year, Apple will update its operations to reduce visitor confusion and streamline sales. [...]

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Apple has pulled back the curtain on its next New York City store at 67th and Broadway, hinting that the grand opening may be soon and revealing the store’s official name. In a photo posted by Cnet, the plastic covering over the expansive glass façade now carries a deep red, velvet theater curtain motif, with [...]

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Over the next six months Apple will reveal several amazing retail stores, most of them street-level stores beyond the United States. Now the SetteB.IT Web site offers an update on the construction progress for the future Frankfurt (Germany) and Covent Garden (London) stores, both set inside prominent historic buildings. Along Bockenheimer Strasse in Frankfurt, photos [...]

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Apple will open its most northern retail store this Thursday, inside the new Union Square shopping center in Aberdeen (Scotland). At latitude 57º, the store will be further north than its closest cousins, including the Buchanan Street (Glasgow), Victoria Square (Belfast) and Arndale Center (Manchester) stores. Union Square is promoted as a “shopping and leisure destination,” [...]

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In the midst of a heated national debate over legislation to provide all Americans with affordable health insurance, Apple will skip the controversy entirely and extend full-benefit medical insurance to part-time employees in January 2010. According to sources, the benefits now offered only to full-time employees, including those who work at the retail stores, will [...]

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Apple has signed an agreement with the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) to spend nearly $4 million to refurbish a run-down triangle of land next to its future Halsted Street retail store, including a subway entrance building, the underground train platform and a bus turnaround driveway. The project would be Apple’s most expansive spruce-up to date, [...]

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Today Microsoft opened the first store in a renewed retail endeavor at the Scottsdale (Ariz.) Fashion Square shopping mall, with a large crowd drawn by tickets to a free Ashlby Tisdale music concert, free Zune HDs to the first five in line, $25 gift certificates in a gift bag, and highlighted by the company’s gift [...]

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Workers were unable to complete the swap-out of a huge glass panel covering part of the George Street (Sydney) storefront Wednesday night because of equipment problems, a project required by a hole and crack that appeared last month. As reported by the ITnews Web site, the vertical crack appeared in the 42-foot tall panel on [...]

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