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A Preview Of Apple's Mini-Stores In early Feb. 2004 I learned that Apple would be opening a series of mini-stores across the country. Since then, the concept seems to have changed from locations on university campuses, to stores close to existing Apple stores. At the same time, the architecture and design of the stores, described as being 1,500 square feet or less, had been a mystery! Below is a photo of the interior of a mini-store, taken from outside the store, from a public place. The stores are bright, cleanly-designed, and free of any obstructions. The focus of the stores is obviously the walls, which have large, back-lit photos, and all the product displays. First, you can see that the pre-dominant decor is laser-cut, bead-blasted stainless steel panels, both on the walls and near the ceiling. The materials reportedly come from Kikukawa Kogyo Ltd. (Japan) and Finland. In the second photo, you can see a detail of a panel near the ceiling on the right side of this store, and it appears to have the same "G5" design used in the flagship store designs--thousands of tiny holes in the metal. Second, the furniture consists of a wooden rear counter, and wooden counters on both sides of the store, all apparently from the Fetzer's Inc. collection. The side counters are obviously for product displays such as laptops and desktops, and the rear counter must be for "cashwrap" and any Genius Bar-type activities. Next, along both walls are tens of vertically-mounted fluorescent lamps, which will back-light large photos of people and activities. Next, you can see that there is some storage or other space behind the back wall, with two doors on either side of the counter. The structure behind the left door appears to be some type of shelving frame. In this photo, you cannot see the floor material. It was originally carpet, but when that was declared the wrong color by ????, the carpet was removed at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars and replaced with an epoxy-finished floor. There are many horizontally-mounted fluorescent lamps in the ceiling, indicating some type of translucent ceiling, most likely the membrane-type ceilings installed by Newmat Stretch Ceiling Systems (NY), which are used in many other Apple stores. There is an opening in the center of the back wall, which workers have used to place a fan for ventilation. [At the time, I believed this was the back-lit Apple logo, but it's the location of the Genius Bar LCD screen.] There is special paper covering over the left and right far walls. [I later learned the paper covered the shelving for products, and also two wall-mounted, self-service purchase stations, where customers can scan their products, and use their credit or debit card to finalize their purchase.] Lastly, it's pretty clear this store is very narrow, and not very deep. Using the door width, I calculate the retail floor space to be 15-feet wide, and about 24 feet deep, or about 432 square feet. Even if this calculation is somewhat off, it's still a small store! It makes you wonder how many employees and visitors could fit in this store at once, or what a grand opening event might look like!
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Interior view of an Apple mini-store showing the stainless steel wall material, fluorescent lights along the wall, and wood counter and shelving.
Detail of the mini-store wall, showing the stainless steel wall covering, in the same "G5" design as flagship stores--thousands of tiny holes in the metal. The fluorescent lights will presumably illuminate a translucent covering. In the upper left you can see the reflection in the ceiling material of horizontally-placed fluorescent bulbs which, again, will presumably be covered with a translucent material. |
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Apple's Mini-Stores / Pre-Opening Report At a satellite televised press event Oct. 14, 2004 at the Stanford mini-store, Apple announced that it would open six of the newly-designed stores on Saturday, Oct. 16th. Apple posted a press release and other details about the stores. Apple also supplied photos of the outside of the store, and a closer inside view. On Feb. 3, 2004 I had revealed that Apple would open a series of mini-stores over the next 18 months, taking advantage of the company's discovery that smaller stores draw as many--or more--visitors as the bigger stores. Besides being somewhat smaller stores (2000 s.f. or in some cases around 500 s.f.), the stores were described as featuring a very different and distinctive design. Initial reports had the stores installed on or near university campuses, staffed with Apple employees, but operated by the university. Information about the store design varied from mini-versions of the big stores, to whiter, brighter, shinier stores with fabric finishings. Some designs included an emphasis on laptops, iPods and accessories--products that people could grab and run. In some cases, products were stacked up into displays, something Apple doesn't normally do in bigger stores. Reports said Apple had created a mock-up of the stores at its Cupertino headquarters, and the stores would be about 500 square feet. According to tipsters to ThinkSecret, up to 50 stores were initially planned by the end of 2005, with 20 opening by the end of 2004. Of those opening in 2004, five were planned to be on college campuses. Several of the stores were scheduled to open on Sept. 25, 2004, but design modifications was ordered on short notice, including to the height of the display counters, the carpet and the ceiling. The counters were lowered, the carpet was eventually taken out, and the floor changed to an epoxy finish. All the changes resulted in the stores' grand opening being moved back by a month. I initially identified seven mini-store locations, none related to a university (except that, strangely, the Stanford Shopping Center land is actually owned by Stanford University!). There are still plans for university locations, I hear, but the timeline is unclear. Here are the locations--Apple has confirmed that the first six locations will open Oct. 16, 2004.
At the Oct. 16th press event announcing the stores, Steve Jobs also identified the following stores as part of the mini-store chain:
At the press event, Steve Jobs said the stores' design was intended to draw a different demographic into the stores, and "carry our philosophy to even more people." Ron Johnson said the smaller stores will allow Apple to, "place stores in a variety of interesting new locations, while retaining innovations like the Genius Bar that have made Apple's retail stores such a hit." He hinted that the size of the mini-Stores would make them a candidate for spaces at airports, where customers might buy iPods or accessories. An Apple press release said, "The mini store is designed to precisely locate additional stores closer to customers to make it even more convenient to purchase products and services. Johnson explained that 80% of retail store purchases are made with a credit or debit card, which customers can now use at the self-service check-out stations mounted in the walls. A store employee will still be able to handle cash or other transactions as needed, however. In a Wall Street Journal article on the mini-stores, Sr. V-P Retail Ron Johnson said "many" of the stores will be in locales where Apple does not yet have a store presence, or in locales within 15 minutes of an existing an store. And so far, two of the identified locations are in new areas, and seven are within about 15 minutes drive of an existing store. The article continued, "Mr. Jobs said that Apple wants, 'the best buying experience' for its products, and that most of the resellers weren't investing enough in their stories (sic) or making other selling improvements." Jobs said the inspiration for the mini-stores came from the Mini Cooper auto, and he confirmed that the store concept had been prototyped in a warehouse in Cupertino before being constructed in their present locations. The Web pages for the stores indicate what may not be obvious--the stores will not have any presentations like the standard stores. Therefore, there is no calendar posted on the Web page for the mini-stores. The mini-store Web pages also reference any larger stores that are close, with the notation, "Visit the nearby xxxxxxxx." The Rockaway (NJ) store, for example, lists four nearby stores. The mini-stores will use IP-based communications gear from Vocera Communications, which includes a small, 2-oz. "badge" that clips to your pocket or ID lanyard, and uses Wi-Fi to link together other badges and even a telephone system. It provides all the features of a telephone, a two-way radio, a pager, and voice mail, all using voice commands. A Vocera network can span buildings, cities or even states, allowing you to call someone no matter where they are, just by saying, "Call Steve Jobs." The badges will allow store employees to communicate instantly with each other, other stores and the home office over the AirPort and company IP network. The Vocera system also fits into the future mini-store strategy, by allowing the smaller store's staff to contact their Mother Ship to quickly and easily check on stockroom inventory. Here is an Apple-supplied photo of the finished mini-store design, which you can compare to the earlier scouting photo further down the page:
Floor Plan
The stores have a complete lack of front window signage or other obstructions to the interior view (except Stanford, which very narrow glass at the front). I expect that won't change even after the stores open for business. There is also a complete lack of anything resting or connected to the floor. The shallow shelving is supported within the walls, and there are no carts or furniture for product displays, all to maximize floor space available to customers. The door pulls on the front glass doors match those on the rear, stainless steel doors leading to the stockroom. Virtually the entire interior of the store is of stainless steel, which Apple said was machined in Japan. Considering the cost of this custom, laser-cut stainless steel, and the amount used in the design, the stores must be very expensive to build. It's not apparent from the photos, but the top ~12 inches of the stainless steel nearest the ceiling consists of paneling with tiny holes drilled in it, exactly like the G5 desktop case. In the above photo, you can see regularly-spaced objects protruding from the side wall near the ceiling--these are fire sprinkler heads, although one could speculate how much fire there could be in such a store constructed of steel. During the press event, Steve Jobs said the floors were made of the same material used in aircraft hangers, but didn't refer to the actual material: epoxy, which is applied as a two-part liquid onto a (usually) concrete base. The ceiling is a one-piece, stretched plastic-type material covering several dozen fluorescent lamps. The ceiling was installed by Newmat Stretch Ceiling Systems (NY), which have worked on many other Apple stores. The material is reportedly stretched over a frame, and initially is rather loose. The entire store is then heated up using some type of forced-air device, and the plastic material begins to shrink, and form a tight, drum head-like surface. There are both iPods and iPod Minis on display to the left, along with the standard Bose headset model. The laptops on display to the right are 12-inch and 14-inch models: iBooks towards the front of the store, and two Powerbook models to the rear. There are the 17 and 20-inch iMac models beyond the laptops. There is an iSight camera attached to one laptop and one iMac. There is a single camcorder at the far end of the right display shelf. Notably absent from the displayed products are the G5 desktops, Cinema Displays and the eMac desktop. However, I understand that both 23-inch and 30-inch Cinema Displays will be stocked at the stores, intended for laptop buyers who want a larger screen. The self-service purchase kiosks have a transit ticket-machine quality to them. There is a video screen in the middle, and an opening into which your credit card is placed for reading, and a receipt print-out slot. It's not clear which merchandise will be eligible for self-service--it's difficult to believe a store employee would retrieve an iPod from the stock room and then let you perform your own purchase transaction. Perhaps only merchandise on the shelves can be purchased at the self-serve position. The rear merchandise shelving is a condensed version of the current store product arrangement: accessories, computer bags, hard drives, speakers, laptops batteries, iSights, AirPort Express devices, etc. are on the left. On the right-side shelving are books and software.
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Apple Computer Mini-Stores - Grand Opening Report On October 16, 2004 Apple Computer opened six so-called "mini-stores" around the country, inspired by the Mini Cooper automobile, and intended to bring the Apple brand to new locations and more potential customers. The stores feature an entirely new design for Apple, although many familiar architectural features were re-used in these stores. I visited three Northern California stores on the day of their grand opening: Santa Rosa Plaza, Stanford Shopping Center and Shoppingtown Oakridge, all in the San Francisco region. During the visits I examined the stores, talked to other visitors and watched the flow of traffic. Here is the information I collected. Interestingly, all three stores feature a narrow width (~18 feet), but are not necessarily in small spaces. The Santa Rosa Plaza is perhaps the smallest, with a moderately-large back-of-house storage and office space. The Stanford store is in a narrow but long (~100 feet) space, with about 45 feet dedicated to the retail store, and the remainder to storage and office. The Oakridge store is actually installed in a 35-foot wide space, but blocks off 15 feet of the width to accomodate the store. Like the Stanford store, it also has a huge back room. So while the stores may have reduced floor space, they don't necessarily save on total square-footage or leasing costs. On the outside, all three stores feature the familiar bead-blasted, stainless steel finish, with a back-lit Apple logo centered over the space. There is virtually no signage in the store: only an "Exit" sign over the door, and plastic stand-up product cards next to each laptop, iMac and iPod. From the outside, you either recognize the Apple logo over the door, or you don't. There's nothing inside or outside to reinforce the graphic branding. All three stores have the same interior features, and their retail floor size is very similar--about 750 square-feet. However, the Santa Rosa store has a smallish back storeroom, the Stanford store has a much larger store room, and the Oakridge store appears to have storage space on the left side of the store. The two interior stores (Santa Rosa and Oakridge) have no front glass or doors. Rather, they have a metal security grating that rolls up into the ceiling. When the grate is up, the entire wide of the store is available for entry--there are no floor displays or furniture. This gives the stores a very open, inviting appearance. Only the Stanford store has a traditional front glass and two outward-swinging doors. During my visit, a child about 5-6 years-old trying to leave the store walked head-long into the front glass, apparently believing the storefront was completely open. I was told by someone in the store that another person (unknown age) had also walked into the glass earlier in the day. Perhaps the first thing that strikes a visitor is the very white floor and the backlit ceiling. The floor is white epoxy, apparently covered with a clear epoxy layer, giving it the appearance of an iMac G5 case, or the top of a iBook laptop. My observation at all three stores is that shoe scuffs, tracked-in dirt, hair, leaves and other debris is very visible on the floor, even after just 3-4 hours of customer use. The ceiling appears to be one piece, but is actually several panels of plastic-type material fused together, and stretched between the upper sides of the store. The ceiling material is installed by attaching the somewhat looser raw material, to the edges, and then heating the entire store interior to 120-degrees. The material shrinks, forming a tight, flat surface. Cost for the ceiling: reportedly it's $30,000 per store. The ceiling material covers fluorescent lights, which are accessible for changing from a panel in the stainless steel near the front of the store. The bulbs will be changed annually. As previously described, the stores have two solid wooden shelves in the first one-third of the store. On the left are iPods and iPod Minis, some attached to Bose headphones, and other hooked to Bose, Altec Lansing and JBL dockable speaker systems. On the right are iBooks, Powerbooks, iMac G5s, one model of Canon digital camera on a circular, clear plastic pad, and one model of Canon camcorder on a similar pad. The power and security cables for all the devices run to a gap between the wood shelf and the stainless steel wall siding. It appears that both the laptops and the iMac G5s are using AirPort to make an Internet connection, and not wired Ethernet. The wooden shelves are about 32 inches tall, and at all three stores it was common to see customers hunched over the counters, either trying to look closer at an iPod screen (even though they could remove the iPod from the dock for handling), looking closer at a laptop screen, or just getting a better view of the screen. Access to the power and other connections is made by pulling on the entire shelf, which rolls out like a drawer. The side walls are of stainless steel--solid from the floor to the wood shelves, solid from the shelves to the back-lit graphics, and then perforated with tiny holes from the graphics to the ceiling. Evenly spaced around the top edge of this perforated metal section are fire sprinklers. The stainless steel motif continues to the self-service checkout stations, the metal product shelving at the back of the store, and the Genius Bar area. Interestingly, the stainless panels are deliberately placed not to fit flush with each other. That is, there is a 1/64th-inch gap where the panels meet, instead of butting right up against one another, or being welded together into a seamless right-angle edge. The steel is particularly vulnerable to finger and handprints. The marks from body oil are extremely visible, disrupt the general sheen and evenness effect of the metal, and are usually clear enough so that one could obtain a fingerprint! At both sides in the rear of the store are stainless steel shelves for the usual range of Apple store merchandise. The shelves themselves are about three inches thick, and are fully-formed stainless steel. That is, the shelves are hollow, but are very solid, rectangular box shapes, not simply metal panels. The merchandise is somewhat compressed in space, but uses the same magnetic product "pushers" to keep products towards the front of the shelf. However, a new product display technique is also used: a hanger system that fits into the shelf much like a vertical curtain rod. The hanger system displays merchandise in plastic bubbles or on cards, such as iPod cases, cables and power accessories. The Genius Bar at the rear of the store is of the usual design, but obviously much narrower to accommodate the space. There is a wall-mounted LCD screen that displays tips, information and no doubt the Genius Bar queue waiting time. Behind the rear wall of the store is a storeroom containing additional stock of items in the store, and some items that are not on display, including 23-inch and 30-inch Cinema Displays. As mentioned above, the size of the storerooms varies among the three stores I visited. The most interesting section of the store is the self-service check-out kiosks about half-way into the store, on either side. Apple apparently refers to the as "easy pay" stations. They resemble some type of subway or transit ticket machine, and are completely faced with stainless steel. The check-out hardware includes a white, Apple keyboard in a pull-out stainless steel drawer, two screens set in the wall, two slots in the stainless steel, and a second pull-out drawer housing the H-P laser printer and a bin of white Apple shopping bags (see photos below). The active portions of the device consist of a circular window cut into the stainless steel for the laser barcode scanner, a large rectangular LCD screen that appears to be from an iMac 20-inch desktop, a smaller LCD screen that appears to be the same as the one now used at other stores as the credit card "signing" device, a vertical slot cut in the steel to swipe your credit card, and a horizontal slot in the steel through which to receive your receipt. Interestingly, some machines also included a horizontal slot cut in the steel just below the large LCD display, which was described as being where the receipt is dispensed. But not all of the machines at the stores had such a slot. Right now, only employees can using the machines to conduct purchase transactions. That's because Apple's existing point-of-sale application is running on the computers, which only employees can (or know how to) use. Eventually, the application will be switched to a touch-screen program, which will no doubt also display instructions on how to swipe your card and process the transaction. So for the moment, self-service check-out is only a promise. Store employees can process your transaction at the self-service kiosk using their standard procedures, but they could also do the same thing at the back counter. The process is slightly more unwieldy for the employee because of the two drawers, and also for the customer, who must sign the receipt on the tiny screen that is mounted vertically (see photo below). The mini-store employees were wearing their Vocera communications badges, and were using them to communicate at least within the store. The stores are equipped with ShopperTrak devices for counting and analyzing store traffic. I expected the sound levels inside the store to be elevated because of the steel siding and epoxy floor. However, it didn't seem any more noisy than other Apple stores. The stores were slightly warm, which I might have expected because of the strong lighting inside the store. But the temperature was also probably elevated from the high-than-normal number of people in the store. The mini-store design hasn't faired well with Apple, and by May 2006 no new stores have opened, although tipsters say new mini-stores will open during 2006. Read about some of the design issues in my 'Rants' column of Feb. 2005. In June 2005 Apple wired up stand-alone credit card authorization terminals to the EZ Pay stations so customers wouldn't have to stoop down and bend their wrist to sign for purchases. The Stanford (N. Calif.) mini-store received a make-over in July 2005. Check my full report and photos. Other Photos Check my Santa Rosa Plaza (N. Calif.) store grand opening report. Photos of the Bridgewater (NJ) store opening have been posted, thanks to the PhilMUG group. Thanks to Jason for his Christiana and Bridgewater photos, and to Thomas for the Stanford photos. Additional Oakridge photos have also been posted here. The ARS Technica Web site posted some commentary about the mini-stores and photos. MacObserver had a story an photos on the grand openings. The Joy of Tech cartoon featured a mini-store as a backdrop. Also read my pre-opening report on the mini-stores. Quicktime VR panorama of Carousel store
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| sidewall and product shelf | view towards rear of store | sidewall and product shelf |
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| rear product shelving | upper wall showing perforated metal |
right side of store |
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| white floor and side wall | unusual hanger hardware | rear cable space for laptops |
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| all cables routed to rear of shelf | white, shiny, epoxy flooring | store entry grill work |
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| self-service check-out kiosk | view showing drawers below | drawer with shopping bags |
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| signature pen, signing screen, card swipe slot (l. to r.) |
John signing for purchase of the Santa Rosa Plaza's first iPod |
Vocera communications badge |
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| Ron Johnson (l) and Steve Jobs at Stanford talking to the father of a store employee on the day of the grand opening. |
