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Apple's Mini-Stores / Pre-Opening Report Update: At a satellite televised press event Oct. 14th at the Stanford mini-store, Apple announced that it will open six of the newly-designed stores on Saturday, Oct. 16, 2004. 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 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. 16th.
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:
The stores have a complete lack of front window signage or other obstructions to the interior view. 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. In the photo, it appears the fluorescent lights are not turned on. The ceiling was installed by Newmat Stretch Ceiling Systems (NY), which have worked on many other Apple stores. 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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A Preview Of Apple's Mini-Stores [The following information was collected prior to Apple's announcing the stores on Oct. 14th.] 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, has been a mystery--until now! Here 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 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!
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. |
Read my complete post-opening 
