Friday Night, June 8th

I'm on the road late, headed south on U.S. 101 for tomorrow morning's grand opening of the Apple store in downtown San Luis Obispo on June 9, 2007. The store is a long time coming, not only because of its small size and seemingly out-of-the way location. It also was delayed when the city's Planning Commission didn't like Apple's first architectural plans--basically, it didn't measure up to the town's requirements for keeping the downtown a "quaint" little place. Too much stainless steel and glass at the front, and no windows on the side street. Apple first applied for a building permit in May 2006, but it wasn't granted until January 2007.

It's been just over six years that Apple opened its first two stores on both coasts, but for me, this town is where my Macintosh experience began. When those 128k computers first debuted, they were $3,000 and hard to find. But Apple was giving college students a deal--half-price computers. I knew someone attending CAL Poly-San Luis Obispo and who wasn't going to buy a Mac through the college plan. Knowing I already had an Apple ][, he offered to buy a Mac for $1,500 and give it to me. I immediately said, "Yes!" So that's how I became the owner of an original Macintosh.

Early Saturday Morning

I arrived about 1:35 a.m. with the weather about 51 degrees and overcast. Higuera Street was virtually free of vehicle traffic. However, it's apparently a thoroughfare for CAL-Poly students coming back from the bars, so there was plenty of foot traffic until about 2:45 a.m. Several persons tried opening the doors of the Apple store, and one young women even kissed the front windows.

About 15 minutes after my arrival, Katrina and Brian arrived to take their spots in line for the grand opening.

The store itself is impressive, and reflects the changes that Apple had to make in response to the city Planning Commission's initial objections to the architectural design.

First, the store has an all red-brick exterior, with no stainless steel. Instead, the interior of the store features the V2.0 design, with stainless steel walls. Apple continued the wall design right up to the front of the store as usual, but placed a large, backlit Apple logo on the side wall. How come?

Well, the store sports an entrance both on Higuera St. and on Morro St. This means that the sidewall Apple logo is now visible from both streets and approaches. The store has the benefit of a very visible stainless steel wall and Apple logo, without any exterior changes. The downside is that the first 15 feet of the store interior is given over to a foyer created from the intersections of the two entrances, and facing the backlit Apple logo. In this case, however, the available space is plenty deep, so the 15-foot give-up wasn't a deal breaker.

Apple didn't use the entire height of the building, unlike some other retailers in the complex. The traditional white ceiling masks off windows on the second level of the building exterior. So while the windows are non-functional, Apple frosted the windows so they appear real from the outside and provide some additional architectural variety.

By the way, the corner space is just one-half of the available space that was given up by the Express store, which moved south on Higuera into a huge, tall and deep space in the same complex. The twin of the Apple store space is now empty and under construction for an unstated retail client.

Thirdly, the Morro St. exterior wall features some fake, back-lit windows, which answer the Planning Commission's objections of a long, blank wall at the side of the building. Apple didn't want to create real windows, since that would eliminate the interior sidewall display space. So the cleverly compromised, ending up with an interesting exterior face, and the usual interior display design.

So, after all the objections and design versions, Apple came up with a unique store for the chain, and a design that fits into the quaitness of San Luis Obispo.

A photographer appeared at about 5:15 a.m. to take official photos of the new store. We moved across Morro St. so we wouldn't obstruct some of the photos. The sky became brighter until about 7:30 a.m. when the overcast slowly moved away and the sun began to shine.

I hit Louisa's Place across the street for breakfast. Try the Breakfast Nachos if you're ever in town, or the country fried steak for a huge breakfast with great biscuit.

The Apple store staff arrived around 7 a.m. and have been working in the back of the store, and also in front cleaning the outside of the glass windows. By 8:30 a.m. there were 23 persons in line. We're told that SLO doesn't arise too early, so maybe more will show up by opening time.

The sun is shining on Higuera St., but the giant ficus trees shade the Morro St. side from the slowly growing crowd. The temperature has increased to about 62 degrees so people arriving now are wearing shorts and T-shirts instead of jackets and sweatshirts.

More and more Apple store employees are arriving, and gathering in back of the store. At 9 a.m. the line stretched about 3/4 of the way down Morro St. towards Marsh St., with 123 persons in line. I noticed some people wearing T-shirts with "Mac Superstore" on the back, the authorized Apple reseller in town for the past 9 years (read more here.)

About 9:30 a.m. San Luis Obispo mayor David Romero appeared at the front of the store, and was greeted by Sr. regional sales director Laura. "I'm glad to have you here," Romero said, without mentioning the long approval and negotiation process that was involved. Laura told him, "Oh, we're happy to be here." Romero motioned towards the waiting line and said, "You're going to get mobbed this morning." After some other conversation, Romero received the first commemorative T-shirt handed out to the public. "Should I put it on?" he wondered outloud.

At about 9:45 a.m. the Apple team streamed out of the back entrance of the store along Morro St. and began to snake their way up the sidewalk to the entrance. Along the way they yelled and gave the waiting line high-fives. Another head count just before the opening showed there were at least 150 persons in line, all the way back to Marsh St.

At 10 a.m. the front doors were thrown open, the staff lined the sides of the store and manager Kathi came outside to welcome the waiting visitors. Unfortunately, a gigantic and very noisy truck on the street drowned out what she was saying, even for those within 10 feet of her.

At that point Kathi motioned in the first visitors--Devin, Drew and Gary, followed by Brian and Katrina. Devin and Drew ran the length of the store, and the first part of the waiting line came in behind them. The crowd was diverse, seeming to represent not only the university community, but also all ages and backgrounds.

By the time I left at 10:45 a.m., there was still a waiting line about 3/4 down Morro street waiting to get in, and passersby were asking those coming outside why they had come to the store so early.

San Luis Obispo welcomed the new store with a smallish but enthusiastic crowd, and Apple has proven they can handle the architectural demands of small town America--if they want to.