Mini Apple Stores?

[MacRumors]

ThinkSecret provides some hints (http://www.thinksecret.com/news/miniretailstores.html) that Apple will be expanding its retail presence with the launch of "mini" Apple Retail stores.

Some of the new stores will apparently be located college campuses to help boost educational sales.

Further details and locations are unavailable.

[PPC970FX]

NICE :cool:

This will boost sale !

[JohnGillilan]

Bring it on!! I think that would be very successful. Apple already has such a presence in most college computer stores b/c most students want Apple products.

[dukemeiser]

I hope they bring one to Des Moines. Or at least Kansas City.

[settledown]

The University of Pittsburgh!!!

The City of Pittsburgh doesnt have an Apple Store within 3 hours.

So if Apple placed a mini store on Pitt's campus, it could serve Pitt, Carnegie-Mellon, Duquesne, as well as the rest of the city of Pittsburgh.

Apple please contact me if you need help finding a location!!! I have just the spot in mind.

[robotrenegade]

Sounds Cool, go apple.

[D0ct0rteeth]

vanderbilt.. I'd bet money on it.

- Doc

[ryanw]

Uh, I wonder what the 3rd party vendors feel about this. It seems logical to me to have Apple working with already current presenses on campus to promote products. Every campus has a computer store. I think they need better relations with the already present stores.

[ssamani]

Do they come in friendly colours as well?

[flashPUNK]

I think any presence on my college campus from apple will be greatly appreciated!!!
Maybe they can supply some tech support too... the techies here have no idea.

[scem0]

I hope one comes to Austin, Texas but I'd prefer it not be a 'mini' store :(.

Apple can get a LOT of business from Austinites. Austin currently has it's share of Apple users, but Dell (who is headed from Austin) is taking over :(. Apple needs a major store to compete. iBooks and iPods would fly off the shelves to college students, powerbooks to business people, and everything in between to everyone in between.

I think Apple could make a lot of money by bringing a major store to Austin, Texas.

scem0

[Trowaman]

See, there are small carts set up in my mall back home and my dad and I figured that a small Apple stand on one of those carts would be wonderful. Dell has one and it does wonderfully. A small Apple cart would be genious in a mall.

[the_mole1314]

I think we'll see Apple Store Mini's in college spaces, like in meeting halls and such where other shops are. I can see it as a small store about 15 feet deep and 15 feet wide with iBooks, PowerBooks, iPods, iMacs, PowerMacs, and some software in there. Mabey just one point of sale location, or two. No Genius Bar though, and no kids area.

[Omad0n]

I would love it if they brought one to the CSU campus here in Ft. Collins. though I bet they won't seeing as there are 2 apple stores in Colorado already. Allbeit an hour away minimum drive.

[Steamboatwillie]

Maybe they will follow the trend like the "McAmoco's" (McDonald fused into Gas stations) Just imagine... "Fill 'er up with premium and check the battery on my iPod please" :D

[bubbagump]

I think Pittsburgh could really use an Apple store, however, CMU's computer store carries the whole line of apple products. I actually got a 17" PB from them when everyone else could not find them anywhere. And they threw in Applecare and an Ipod (10gb, thicker one) for the regular retail price.

Bubba


The University of Pittsburgh!!!

The City of Pittsburgh doesnt have an Apple Store within 3 hours.

So if Apple placed a mini store on Pitt's campus, it could serve Pitt, Carnegie-Mellon, Duquesne, as well as the rest of the city of Pittsburgh.

Apple please contact me if you need help finding a location!!! I have just the spot in mind.

[FightTheFuture]

The City of Pittsburgh doesnt have an Apple Store within 3 hours.

So if Apple placed a mini store on Pitt's campus, it could serve Pitt, Carnegie-Mellon, Duquesne, as well as the rest of the city of Pittsburgh.


hey! don't forget the mac heads in the art institute of pittsburgh either! we have feelings too, you know.

[Mudbug]

makes sense to me.
Can I have one? I'll find space around here...

[settledown]

I just chose Pitt because I am an alumni. I'd rather Apple put in a full size store in Pgh. But seeing this new MINI possibility.....I'll take anything in Pgh.
CompUSA just doesnt cut it. And MacOutfitters(small retailer) in Cranberry IS a mini store. and too far away.

I read somewhere that Pittsburgh is the largest city in the US to not have an Apple Store.

The Art Institute, Robert Morris, Culinary School, Basker Weavers College, everyone want an Apple store in the 412 and 724 area code. PLEASE!!!!

[MacFan25]

This sounds like a good idea, as every city doesn't need a gigantic Apple Store such as the San Fransisco one.

As long as they look as good as the others, and they are put in goo d locations, I'm sure they'll be a sucess.

[pbrennen]

The University of Pittsburgh!!!

The City of Pittsburgh doesnt have an Apple Store within 3 hours.

So if Apple placed a mini store on Pitt's campus, it could serve Pitt, Carnegie-Mellon, Duquesne, as well as the rest of the city of Pittsburgh.

Apple please contact me if you need help finding a location!!! I have just the spot in mind.hahaha, the old burger king on forbes, or maybe the beehive :P

[FlamDrag]

KC definitely needs one.

Vandy would be great.

[MongoTheGeek]

I just chose Pitt because I am an alumni. I'd rather Apple put in a full size store in Pgh. But seeing this new MINI possibility.....I'll take anything in Pgh.
CompUSA just doesnt cut it. And MacOutfitters(small retailer) in Cranberry IS a mini store. and too far away.

I read somewhere that Pittsburgh is the largest city in the US to not have an Apple Store.

The Art Institute, Robert Morris, Culinary School, Basker Weavers College, everyone want an Apple store in the 412 and 724 area code. PLEASE!!!!

Hell you would get some of us from the 814 area code. I think I could justify the 2 hour schlep if I got some "O" Fries and a goodie bag.

State College, Pa would be a good spot for a ministore. I know a great location. There was a Gateway Country that just went out. That would be sweet.

[MongoTheGeek]

hahaha, the old burger king on forbes, or maybe the beehive :P

Don't go bustin' on the BeeHive. Where else can you go to watch a Faster Pussycat Kill Kill and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls double feature, drink good coffee on a sofa and eat popcorn out of a Wooden bowl?

[morkens]

Great idea- I hope they allow ed discounts.
I've tried to get the discount at an Apple store, but it was only available online. It would only make sense though- the higher ed near me offers the discount through the bookstore, but there's not much available and little sales help.

Go Apple!

[dontmakemehurtu]

:(

[FightTheFuture]

Don't go bustin' on the BeeHive.

there are alot of Pgh alums in here! i thought the BeeHive was some weird goth coffee house. anyone ever pee in the fountain at the point?

[Sayhey]

I hope one comes to Austin, Texas but I'd prefer it not be a 'mini' store :(.

Apple can get a LOT of business from Austinites. Austin currently has it's share of Apple users, but Dell (who is headed from Austin) is taking over :(. Apple needs a major store to compete. iBooks and iPods would fly off the shelves to college students, powerbooks to business people, and everything in between to everyone in between.

I think Apple could make a lot of money by bringing a major store to Austin, Texas.

scem0

scem0,

there is a regular store opening soon (before September) at the Barton Creek Mall in Austin. It has been discussed for a while in these threads.

This rumor of a mini store at UCLA is also about a month old. Hope it pans out and is a start of stores in a lot of new locations.

[GovornorPhatt]

See, there are small carts set up in my mall back home and my dad and I figured that a small Apple stand on one of those carts would be wonderful. Dell has one and it does wonderfully. A small Apple cart would be genious in a mall.

That's exactly what came to mind when I read the story. I think that Apple is already doing well in the education market and could really boost sales, especially iPods and ITMS. I remember hearing a rumor that Apple might try to team up with various campuses to promote ITMS. Could this be part of that promotion?

[virividox]

i want a mini store :D i hope they bring one to my uni

[Mac Dummy]

It's great if Apple is placing "mini" stores at colleges, and mall kiosks and such. It will certainly help places that don't have Apple stores yet. The good thing about having "mini" stores at college campuses is that students and faculty can get a superior computer, running a superior operating system at an academic discount. :) At my university we have a computer store at the student union that sells and services Apples; you can custom built any Mac from Apple.com. They don't have any stock of Macs and they not affilated with Apple Computers Inc. :(

[neier]

See, there are small carts set up in my mall back home and my dad and I figured that a small Apple stand on one of those carts would be wonderful. Dell has one and it does wonderfully. A small Apple cart would be genious in a mall.

Last month, I was visiting Hollywood; and in the Hollywood/Highland complex where the Oscars were held, there was one of these carts, called an "iPod Station", I think. I couldn't tell if it was owned by Apple or a third party, but the font on the store sign made it look like it was Apple.

[Grimace]

Sweet, this can help provide links to Apple in areas that don't have huge SF scale stores. Two points - Apple

[bubbagump]

Really? A salesperson at the King of Prussia store told me that with a student ID I could get all the discounts from the Apple Store. Maybe policy has changed.

Great idea- I hope they allow ed discounts.
I've tried to get the discount at an Apple store, but it was only available online. It would only make sense though- the higher ed near me offers the discount through the bookstore, but there's not much available and little sales help.

Go Apple!

[Compufix]

Really? A salesperson at the King of Prussia store told me that with a student ID I could get all the discounts from the Apple Store. Maybe policy has changed.

I was in the KoP store and was told they only do edu discounts on HARDWARE....not software...I was in buying iLife and didn't want to wait on mail order, so I just bought it outright...but I was specifically told that edu discount is only valid on hardware.

[evoluzione]

just how mini is mini???

at the DC "geekfest" we stopped in at an apple store close to DC (not sure where exactly) but i wouldn't say it was exactly big...

[Toppa G's]

just how mini is mini???

...Think iPod mini...

But seriously, I think this would be cool. Or teams of Macheads who could work with a regional Apple sales rep to do promotions on their respective campuses. We just started a Mac User Group within the past year at our school and we helped out with the Study On...Rock On campaign as well as the demo days at our school.

[dotcomlarry]

Tallahassee could certainly use either a mini or a full store. We have two major universities (FSU and FAMU), a large community college (TCC), and the capital of Florida. Apple, tap into us!

[ancorder]

Uh, I wonder what the 3rd party vendors feel about this. It seems logical to me to have Apple working with already current presenses on campus to promote products. Every campus has a computer store. I think they need better relations with the already present stores.

Not true! Many small colleges don't sell any electronic equipment. For example, I go to Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington, and I will personally guarantee there will not be any form of Apple store within 200 miles of this place for at least five years, if ever. :P

Spokane is home to half a dozen colleges, and is the biggest city between Seattle and the Twin Cities--where is Apple?

[sethypoo]

Arcata, California could use one. They people at the "Authorized" Resellers here don't seem to really know or care about their products. They all seem very unenthusiastic about the products they are trying to sell.

I don't know about this "mini" thing though, I want a full size one.

:) :rolleyes: :D

[Doctor Q]

Maybe they could make drive-through Apple stores too! :D

[aswitcher]

Maybe this is what they should also do for Foreign cities that they are not sure a SuperStore will make its money back with - Like Sydney! :p

[cb911]

yeah, it would be really good to see some mini Apple stores in Australia somewhere... like Brisbane! :D :p

[aswitcher]

yeah, it would be really good to see some mini Apple stores in Australia somewhere... like Brisbane! :D :p

Even more wishful thinking I suggest ;)

I think you'll have to resign yourself to the 1000km trip to Sydney for the first Australia Apple Store...

Out of interest, what do you make of this offer?

http://www.macmall.com.au/mall/customer/home.php?cat=379

[kjwebb]

For everyone's information, in the ACT (Australian Capital Territory), we have an Authorised Apple Education Reseller at one of the local university's (Australian National University).

As far as I know, this has been useful for uni students.

If Apple does do on-campus AppleCentre's, then the chance of income will increase.


On a side note, Apple has an AppleCentre in the big Sydney store of David Jones. When I first read about this, the article (in The Australian) said that Apple staff will help with the start of the AppleCentre (the only AppleCentre in a major retialler). David Jones also sells Apple products in other stores (iPod's are in nearly every store)

[gekko513]

don't be too hard, it's my first "photoshop" (actually paint shop pro)
http://forums.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=11915&stc=1
(edit: hm ... attached files don't show up in preview it seems)

[JJTiger1]

just how mini is mini???

Think vending machine:
Insert money, press button: iPod.

... kinda hard to do for anything larger than a big soda bottle.

It would take a very large vending machine to dispense a G5 TowerMac. :D

[wdlove]

The Mini Apple Store will definitely give Apple more of a presence. That way we can get them while they are young.

[physicsnerd]

I think that this is a really great idea. At Purdue if you want mac stuff you've either got to order it online or go to the apple store in Indy. This is kind of nuts when you figure that there's 30 some thousand students here. If we had just a little corner Apple store I'm sure that more people would at least look at the mac. Plus, they'd sell a ton of ipods. People always ask where I bought mine.

Physicsnerd

[kamaro999]

We've already got one here at Ball State University in Muncie, IN. It's in our CS building. It's just a little room with demo machines of everything in Apple's current line set up, and the educational pricing with them. Someone's there to help you with a loan for education, but they don't actually have anything in stock. It's just so people can check out the stuff. I think this was set up due to education majors being REQUIRED to purchase laptops, and RECOMMENDED that they purchase macs. It's kind of cool to go in and mess around on that stuff sometimes. Just wish they had more items in stock.

[windowsblowsass]

after hearing a few say they should have stores on their campus an idea struck why not have mini stores on or near major college campuses in the us? only one flaw college kids are broke and apple computers arent exactly cheap

[windowsblowsass]

I was in the KoP store and was told they only do edu discounts on HARDWARE....not software...I was in buying iLife and didn't want to wait on mail order, so I just bought it outright...but I was specifically told that edu discount is only valid on hardware.
hmm inever elised there were many other users from pa on here

[windowsblowsass]

I was in the KoP store and was told they only do edu discounts on HARDWARE....not software...I was in buying iLife and didn't want to wait on mail order, so I just bought it outright...but I was specifically told that edu discount is only valid on hardware.
hmm i never relised there were many other users from pa on here :D

[stealthboy]

Don't go bustin' on the BeeHive. Where else can you go to watch a Faster Pussycat Kill Kill and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls double feature, drink good coffee on a sofa and eat popcorn out of a Wooden bowl?

As an alumnus of CMU, I for one cannot imagine a college experience without the Beehive and the "O". Put an Apple store right there inbetween the two and you have the trifecta. It would probably fit better up Fifth in Shadyside, though (more upscale shops).

[MacMoot2]

State College, Pa would be a good spot for a ministore. I know a great location. There was a Gateway Country that just went out. That would be sweet.[/QUOTE]

If the location was good enough for Gateway, imho it's not good enough for Apple. (Unless there are lots of cows grazing around.)http://forums.macrumors.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=731304#

[kingtj]

I mean, more of an Apple presence is a good thing - but mini-stores? I'm not even sure I'd call their regular retail store in the mall here in St. Louis, Missouri much more than a "mini store"! I think some of you folks in major cities that have a "mega Apple store" don't realize how limited some of Apple's other stores really are.

IMHO, one of Apple's problems has been the perception that they don't really have much to offer in the way of software and accessories. (Most people think "What can one of those places really show me? They make this big aluminum G5 thing, those lampshade looking iMacs, and a few different laptop products. Other than that, umm... they have a few programs like Keynote and Appleworks, and that rather expensive firewire camera of theirs... What else is there??")

What I think needs to be done is to make more of an effort to fill up their stores, chock-full of all the 3rd. party goodies. Carry everything companies like MacMice offer. Sell those customized computer desks made just for Macs. Carry a full line of rack mount and wall mount hardware. Stock all of the AGP and PCI video cards that newer Macs can use. Carry a couple SCSI cards. Heck, even carry a line of hardware and software just for folks trying to upgrade the "unsupported" PowerMacs to run OS X!

[AngryLawnGnome]

I'm lucky enough to have a big one in my home town (Burlingame, CA (http://www.apple.com/retail/burlingame/)). Although I'm ashamed to say I've made only one visit and only for a few minutes. :(

[rdowns]

I mean, more of an Apple presence is a good thing - but mini-stores? I'm not even sure I'd call their regular retail store in the mall here in St. Louis, Missouri much more than a "mini store"! I think some of you folks in major cities that have a "mega Apple store" don't realize how limited some of Apple's other stores really are.

IMHO, one of Apple's problems has been the perception that they don't really have much to offer in the way of software and accessories. (Most people think "What can one of those places really show me? They make this big aluminum G5 thing, those lampshade looking iMacs, and a few different laptop products. Other than that, umm... they have a few programs like Keynote and Appleworks, and that rather expensive firewire camera of theirs... What else is there??")

What I think needs to be done is to make more of an effort to fill up their stores, chock-full of all the 3rd. party goodies. Carry everything companies like MacMice offer. Sell those customized computer desks made just for Macs. Carry a full line of rack mount and wall mount hardware. Stock all of the AGP and PCI video cards that newer Macs can use. Carry a couple SCSI cards. Heck, even carry a line of hardware and software just for folks trying to upgrade the "unsupported" PowerMacs to run OS X!

The Apple stores on Long Island (NY) are pretty small and have an anemic stock of other products to buy. You'd be lucky to find more than 6 iPod accessories or more than a dozen software titles. There is a CompUSA across the street from the Roosevelt Field store and even their mini store within the store blows Apple away with a prety nice selection of accessories, third party products and softweare. At least I get into the city often enough and can go to the Soho flagship store.

I thought Apple stores existed to sell Macs. How does having next to no software and accessories help sell Macs? Seems to play into the public myth that no software exists for the Mac.

That being said, more locations where people can see, touch and play with Macs is good. Lack of distribution is one of their achilles heels.