Apple Planning New Prototype Retail Store in Palo Alto

[spillproof]

I like when malls put trees in their buildings. With (most) everyone talking about being green and saving the environment, I think Apple will have great success with this store if they use that to their advantage.

Reasons this might not work:

13. It is like a fern bar, but with trees. Will the iMartini catch on? Pure water, half an oz of expensive vodka, served in a designer glass with an ice cube shaped like an apple. Only $14.95, attractive napkin optional.

Actually, that would be really cool. And I would probably still buy the $10 optional attractive napkin.

 

[Takuta-Nui]

That sounds beautiful... I hope it works out.

 

[heisetax]

Who is the Troll?

. . . love the "negatives" number?! Even when the content of an article on this site is undeniably positive, there will always be a handful of "negatives" showing in the positive/negative total.

Just goes to show you that MicroTrolls have little more purpose in life than to slam their betters, Apple Inc in particular.

Pathetic and sad. (Get a life, BSOD people!)

I find little use for the local Apple store. Even though it is in town it is not in a central location. This puts it 12 miles from me & over 25 miles for some. A local furniture store has a Mac/Apple display that is as good as the Apple store. Whenever I want a computer it has to be ordered anyway so what's the se. They replaced the wrong video card in my Intel Mac after taking a year to decide that it did not work as had been documented in MacWorld months before I started to notice the problem. Apple had a third party repair company do the repair the correct way. My son wanted to get his G5 PowerMac repaired, but the local Apple store said that it was too old & that they would not be able to repair it. So he had to find some non-Apple company to sell him a power supply. He surprised the store when he fixed what they wouldn't.

Even a 25+ year Mac User like me can see that Apple doesn't do everything correctly. Just remember that when you call somebody a troll & other nasty name names. Some of these people have done much more business with Apple than you have. Maybe you are the troll!

 

[paulvdb]

Great news!. I live in Palo Alto, and can't wait to see it.

 

[AidenShaw]

Actually, that would be really cool. And I would probably still buy the $10 optional attractive napkin.

A spillproof napkin, no less!

 

[thecartoonguy]

FERRARIS HEADQUARTERS ALREADY HAS THIS TYPE OF IN-HOUSE ENVIRONMENT. GLAD TO SEE APPLE IS TAKING IT ONESTEP FURTHER.

BTW FERRARIS HEADQUARTERS ENVIORNMENT HAS BETTER OXYGEN INSIDE THEN IT DOES OUTSIDE.

AND SINCE APPLE IS IN CALIFORNIA, ACHIVING BETTER AIR QUALITY INSIDE SHOULD BE A BREEZE (pun intended)

iDisk

They really do have an amazing factory. The trees in the plant was surprising and made perfect sense.

 

[thecartoonguy]

Reasons this might not work:

1. Birds. There will be poop, nest-defending, huge raptors attacking people.

2. Nearby businesses will complain that their customers are going to the Apple store instead of their own. Seriously, this happens. It can't be explained.

3. People will pee behind the trees like they do in real forests.

4. Nudists will demand the right to frolic amongst the foliage.

5. Bears. Once the bears get in, they own it and will defend their territory in the formidable way they do that.

6. Skaters. For so many reasons.

7. Bees. Killer bees especially.

8. Someone will trip on a root and sue for millions.

9. Hobos, as mentioned by somebody earlier. They have an amazingly strong political base, so it is hard to get rid of them.

10. Ever lived through oak worm infestations? Billions of worms on everything. Kills sales.

11. Sap. Ha, nobody thought of that, did they? Sap on every keyboard and screen. Hard to clean off and ruins the Apple experience.

12. Snakes. People won't pick up even free Apple products if there are giant cobras curled up on top of them.

13. It is like a fern bar, but with trees. Will the iMartini catch on? Pure water, half an oz of expensive vodka, served in a designer glass with an ice cube shaped like an apple. Only $14.95, attractive napkin optional.

14. Still sounds interesting and will grab all the attention, again leaving other companies looking dull. I'll go see it for sure.

BEST POST EVER!

 

[MacFly123]

This sounds exciting! Sounds like Apple is going to be EVEN MORE green! This could be a really cool organic design for the stores. Hopefully they build one close to me so I can go check it out!

 

[HLdan]

Perhaps you meant Silicon Valley is the heart of the Bay Area? Regardless, I agree with you. I've always enjoyed living in this area - no matter what side of the hill it may be

Ha ha, you're right. I meant it the way you said it.

 

[JonnyBravo]

Well since CES isn't over yet, maybe we'll have another keynote by M$oft indicating the opening of their new prototype of stores...."coming later this year."

 

[techfreak85]

I think the trees inside sounds like a really nice idea.

 

[AidenShaw]

This sounds exciting! Sounds like Apple is going to be EVEN MORE green! This could be a really cool organic design for the stores. Hopefully they build one close to me so I can go check it out!

We haven't seen the design yet, but large walls of glass are seldom good insulators. The energy needed to air-condition the store could be substantially higher than a building with insulated walls. Fortunately, the building faces northwest, so it doesn't have to deal with a lot of solar load coming in the window-wall.

 

[cmaier]

We haven't seen the design yet, but large walls of glass are seldom good insulators. The energy needed to air-condition the store could be substantially higher than a building with insulated walls. Fortunately, the building faces northwest, so it doesn't have to deal with a lot of solar load coming in the window-wall.

It also doesn't get all that hot around here except for about a month or so.

 

[ArrowSmith]

FERRARIS HEADQUARTERS ALREADY HAS THIS TYPE OF IN-HOUSE ENVIRONMENT. GLAD TO SEE APPLE IS TAKING IT ONESTEP FURTHER.

BTW FERRARIS HEADQUARTERS ENVIORNMENT HAS BETTER OXYGEN INSIDE THEN IT DOES OUTSIDE.

AND SINCE APPLE IS IN CALIFORNIA, ACHIVING BETTER AIR QUALITY INSIDE SHOULD BE A BREEZE (pun intended)

iDisk

Are you joking? Air quality in the south bay area is horrid, especially around Palo Alto. It only starts improving in Los Gatos, Saratoga areas.

 

[ArrowSmith]

It's amazing the bashing of 2 MSFT stores in a thread about Apple stores? If anything MSFT is being way too conservative...

 

[AidenShaw]

It also doesn't get all that hot around here except for about a month or so.

Or that cold, thank goodness. (I live in PA as well.)

And I'll bet that you're right that it will be gutted (or completely torn down).

Ummmm.... Thai food. Oh, and look up the street a block....

 

[Vulpinemac]

You go to the enterprise, the enterprise doesn't come to you.

Seriously, we'll have Dell or HP engineers onsite within hours of reporting a problem with a server. Next day for desktops and laptops.

I wouldn't take the wording on the document to mean any change in direction - or perhaps they'll have an "express line" or some type of concierge for small businesses that use Apples.

While I might agree with you in general, Apple has never been known to do things the 'traditional' way. When they tried, they nearly died.

 

[Vulpinemac]

Perhaps you meant Silicon Valley is the heart of the Bay Area? Regardless, I agree with you. I've always enjoyed living in this area - no matter what side of the hill it may be

Heh! I love it. There's more than one Mac fox around here, now.

 

[DMann]

We haven't seen the design yet, but large walls of glass are seldom good insulators. The energy needed to air-condition the store could be substantially higher than a building with insulated walls. Fortunately, the building faces northwest, so it doesn't have to deal with a lot of solar load coming in the window-wall.

Uhh... the glass used for the ceiling and walls will likely be well-tinted, as sunlight is hardly an issue at the Upper West Side store in NYC, in contradiction to your jaded diatribes.

Speaking of solar loads.

It also doesn't get all that hot around here except for about a month or so.

Not according to Debbie Downer.

Among the suspects: AidenShaw, AidenShaw's brother, AidenShaw's mom, AidenShaw's best friend, AidenShaw's handler at Microsoft...

(Not to mention the rest of pack - most of which I've forgotten as they're all on my ignore list. I leave AidenShaw for entertainment value. And it's smart to keep your eye on their leader.)

Yes, Fearless Cheerless Leader and Cronie-in-Chief.

Try this one.

Ghastly!

How F'n embarrassing.

Sure, they need something to pass the time, but this is ridiculous.

If anything MSFT is being way too conservative...

Yes that, until they follow suit with this venture.

 

[LagunaSol]

Ghastly!

How F'n embarrassing.

Sure, they need something to pass the time, but this is ridiculous.

The pained "Get me the Hell out of here!" look on the customers' faces is priceless.

But then, "Get me the Hell out of here!" is the typical sentiment of the hapless Windows user, so by happy coincidence this is perfect.

 

[DMann]

The pained "Get me the Hell out of here!" look on the customers' faces is priceless.

I'll say - a feeling they've grown very well accustomed to, for certain sure.

But then, "Get me the Hell out of here!" is the typical sentiment of the hapless Windows user, so by happy coincidence this is perfect.

True, this feeling would logically transcend the entire MS experience.

It's funny how traces of that same expression can be seen on the employees faces as well, masked only by their feigned smiles of enthusiasm.

Painful, for all.

 

[00146CB58122]

The pained "Get me the Hell out of here!" look on the customers' faces is priceless.

But then, "Get me the Hell out of here!" is the typical sentiment of the hapless Windows user, so by happy coincidence this is perfect.

As someone mentioned in the YouTube comments you can even see a customer stealing from the store.

 

[AidenShaw]

Mercury News story today. The headline in the print edition was

Apple's store plan is as clear as mud​

http://www.mercurynews.com/business-headlines/ci_14152075

Cassidy: Apple launches secret Silicon Valley store
By Mike Cassidy
Mercury News Columnist

This is rich.

Apple is apparently planning a glitzy new retail store in Palo Alto featuring
a 20-foot, all-glass facade designed around the concept of transparency.

Apple? Transparency? I detect a hint of that wacky Steve Jobs humor here. Putting
the words Apple and transparency together is a little like fixing up Bill O'Reilly
with Rachel Maddow. Is there any remaining doubt that Apple is the dark fortress,
the impenetrable empire of spin, the corporate master of misdirection?

In fact, I say "apparently planning" a store because Apple won't say what
it's doing. Shocking.

Yes, Palo Alto's architectural review board this week approved the store's design
by an architect Apple has used in the past. But nowhere in the 31-page staff
report the board relied on will you find the word "Apple." And none of the
board members knew officially who the tenant would be, though given the description,
nobody had any doubt, says board member Judith Wasserman.

... (more at the link) ...

 

[godslabrat]

I'm not going to be Negative on this, per se, but I would like to know how this applies to the end result of me buying a computer. How much money is Apple going to spend on trees and glass walls and so forth, and how will it make this better than the Apple stores we already have? I'm not asking how it's different, I'm asking how it's better. I like that Apple puts so much emphasis on aesthetics, but there is a point at which it just becomes silly.

I'm not saying a new store design represents that point, but it is a possibility. Just sayin'.

I need Apple to design great computers, software, and mp3 players. I need stores I can visit to buy said products, and people with whom I can discuss my purchases before and afterward. How much attention is this project getting at Apple HQ, and is it possible that the money spent on this could have been spent making their computers better, cheaper, or possibly to hire more associates at their existing stores?

Again, I'm not going to form an opinion on this either way until I can actually see it. It's only fair to give the idea a chance. But as an Apple customer, I don't think its unreasonable to ask if this is the best way for the company to provide value to me.

 

[cmaier]

I'm not going to be Negative on this, per se, but I would like to know how this applies to the end result of me buying a computer. How much money is Apple going to spend on trees and glass walls and so forth, and how will it make this better than the Apple stores we already have? I'm not asking how it's different, I'm asking how it's better. I like that Apple puts so much emphasis on aesthetics, but there is a point at which it just becomes silly.

Among other things, the store will be 50% bigger, and hence less crowded. This benefits me as a visitor to the store. The article also implies an increased emphasis on education and service. This also benefits me.

The store will also be more attractive/more interesting to look at, which will attract more visitors, some of whom will buy things and who otherwise wouldn't. This benefits Apple's various platforms, which benefits me because I'm invested in these platforms.

It's all good.