NOT going to the Apple Store. Going to the business' that have kept Apple afloat all these years and are closing down because of the Store's "Shock and Awe". Portland already has a store downtown. Dead center.
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Apple Proposes New Block-Long Retail Store in Portland, Oregon
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NOT going to the Apple Store. Going to the business' that have kept Apple afloat all these years and are closing down because of the Store's "Shock and Awe". Portland already has a store downtown. Dead center.
Apple does a lot of research before they put their stores in. If they're building one this large, they must know they can fill it. Apple isn't Starbucks, carpet-bombing cities with a store on every block hoping to do enough business, they pick and choose their locations very carefully to ensure each one is profitable. Apple Stores have some of the best return on square footage around.
It's not a matter of quantity of product lines, it's a matter of quantity of people wanting to see those product lines.
It's not a matter of quantity of product lines, it's a matter of quantity of people wanting to see those product lines.
What store isn't? The Seattle University store is to be avoided at all costs. I don't go to the Mall ones locally as they never carry what I want. That and I frequent Mall's once a year, maybe.
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That was why I used "Museum" as a description.
I'm responding to the "waste" part.
If their customers are being driven away because they can't squeeze between the other customers' shoulders to reach the demo units, merchandise, or salespeople, or if they can't ask a technical question without scheduling an appointment in advance, those are problems and the obvious solution is to get a bigger store. Product line has nothing to do with it, and calling that solution a waste makes no sense at all.
How far can you throw??
From the street-view plan, it is approximately 30 feet from the curb to the front of the store. SW Yamhill Street, between 4th Ave and 5th Ave, is 24 feet wide.*
That means that from the curb on the MAX light-rail-stop side, to the glass of the front of the (set back from the curb more than a normal building) store, would be 54 feet. Less than the distance from a pitcher's mound to home plate.
I don't have a very good throwing arm, but I can easily get a baseball that far.
*In downtown Portland, the standard distance between standard-setback building faces is 64 feet, which includes two 20 foot sidewalks and a 24 foot street containing two 12 foot traffic lanes. A few of the busier streets cut one side's sidewalk to 10 feet, and have three 11-1/3 foot traffic lanes, or two 12 foot lanes plus a 10 foot parking on one side. A few more cut BOTH sidewalks down to 10 feet, and either have parking on both sides with two lanes, or three lanes with parking on one side, or, rarely, three skinny lanes plus parking on both sides.
As a portlander I am freaking stoked to have a flagship super pretty store instead of only having mall stores. Although we do have three mall stores all within 20 minutes drive…
Why would you call Portland by its airport code if you're only going to define it in parenthesis?
Are you commenting from experience on non-holiday, non-weekend conditions because I find your description of conditions just as ridiculous as my "waste" statement? Everyone has to schedule for an appointment for technical assistance. If they are busy even a quick question may need to be deflected. On weekends and holiday's there is no worse place to be in Seattle and we have 5 stores in the region. Portland metro has 3. They could probably use a flagship extension. Then again, Seattle metro has 1.5 million more people. Building a bigger store may not alleviate all the backups. They are like highways you can't build your way out of.
You said you don't live in Portland and haven't since the 90's. Seattle, right? So why are you so upset and critical about what Apple plans to build here???
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Finally
I work 7 blocks from the only Apple Store in Portland, Pioneer Place. It is ridiculously small. Too small to work with people at the Genius bar or from the Business department. Seriously overdue.
Fingers crossed.
I work 7 blocks from the only Apple Store in Portland, Pioneer Place. It is ridiculously small. Too small to work with people at the Genius bar or from the Business department. Seriously overdue.
Fingers crossed.
Some are already gone (MacForce) and others have sucked since the 1990s ("Computer Stores NW" AKA "The Mac Store" AKA "PowerMax"). Okay, on the sucking I can only relate my own experiences with their Corvallis store. They were THE place for computers (Apple and others) in the 1980s. These days I just hear their sales staff giving incorrect information and their repair staff seems to know less than I do (now waiting for Genius Bar jokes).
I'm not crying too hard for them.
Let's hope the city gov or metro (Portlands defacto unelected government), doesn't screw up the deal.
Let's hope the city gov or metro (Portlands defacto unelected government), doesn't screw up the deal.
Metro is actually elected.
You said you don't live in Portland and haven't since the 90's. Seattle, right? So why are you so upset and critical about what Apple plans to build here???
I am not upset. Just ignore me. I had low blood sugar.
On a point of fact, your numbers are incorrect. Portland's city blocks are 200'x200' with a 60' RoW between. Tiny grid by any city standards.
Second, a month or so ago my wife and I were in the Pioneer Square Mall's Apple Store to pick up a computer that was being repaired, and while we were waiting an Apple Corporate rep was conducting surveys. Apparently, we were not alone in telling her how much we tried to avoid the store simply because of the constant wall-to-wall crowds. Truth be told, I've been there at 10 or 11 in the morning and it's still packed as tightly as a Saturday afternoon, constantly terrible.
Frankly, it's really nice to see a large corporation actually responding directly to customer demands. Maybe they were already going to expand, maybe not, but it's good to feel heard. Plus, she gave us each a $20 Apple Card, so all in all, pretty awesome.
Yes the store is small but apple has so few products it seems a waste of space to me to have a huge store.
We seem to be existing on different planes of reality because your arguments are incoherent to me. So my description of the crowds is ridiculous because... that's your experience at Seattle stores as well? Huh?
Yes, that is my experience from non-holiday, non-release weekdays, in the middle of the day, even. I work nearby so it's easier for me to get to the store than it is to get through it. I was there last 3-4 weeks ago, probably 3pm on a Tuesday or something, and it was bad then. I'm sure you can relate, with your understanding of why the Seattle University store "is to be avoided at all costs" and that "there is no worse place to be" than the Seattle stores on holidays and weekends.
Think about your highway analogy for a moment, because it also doesn't work. What is the "it" that they are trying to build their way out of by building bigger stores? Demand. Even if you can't build big enough stores to satisfy demand, why on earth wouldn't you build them as big as you can, anyway? Why on earth shouldn't Apple build their "Museum of Waste"? And if they can't build them big enough to meet demand, how is it wasteful to build the one they are proposing?
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It's not like Apple has any customers or anything.
You obviously haven't read the other posts. It doesn't matter how many products they have. It matters a) how many people visit the store and how much space they need for those people and b) the image they want to present via their architecture and imaging. Apple's stores are even more about marketing than they are about direct sales. In spite of Apple's mass-market appeal, when you walk into one of Apple's larger flagship stores, you feel like you're in a non-typical luxury retailer.
The question is if Apple didn't take up all that space, who would? If the answer is local independent merchants, then I would agree that Apple might not be the best use of that space. But this is a shopping mall -- what stores do you think occupy shopping malls? Just the typical stores, mostly with look-alike merchandise, that you can find in every shopping mall in the country: Banana Republic, Diesel, Fossil, Guess, H&M, Radio Shack, Brookstone, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, Nike, Adidas, perhaps a Sony store, etc.
One thing I would say is that one of the reasons Apple stores are so impressive is that they're always crowded (at least the ones I've been to). If the store is too large and it looks empty, that could be a negative. But in that case, perhaps they could devote a large area to training.
We seem to be existing on different planes of reality because your arguments are incoherent to me. So my description of the crowds is ridiculous because... that's your experience at Seattle stores as well? Huh?
Yes, that is my experience from non-holiday, non-release weekdays, in the middle of the day, even. I work nearby so it's easier for me to get to the store than it is to get through it. I was there last 3-4 weeks ago, probably 3pm on a Tuesday or something, and it was bad then. I'm sure you can relate, with your understanding of why the Seattle University store "is to be avoided at all costs" and that "there is no worse place to be" than the Seattle stores on holidays and weekends.
Think about your highway analogy for a moment, because it also doesn't work. What is the "it" that they are trying to build their way out of by building bigger stores? Demand. Even if you can't build big enough stores to satisfy demand, why on earth wouldn't you build them as big as you can, anyway? Why on earth shouldn't Apple build their "Museum of Waste"? And if they can't build them big enough to meet demand, how is it wasteful to build the one they are proposing?
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It's not like Apple has any customers or anything.
They have plenty of fanboi zombies, I'll give the "retail" sector that.
Yes. Quite differing realities. Like in mine I have already said to stop listening to my rage rant as I am quite done with greenhorns that have no knack for sarcastic subtlety. Just move along.