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Apple Set to Open First Retail Store in France

150 employees isn't much !
Te store is 700m2, so...

Besides, this is a very specific location, not many frenchies are going to come down this store.
Apple knows that, and "Le Caroussel Du Louvre" is near one of the most visited place in Paris !
The store was previously set to open at "Les Champs Elysées", but there's no place left !
Those are the only 2 places where stores can actually open 7/7.

It's gonna be mostly chinese, english etc... people buying stuff there.
French aren't that much of Apple freaks, but we're working haaaard on it lol, I'm making people switch as much as I can !

Anyways, can't wait for this store to open, and finally get this i7 iMac ! (who knows, they might have some before erveryone else does...)
 
nice, I'll have to pass this news along to my French uncle, I'm sure he'll manage to drop by this new store within a few days of its opening... and speaking of, I'll have to check it out the next time I'm visiting the family overseas :).

(and on a side note- who the heck could be enough of a kill-joy to rate this article a Negative?)
 
blogorant said:
Wow. An Apple Store in France? This is going to make for an interesting study. Kind of like matter and anti-matter. The employees may actually turn out to be polite, courteous, helpful and truly knowledgable.

Oh, and observant of basic hygiene. :)
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:rolleyes:
All the French people that I met on vacation were really polite and clean. They were even nice when I mangled their language.
 
I would have expected more beautiful french girls as employes. They would go along very nicely to a equaliy beautiful iMac :D.
 
The French government are obsessed about halting the infiltration of the French language and culture by English/American and have all sorts of rules for foreign retail outlets opening in the country, including the use of non-French product names. Wonder if we're going to see the world's first "Magasin de Pomme"?

Although interestingly if I use Google to translate Apple Store to French, I get.... Apple Store!
 
bmk said:
Ostensibly it does seem bizarre, especially given that many Parisians are Mac people rather than PC people, more so at least than other major capitals that already have Apple Stores. I think the answer lies in Apple's perfectionism running up against French bureaucracy, which is not to be underestimated. Paris is also a very small city and you can't just buy retail space where you want, even if you've got a lot of money to spend, as Apple has. The Louvre location is Ok, and better than the original Champs Elysee location they were supposedly in negotiation with for a while. But it's not really ideal if you think about it. It's right in the busiest tourist spot in Paris, and tourists, generally don't live in the city they visit, so are not going to be in the market for buying Macs. Mac Parisians, on the other hand, are going to be a tad pissed off by 'their' store being full of people from other countries just browsing and making it impossible for them to get the kind of attention they as real buyers want in an Apple store, and that they'd get if it was in slightly more residential (though obviously central) location. That aid I will be there on Saturday.
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Just like Regent Street in London - full of tourists checking their email and social networking sites.

Will the Paris one be full of miniature dogs crapping everywhere like the rest of the city?
 
CptnJustc said:
At first, I thought there were three guys making out in the bottom of that picture.

Then I realized it was just part of one guy's face, and a photographer far away from him.

And that's my story.

=/
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Remember, what passes as "making out" in the UK/US is considered a friendly greeting in much of Europe! :cool:
 
blogorant said:
Wow. An Apple Store in France? This is going to make for an interesting study. Kind of like matter and anti-matter. The employees may actually turn out to be polite, courteous, helpful and truly knowledgable.

Oh, and observant of basic hygiene. :)
Click to expand...
:mad: if we could stay away of the ignorant racist comments, that would be kinda nice...
I know last time american came massively in France, it was during WWII, but bear in mind our country was massively damaged (up to 99% in some regions), and basic facilities such as water were missing...
Now we have water, showers, toothbrush, 50" TV sets, 27" iMacs, Apple Store even...it's 2009 dammit, it's time to give up old cliché for once...

macshill said:
I'm willing to go to almost any market where the lame, tired, misleading "I'm a PC, I'm a Mac" ads don't exist! ;)
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That's funny : these ads don't air in France (I know them because I checked on Apple website)...but Windows 7 ads do air...so we have these young guys and ladies saying "I'm a PC, and Windows 7 was my idea" in French, and I guess not many french people get that it's actually a response to mac ads

NightFox said:
Just like Regent Street in London - full of tourists checking their email and social networking sites.

Will the Paris one be full of miniature dogs crapping everywhere like the rest of the city?
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You've read " A year in the merde" ;) (reality is a bit better, but not that much ;) )
 
bmk said:
Ostensibly it does seem bizarre, especially given that many Parisians are Mac people rather than PC people, more so at least than other major capitals that already have Apple Stores. I think the answer lies in Apple's perfectionism running up against French bureaucracy, which is not to be underestimated. Paris is also a very small city and you can't just buy retail space where you want, even if you've got a lot of money to spend, as Apple has. The Louvre location is Ok, and better than the original Champs Elysee location they were supposedly in negotiation with for a while. But it's not really ideal if you think about it. It's right in the busiest tourist spot in Paris, and tourists, generally don't live in the city they visit, so are not going to be in the market for buying Macs. Mac Parisians, on the other hand, are going to be a tad pissed off by 'their' store being full of people from other countries just browsing and making it impossible for them to get the kind of attention they as real buyers want in an Apple store, and that they'd get if it was in slightly more residential (though obviously central) location. That aid I will be there on Saturday.
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Totally agree. Bad choice. The place smells like...like...tourists, lots of them the whole day, not Mac buyers. But then, i could be mistaken.
 
Racism... Here we go.

Jubijub said:
:mad: if we could stay away of the ignorant racist comments, that would be kinda nice...

I know last time american came massively in France, it was during WWII, but bear in mind our country was massively damaged (up to 99% in some regions), and basic facilities such as water were missing...
Now we have water, showers, toothbrush, 50" TV sets, 27" iMacs, Apple Store even...it's 2009 dammit, it's time to give up old cliché for once...
Click to expand...

As I see you're in France and as English may not be your native tongue I'm going to elaborate a bit and comment further.

1. My post was a joke and not meant to be taken seriously. See :)
2. I've been to France, including Paris. I probably should have used Paris / Parisians in my original post.
3. Crying racism is a pretty serious situation here in the US and shouldn't be thrown around casually. Those that do so here in the US generally do so because their points are weak or non-existent.
4. Enjoy your new Apple Store!
 
autrefois said:
I believe so. And the French call McDonald's "MacDo" for short. This means that soon Parisians will be able to go to the Louvre to make both their Mac and MacDo purchases. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing...
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Depends on the order of those purchases: if they go first to "MacDo" and get their hands dirty and oily from the food, and then visit the Apple Store to touch all the touchpads and keyboards (and glossy screens!) ...
 
Bad location

The winning rule of locating the Apple Stores has been to place them in highest traffic shopping locations, where the big Apple logo can have the highest visibility to potential customers.

The "Carrousel du Louvre" is a shopping center that is beside the Louvre Museum, but is located underground, so nobody sees any Apple logo neither from the Tuileries Gardens, nor from Rue de Rivoli.

I think that most visitors of the shopping center are foreign tourists that have just visited the Louvre Museum.

Of course, most french customers have yet visited the Louvre Museum in the past, and are not going to visit it again multiple times. And when somebody is travelling abroad, it is very unlikely he/she is going to buy a computer, that is a heavy baggage to bring back home, nor a iPhone, that he/she does not know if could be activated and used in his/her home country.
 
Jubijub said:
:mad: if we could stay away of the ignorant racist comments, that would be kinda nice...
I know last time american came massively in France, it was during WWII, but bear in mind our country was massively damaged (up to 99% in some regions), and basic facilities such as water were missing...
Now we have water, showers, toothbrush, 50" TV sets, 27" iMacs, Apple Store even...it's 2009 dammit, it's time to give up old cliché for once...
Click to expand...

+1 L'ignorance de certain Américains me fera toujours rire...Ils doivent aussi penser qu'il n'y que du sable et des terroristes en Irak et des chapeaux pointus (bonsai-ka), du riz et la jungle au Vietnam.

Anyways, about several other comments from some other folks here...I agree the location could have been better but is way better vs. les Champs Elysées...I live in Paris and believe me i never go there! I would have prefered another location, less crowded...But in most of big cities the AS are in touristic areas...(i mean where there are tourists...not talking about the AS in Albuquerque..if there is one:))

Also, i have read that French people are not really Mac Fans....this is absolutely wrong...people who can afford Mac will buy (especially in large cities)...it is like anywhere in the world...Mac is an expsensive piece of technology...each time i go to the US the majority of people have PC...just like everywhere.

X
 
I second that comment : a lot of people love macs here...

but it's for Mac as for many other products : they are very expensive because it's considered that 1$ = 1€, which is totally wrong (as of today, 1€ = 1.48$)

For exemple, the Core i5 iMac costs $1999 on US Apple Store...it costs 1799€ on French Apple Store...where it should cost 1350€
(oh, and don't mention translation or shipping, none of these would account for 400€ / unit)

regarding locations, this one is good for the visibility of the brand I assume...the second store to open will be in Montpellier, which is much stranger IMHO...(Montpellier is a medium sized city near the Mediterranean see, it does have quite a lot of students per inhabitants, but that definitely not the one with the more students overall, or the one with the more inhabitants)...

Plus the commercial center "Odyseum" in which it will be built is quite outside the city, and a real pain in the neck to reach by motorway (you get lost 3 times before you get there ;) )
 
Jubijub said:
I second that comment : a lot of people love macs here...

but it's for Mac as for many other products : they are very expensive because it's considered that 1$ = 1€, which is totally wrong (as of today, 1€ = 1.48$)

For exemple, the Core i5 iMac costs $1999 on US Apple Store...it costs 1799€ on French Apple Store...where it should cost 1350€
(oh, and don't mention translation or shipping, none of these would account for 400€ / unit)
Click to expand...

I understand...however prices cannot be based on currency fluctations...otherwise they would be changing endlessly and too often (not good business wise). The best thing is asking someone in the US to buy one for you :) if you know someone and if that person is coming over...but you need to declare it to be "legal"...last time i was in Japan i came back with a camcorder (much cheaper than in France)...i was caught at the custom and had to pay for the 20% VAT and a penalty...arggggg!
 
bmk said:
Ostensibly it does seem bizarre, especially given that many Parisians are Mac people rather than PC people, more so at least than other major capitals that already have Apple Stores. I think the answer lies in Apple's perfectionism running up against French bureaucracy, which is not to be underestimated. Paris is also a very small city and you can't just buy retail space where you want, even if you've got a lot of money to spend, as Apple has.
Click to expand...
Thank you for that explanation. Add me to those who were surprised to learn that there wasn't already an Apple store in France.

aidler said:
I would have expected more beautiful french girls as employes.
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+1 :D

avvpiras said:
The "Carrousel du Louvre" is a shopping center that is beside the Louvre Museum, but is located underground, so nobody sees any Apple logo neither from the Tuileries Gardens, nor from Rue de Rivoli.

I think that most visitors of the shopping center are foreign tourists that have just visited the Louvre Museum.
Click to expand...
Interesting. I'm planning a trip to Europe next year and one of the Paris guides I read listed the Carrousel du Louvre as a place to avoid. However, what you said makes sense -- I imagine a lot of tourists go there for a quick bite to eat or to do some shopping after visiting the Louvre.

MacRumors said:
Apple has plans for rapid expansion in France, with the opening of a second store scheduled for November 14th in Montpellier in the South of France.
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Uh-oh. I bet prankster/comedian Rémi Gaillard, who lives there, is going to pay them a visit. :eek:
 
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