Apple Shows New Mini-Stores

[feffer37]

More Stores in Michigan!!!!

Oh man, this is great! Hopefully this will allow for the MASSIVE National Rollout of Apple Stores that will eventually allow Apple to dominate the consumer (also read, IT challanged) market. Apple, please crack the Michigan Market wide open!!!

Major Michigan Markets that need an Apple Store:

Lansing/East Lansing
Ann Arbor
Grand Rapids
Kalamazoo
Battle Creek
Flint
Traverse City

Come on Apple, let's catch up to the Socialist Republic of California! ;D

 

[hotwire132002]

Oh man, this is great! Hopefully this will allow for the MASSIVE National Rollout of Apple Stores that will eventually allow Apple to dominate the consumer (also read, IT challanged) market. Apple, please crack the Michigan Market wide open!!!

Major Michigan Markets that need an Apple Store:

Lansing/East Lansing
Ann Arbor
Grand Rapids
Kalamazoo
Battle Creek
Flint
Traverse City

Come on Apple, let's catch up to the Socialist Republic of California! ;D

Traverse City.... YES! I'm only ~45 minutes away from there! WE NEED AN APPLE STORE IN TRAVERSE CITY! (Or Cadillac, but fat chance of that one 🙄 )

 

[Yvan256]

Canada?

What about Apple stores in Canada?

Apart from the iPod, Apple is non-existant in people's mind around here (I really do get the "Macs? Can you surf the Web or play MP3 files with those?" type questions).

There's stores selling Apple stuff in Montreal and Quebec City (~1 hour drive each), but a mini-store in smaller cities would be great (we got NO store selling Apple computers, AT ALL, where I live. We used to have FutureShop, but they stopped selling Apple computers a few months ago. Now all they have is iPods and accessories).

 

[echeck]

What about Apple stores in Canada?

I think it's just a matter of time as to when Apple finally breaks into the Canadian market. But even then, I think it's a given that Toronto will be the first host to an Apple Store. Here's a bit of info from ifoapplestore

Toronto - Canada - The AppleInsider Web site reports that Apple is interested in two malls in Toronto, possibly in the Yorkdale Shopping Center and/or Eaton Centre.

 

[wdlove]

Has someone here actually visited one of the Mini-Stores yet? Would like to hear about your impression. Pictures would be nice.

 

[Sayhey]

Here is an interesting article on one of the future uses of the new mini-store design.

As Steve Jobs showed off the new Palo Alto mini Apple Store, Apple retail VP Ron Johnson made an interesting observation. He pointed out that the new store design was the same size as retail outlets in airports, and even mentioned San Francisco International Airport as a possible future destination for one of these mini stores. The Apple product mentioned in this context: the iPod.

And when you think about it, that’s a fascinating idea. Let’s say you have same time to kill before a long flight, and you’re wandering around the airport. You spy an Apple store, and before you know it you’re considering how great it would be to have an iPod to listen to on the plane.

There’s only one problem: iPods come empty. You’ve got to download music or rip it off of a CD in order to fill your iPod with good stuff. Why buy an empty iPod before a flight?

The answer is, don’t keep it empty. Meaning, if Apple’s going to start selling iPods in airports, it needs to create some sort of kiosk to allow people to buy music from the iTunes Music Store and load it on their iPods as they stand within the store.

With these new mini stores, Apple has already shown the ability to create technological innovations in order to serve its mission: all the mini stores contain two touch-screen kiosks to let customers scan and pay for products with a credit card without waiting for a clerk.

So imagine a touch-screen-based system running a modified version of iTunes, one that lets you swipe your credit card or enter the code from a gift card you just purchased at the store along with your iPod. You enter in your e-mail address to create an account (unless you’ve already got an iTunes, account, in which case you’d just log yourself in). Then you plug in your iPod and browse the store, buying songs to take on your trip. The kiosk downloads the files directly to your iPod. And since Apple doesn’t let you copy music from the iPod back to your iTunes library, the kiosk might also copy the files as data to the hard drive portion of the iPod, or burn a CD containing the protected music files on it, or even upload them to your iDisk if you’ve got one.

The great thing about this idea is, it’s not just for new iPod buyers. If you’re a hard-core iPod user and your music library is kind of stale, why not pop into the airport Apple Store and download the latest Jet album before jetting to 30,000 feet?

It just makes too much sense to me. Let’s hope that Apple’s thinking the same thing.

maccentral

Also, the new stores for this year will include mini-stores at Syracuse, NY; Bethesda, Maryland; and St. Louis, Missouri. This answers a lot of questions about the Bethesda Row location and why it was chosen so close to the existing Montgomery Mall store.

 

[hotwire132002]

Here is an interesting article on one of the future uses of the new mini-store design.



maccentral

Also, the new stores for this year will include mini-stores at Syracuse, NY; Bethesda, Maryland; and St. Louis, Missouri. This answers a lot of questions about the Bethesda Row location and why it was chosen so close to the existing Montgomery Mall store.

Now that is a VERY cool idea! It would be really neat if Apple ended up doing something like that!

 

[coolsoldier]

I live alternately in Albuquerque, NM and Baton Rouge, LA, and I've given up on waiting for an Apple store somewhere in New Mexico or Louisiana... Now I have something new to hope for...

 

[zim]

The closest Apple store to me is in Caimbridge, MA. Does anyone in the nothreast know if Apple is really planning to put stores in the South Shore Plaza or the Providence Place? That would be more convinient than driving into Boston.

Yes, there will be a South Shore Plaza store. This is such a painful topic, my wife and I have been to the plaza twice in the past two weeks. Walking by that big black wall with the Apple logo on it is such a tease! The store is on the first floor right next to the Disney store. No info on the opening date as of yet, also no word on the size of it.

so frustrating because I want in!

 

[wdlove]

Yes, there will be a South Shore Plaza store. This is such a painful topic, my wife and I have been to the plaza twice in the past two weeks. Walking by that big black wall with the Apple logo on it is such a tease! The store is on the first floor right next to the Disney store. No info on the opening date as of yet, also no word on the size of it.

so frustrating because I want in!

My wife and I had the exact same feelings while we waited for the Chestnut Hill Mall Apple Store to open last year. It just seems like it takes for ever. Hopefully the South Shore Plaza Store will still open this year or early next year. We plan to attend if my wife has the day off.

 

[Bozola]

My wife and I visited the Mini store in SouthCenter Washington. It was nice, but really reminded me of a Cell phone store.

On one side, 5-7 Ipod stations. On the other side, 3-5 laptops, and 2 imacs.

Positives
Lots of space, Clean design, plenty of room to move around, more mac exposure, plenty of help, 20" IMAC in stock..(Almost, Almost, pulled the trigger 🙂 🙂 ) Cool hidden cash register (wall mounted IMAC with pullout tray)

Negatives
Not much stuff to look at, Very Stark, Too bright, all LCD screens looked very dim, even at the highest brightness. No powermacs

 

[echeck]

Too bright, all LCD screens looked very dim, even at the highest brightness.

That's exactly what I was wondering about, from the pictures I've seen it looks really bright. Is it really bad, or just kind of annoying?

 

[Bozola]

I thought it was really bad in that it was WAY too bright in there.

I actually thought.. mmmh.. this 20" Imac displays seems really dim. I wonder why? Even the sales guy commented on how the laptops are even worse.

 

[echeck]

I thought it was really bad in that it was WAY too bright in there.

I actually thought.. mmmh.. this 20" Imac displays seems really dim. I wonder why? Even the sales guy commented on how the laptops are even worse.

Hmm... that's too bad. 🙁 I wonder if there's a way to fix that, like directing the light more towards the middle of the store so the shelves aren't as bright. I doubt that would make much of a difference either.

 

[nfocus design]

None here in San Antonio, I made the roady to Austin for my new imac. Is the one in Houston in the Galleria? I am going to Houston next Thursday on busines, so I would not mind a little excursion. 😀

The one in Houston is in the Galleria. The Austin store is better and the ones in Dallas are even better. I went to the Galleria location this simmer and it looked more like an Apple outlet store. It wasn't clean and the window display was horrible. Remember the iPod mini displays with the lighted stick and the mini on top? Well, they had the sticks (tilted in all directions) but the mini's were missing. Maybe they have cleaned it up since, but it was looking pretty sad when I was there.

 

[zim]

My wife and I had the exact same feelings while we waited for the Chestnut Hill Mall Apple Store to open last year. It just seems like it takes for ever. Hopefully the South Shore Plaza Store will still open this year or early next year. We plan to attend if my wife has the day off.

Called Apple about the South Shore store, well my wife did, and they said that they had planned for a November opening but due to construction issues they have been set back. They hope to be open before Christmas. 😀