Apple to Open Two New Retail Stores in Ontario and Florida on July 27

[ClamshellOfDoom]

Why does Orlando need another damn Apple Store? This will be the 3rd location in that area! ... while St. Petersburg, Tallahassee, Jacksonville & Sarasota are all major cities don't have a single store.

Jacksonville has an Apple store at the St. John's Town Center. I've been there and can confirm its existence.

 

[somethingelsefl]

WHY are they crowded? Because the stores are used like Mini Theme Parks, full of kids playing with everything/hanging out ect. Have you ever wanted to actually go and evaluate one of the products? You have to wait until little kids have finished, literally line up to look at an iPad or something because there are kids just standing there playing with them. I would be interested to learn Apple's 'bigger picture' reasoning for letting these stores become total zoos crowded with brats who are not buying anything. BTW: They are not tourists, these stores get crowded out with local kids who have nowhere to go so they hang out at the mall, particularly the Apple Store online and playing with all the free toys.

Do you feel better now that you let that out of your system? LOL

 

[PhamQu]

WHY are they crowded? Because the stores are used like Mini Theme Parks, full of kids playing with everything/hanging out ect. Have you ever wanted to actually go and evaluate one of the products? You have to wait until little kids have finished, literally line up to look at an iPad or something because there are kids just standing there playing with them. I would be interested to learn Apple's 'bigger picture' reasoning for letting these stores become total zoos crowded with brats who are not buying anything. BTW: They are not tourists, these stores get crowded out with local kids who have nowhere to go so they hang out at the mall, particularly the Apple Store online and playing with all the free toys.

Go to business school and find out!

Kids can't buy anything but their parents can and parents like to make their kids happy. So when the kid asks for an iPad odds are he or she will find one in their Birthday or Christmas gift pile.

It's the same reason grocery stores have mini shopping carts for kids. Kids dump stuff in the cart -- maybe mom or dad isn't going to buy all the junk in it but guarantee you some of it will be bought and none of it will have been on the shopping list.

^ This.
It doesn't require a degree to figure this out. Think things through before you speak/type. You can be mad, and you can be dumb, but never be both at the same time.
Also, @Chupa, that was a perfect example!

 

[nfl46]

And, I still don't understand why St. Pete or Clearwater doesn't have an Apple Store. Tampa has one, and so does Brandon.

 

[Seabassthegreat]

Went to the Florida mall grand reopening and was able to scope out 3 shirts. Everyone in the house gets one. The store just moved next to the Microsoft store... It is bigger but not 2-3X bigger like everyone was making it out to be.

Good experience. Loved it. Just thought it was gonna be bigger than the mall at millennia store

 

[guitarman777]

Well your obviously in a minority re compelling because Apple Stores are the most successful retail stores in terms of sales per square foot on the planet....Tiffany comes a distant second!http://cdn.macrumors.com/vb/images/smilies/smile.gif

I'm not at all discounting the fact that they are successful. And I really like the brick & mortar storefront! It's a highly compelling environment that Microsoft and Samsung both make blatant attempts at copying. It's a retail model that works really well... except when it doesn't, especially in the case of overcrowded stores like the ones here in Orlando. To be frank, it blemishes the experience because the stores here seem to be overcrowded all the time. squeeks nailed it for the most part: tourism. The Mall at Millenia location seems to always be chock full of tourists from Brazil in particular. (Of note: they never leave the store empty-handed. There's that success factor again.) That location did just open up into a double-sized storefront, so hopefully that'll ease the burden.

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Uhh, there's no temporary location at the Florida Mall. They're just moving.

You're right, my mistake. I rarely go to the Florida Mall location, so I thought they were originally in a different storefront than they currently are while waiting for the new one.