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Apple's Battersea Store Opens Today, Second to Feature All-New Design
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While I agree, I wonder how many of the flats there are just bought by foreign investors as somewhere to park their money? 40%, 60%, 80%?
Not many people even in London have £1m+ starting price for a studio flat, surprisingly.
All while London as a whole has an absolutely awful housing shortage for people who live and work in everyday sectors of the economy. Literally every one of these 'new builds' even in zones 3/4 have prices at least 35% higher than the period properties that surround them on sale at the same time (eg. 1100 vs. 750 per sf).
They're all being snapped up by investors for long term capital appreciation, as regular middle class earning Londoners are largely not able to afford them.
These kinds of developments leave a bad taste in the air for most Londoners, after the shiny newness of their slick sales marketing blows away, and people's rents have increased yet again.
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What a completely awful take. Maybe you should read the Wikipedia article on the building. It was unused for decades and in complete disrepair.
And you only see it, if you wear the Vision Pro on your way out of the store
You're so right. I never quite understand why people feel the need to hang in an Apple Store. I went to the one in downtown Chicago, as I needed to, and there were streams of people coming in and out for no reason whatsoever. People view Apple Store's as some kind of tourist destination to tick off, I think.
I think it is a good idea for apple to give stamps on each branches all around the world. Perhaps digital stamps as a prove you were there. It will be excellent collector items. One you can proudly hang inside your Digital Virtual Vision Pro home.
Also, it was Fosters & Partners who did the work. Probably the foremost architects in the world, especially for contemporary high end architecture. If anyone can make a building look good, it’s them.
As above. A super respectful company for historical buildings. This an example of 10 of their Apple Stores. Not a single brick was damaged, and these buildings are probably more functional then they have ever been.
But if you prefer a coal power station to be left abandoned…. Well.
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London (and UK in general) is amazing. my favourite city in the world (from Belgium so it’s not far)
visited Battersea only last month (via UberBoat)
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I have the same opinion.
Our closest stores are Bluewater (which is a large shopping centre) or Central London, both of which are often busy. Several times I just wanted to walk into a store and buy something. I didn't want a chat or advice, I just wanted to buy something and I was in there about 20 minutes each time. I just order online now as I can't be bothered with the drama.
They should have a dedicated part of the store for those who want to buy something. If you want to buy something, get in the queue and someone will take your money and give you the item. At the moment it feels like you have to hang around awkwardly and hope someone notices you.
"Here, I am just about to drop a grand of my money on one of your products. I came here on my lunch break so was hoping to just buy something and get out but its cool, I can hang around here awkwardly with the tourists looking at products I don't want, hoping someone sees me"
The major reason I still go in to Apple Stores is to try out new products “in the flesh”. They usually have new Apple products from day 1 in all colours/variants and you can play around with them as much as you like in a low-pressure environment. Even if I’m not planning to buy the latest iPhone/MacBook/iPad/AirPods/whatever I still like to try them out, if only for forming opinions for recommending them to others…
In the past it’s also been useful to get a Mac repaired, or an iPhone battery replaced. But I’ve had zero issues with my recent Apple purchases so it’s been a while…
Well, I’m pretty sure their policy is to not bother people who just want to look at products, especially when it’s busy, so there’s your problem! Try standing away from the products and looking the store employees in the eye, pretty soon someone will notice you.
There is usually also someone standing around checking people in for repair appointments etc, you can ask them and they will summon a sales person for you.
Yes, its been a few years but they definitely do this, at least for iPhones. They will evaluate your trade-in in the store, and the trade-in value will be credited straight to your receipt for the new iPhone purchase, offsetting the price.
Apple and a few dozen other brands, plus hundreds of luxury flats. It was just a derelict old power station before, at risk of becoming dangerous and falling down eventually if not repaired and redeveloped.
What else would you do with it?
When I first moved to London nearly 15 years ago(!!) the whole Battersea area was quite a dump, except for the lovely park. I don’t think anyone could have imagined back then that there’d one day be an Apple Store there. It’s been quite a transformation!
We can, in part, thank the Americans for all this when they decided to relocate the US embassy to Battersea back in 2013 or so. It was probably the only place they could find a big enough chunk of land for the kind of high-security building they wanted, but it ended up being a cornerstone development that opened people’s eyes to the area and kick-started a lot of investment.
If what you want is on the shelf, can’t you just grab it, pay for it via the Apple Store App and walk out? Of course if it’s a major hardware item, like phone, Watch, Mac, then you can’t but other stuff you can.
There are no words to express how ugly the back area is with all that wood. Then in the back right corner is an Apple Watch section that people are able to walk back to, but the wood divides the store, making it appear that a person can’t walk back there. It’s ugly and terrible. Like 1970s.
Because he realised that there would likely be a lot of people there who would derive some form of enjoyment from seeing it? And I bet there were too.
You need to look into things a bit more before making such sweeping statements. BPS is a historic landmark that's been in decline for decades, with numerous failed projects to renovate it along the way. It's now finally been saved by turning it into a shopping mall, offices and flats, with Apple being just another one of a number of tenants.
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