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The First-Ever Apple Store, Introduced by Steve Jobs in 2001, Set to Receive Facelift [Update: No]
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Absolutely. Jobs was a master presenter. That iPhone keynote back in '07 is still one of the best product introductions ever. Hard to believe its been almost 7 years since he passed.
Just hearing his voice makes my eyes well up. 
This people! This....: https://twitter.com/osxusr/status/1020355147636015104 retweet or like if you agree. I definitely think we should preserve this. Imagine in 10-20 years when u can visit and experience the very first apple store.. it only makes sense to keep it the way it is.
The very first Apple Store opened its doors on May 19, 2001, at the Tysons Corner Center shopping mall in McLean, Virginia, near Washington D.C. Now, just over 17 years later, those doors may soon close temporarily.
Apple Tysons Corner
Planning documents filed with the Department of Planning and Zoning in Fairfax County, Virginia this month, viewed by MacRumors, reveal that Apple plans to make significant interior alterations to the store, with demolition work involved, suggesting that the location is set to receive a facelift.
The permits issued don't indicate when renovations will begin, nor is it clear whether Apple will modernize the current store, or relocate to a different area of the shopping mall, as it has done with some of its other stores. An anonymous tipster tells us the store may move to the opposite end of the mall.
Apple Tysons Corner has a lot of nostalgia attached to it, as the company's first-ever retail store. Shortly before it opened to the public, the late Steve Jobs previewed the store to a group of journalists, including Walt Mossberg, introducing iconic features like the Genius Bar that still exist today.
Just months after the dot-com collapse, some critics viewed the Apple Store as a risky move. But, some 500 people lined up at Apple Tysons Corner for its grand opening, foreshadowing the long queues on iPhone launch days.
Together with Apple's store in Glendale, California, which opened the same day, the two locations welcomed over 7,700 people and sold a combined total of $599,000 of merchandise during their first two day weekend, according to Apple's press release at the time. It was considered a resounding success.
Apple Tysons Corner has already received a facelift at least once before, in the 2000s, losing its iconic black entrance with two Apple logos, which remains in use at just three stores: Tice's Corner, Southpoint, and Cherry Creek.
Apple Tysons Corner with its original storefront
Apple has been renovating dozens of its stores around the world since 2015, an initiative led by its design chief Jony Ive and retail chief Angela Ahrendts. The new look often includes wide, open spaces with sequoia wood tables and shelves, large 8K video screens for in-store events, and sometimes indoor trees.
Apple's website does not yet reflect any upcoming store closure at Tysons Corner. We've reached out to the company for comment.
(Thanks, Stuart!)
Article Link: The First-Ever Apple Store, Introduced by Steve Jobs in 2001, Set to Receive Facelift
SJ = VISIONARY LEGEND!!!!
Every time I am at Tysons, regardless of the purpose of going there, I cannot miss going into the Apple store! I've been hanging out there both inside and outside it since 2005..... My first lineup for a new product was indeed the first iPhone and after that I did the lines again for iPads and other generations of the iPhone.
Yes, things have changed since Steve's death and I still remember that day vividly. After I heard the news I felt drawn to the Apple store and went over there, saw the post-it notes and other memorabilia that people were already leaving there, and wandered around the store, which was unusually subdued. Many of the employees looked somewhat dazed, which is very much how I felt, too. It was a terribly sad time....
In answer to those who want it to be preserved just as it originally was, that's not going to happen; The store has already undergone various transformations through the years, with changes in furniture types, positioning and layouts, walls being pressed into service for display units, etc. I miss the old genius bar layout and the "theatre" where they used to do demos. The current layout, though, does seem more spacious and provides greater visibility for both customers and store personnel. I wouldn't mind if they enlarged the store, though, which could be done if one of the ones on either side were to be shut down. Sometimes it can feel pretty crowded and congested in there!
Yes, things have changed since Steve's death and I still remember that day vividly. After I heard the news I felt drawn to the Apple store and went over there, saw the post-it notes and other memorabilia that people were already leaving there, and wandered around the store, which was unusually subdued. Many of the employees looked somewhat dazed, which is very much how I felt, too. It was a terribly sad time....
In answer to those who want it to be preserved just as it originally was, that's not going to happen; The store has already undergone various transformations through the years, with changes in furniture types, positioning and layouts, walls being pressed into service for display units, etc. I miss the old genius bar layout and the "theatre" where they used to do demos. The current layout, though, does seem more spacious and provides greater visibility for both customers and store personnel. I wouldn't mind if they enlarged the store, though, which could be done if one of the ones on either side were to be shut down. Sometimes it can feel pretty crowded and congested in there!
That is too bad if the renovations may be confined to the store's break room -- most of us will never see behind the locked door that leads into the "back room" area from the main customer floor......
The R number only denotes the order the store was planned. It’s not related to opening order.
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/11/09/gallery-of-storefront-photos-from-apples-357-retail-stores/
Well, it IS news, even if customers will never see the renovated area! It is something being done to the original, first Apple store in the world and on the East Coast of the US....
I don’t know. You worked for Apple and I never have but one thing I can say is out of the Apple products we have bought no one has ever tried to push AppleCare on us. On our daughters stuff we just get to be safe. That is only my experience.
You might have run into me. It was a bit strange. Really felt like the start of something big - and obviously it was.
Do you miss his eyebrows and his for ever 501 + black T-shirt looks too?
You're lucky. Apple care has a 60% "expected attachment rate" which means that 6 out of 10 products sold are expected to have it in the sale. If the employee misses this mark, he will have monthly "leadership meetings" where an employee who sells more apple care than you basically teaches you his set of lies that he uses to move applecare. If you refuse, eventually you are fired for poor performance. It's really sad. This also happens with one to one memberships, although at an expected attachment rate of 30%. And this is only one of the changes made under Tim. There were so many other atrocious changes.
Nope, Tyson’s Corner is R010. The R number is not related to the order of opening. Fun fact, it wasn’t Palo Alto, it was Glendale Galleria which was the 2nd store to open.
That mall needed it after the T-101 and T-1000 battled it out there in the early 90's.
Ah! You’re probably right. Were you a former retail employee like me?