The entrance of the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in New York City is a glass cube, housing a cylindrical elevator and a spiral staircase that leads into the subterranean store.

The Apple Store is a chain of retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc., dealing in computers and consumer electronics. As of September 2008, Apple has opened 230 stores; 197 in 41 US states, 20 in the United Kingdom (18 in England, one in Scotland, and one in Northern Ireland), nine in Canada, seven in Japan, three in Australia, two in Switzerland and one in Italy and China.^[1]

Each Apple Store contains a Genius Bar, a large variety of Apple hardware, software and peripherals and in some cases a theatre, or Studio. As of September 2008, the largest Apple Store worldwide is located on Regent Street in London, England and the largest Genius Bar in Sydney, Australia.^[2]

Design and history

Apple Store at Ginza, Tokyo.

The stores, designed by San Francisco based design firm Eight Inc., carry Apple computers, software, iPod music players, iPhone cell phones, third-party accessories, and other consumer electronics such as the Apple TV. Many stores feature a theater for presentations and workshops, the Studio for training with Apple products, and all stores offer a Genius Bar for technical support and repairs, as well as free workshops available to the public.

The first two Apple Stores opened on May 19, 2001 in Tysons Corner, Virginia and Glendale, California.^[3] The first Apple Store with the current layout and hardware (wood tables and stone flooring) opened in Pasadena, California and was the third store to open. Apple opened its 200th store on October 26, 2007 in Gilbert, Arizona, 2,251 days after opening its Tysons Corner store.^[4] Many stores are located inside shopping malls, but Apple has since built several stand-alone "flagship" stores in high-profile locations. Flagship stores have opened in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Tokyo, Osaka, London, Sydney, Montreal and Boston. The Boston store on Boylston Street is the largest Apple Store in the United States.

Each store is designed to suit the needs of the location and regulatory authorities. Apple has received numerous architectural awards for its store designs, particularly its SoHo location.^[5][6]

Originally, Apple Stores contained a dedicated point of sale station, however in 2006, Apple began introducing a new store layout and design with metallic walls and backlit signage. The new store design replaced the dedicated point of sale station with the handheld EasyPay system. However, a dedication point of sale station still exists in most of these stores to facilitate transactions not paid for by credit card.^[7][8]

Hiring at the retail store is said to be competitive. During one talk, Senior Vice President Ron Johnson said Apple hired 978 store employees during 2002 from an applicant pool of 16,438, an 'acceptance rate' of 5.95%.^[9]

Genius Bar

The Genius Bar at Apple Store Regent Street, London.

All Apple Stores feature a Genius Bar, where customers can receive technical advice or set up service and repair for their products. The Genius Bar provides software support for Mac OS X and hardware service on products that are not classified vintage or obsolete. However, in most cases the Geniuses will at least attempt to assist customers with older hardware.^[10] Originally, visitors to the Genius Bar were offered free Evian water. Apple dropped this amenity in February 2002.

To address increasing numbers of iPod customers at the Genius Bar, some new stores also feature an iPod Bar. First seen at the Ginza store in Tokyo, then at the New York locations, the iPod Bar has become a common feature at newly built stores.^[11]

Most new stores feature a station called The Studio, a Genius Bar-like setting where customers can meet with a "Creative" and receive help with projects ranging from organizing a photo album to music composition to film editing. Some of the older stores are being considered to carry a Studio in a future remodel, in some cases replacing the older theaters.

Store openings

Store openings have become special events among avid Mac users. Opening day attracts thousands of customers who line up early in the morning or even the night before. The first thousand customers receive a free T-shirt bearing the store's name. Most high-profile stores have more shirts and additional prizes: 1,500 free T-shirts were given away at the Buchanan Street opening in Glasgow; 2,000 free T-shirts at the West 14th Street store in New York City; and 2,500 free "Bondi Blue" shirts at the Sydney, Australia store opening. Other attractions include discounts and the so-called "lucky bags" at flagship store openings.^[12]

<gallery widths="150px" heights="150px"> Image:First apple.jpg|A line at the opening of the first American Apple Store, in Tysons Corner Center. Image:Apple Store Boylston Street Opening Day Crowd.jpg|A massive crowd gathered on the sidewalk of Boylston Street for the opening of the new store on May 15th, 2008. Image:Boylston Street Opening Day T-Shirt.jpg|A man holding up his commemorative T-shirt given out at the Boylston Street Apple Store opening day. </gallery>

Locations

The first two Apple Stores opened in the United States in 2001 (see history above). In 2003, Apple expanded its operations into Japan, opening the first store outside of the United States. This was followed by the opening of stores in the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Australia, China and Switzerland.^[13].

Apple is proactively expanding their retail effort. There is rumors of a store opening in Mexico City; opening depends on the construction of an eight story annex for Torre Mayor. If so, it would become the first Apple Store in Latin America.^[14] Reliance Retail is in talks with Apple to open an Apple Store in India.^[15]

References

External links

• Apple Store official site
• ifo Apple Store ? news and information about store openings
• Virtual tour of Fifth Avenue Apple Store (Google Maps Street View)

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