Just in time for the iPhone crowds and media to descend on Apple stores around the country, SiliconUser has a quick little history of how Apple's famous retail space came to be. It all started back in 19-aught-7, when Mr. Stevonious Jobsenheimer first opened the Apple Computing Salon and General Store in little Border Junction, Wyoming...No, only kidding. In 1996 when Jobs came back to Apple, they were struggling to come up with a good way to sell their computers at retail, and after a few bumpy years with store-within-a-stores at CompUSA, they set up a warehouse in Cupertino and went to work designing a real live Apple experience. The first try was apparently based on Apple's product matrix (and caused Jobs to famously say, "Oh God, we're screwed"), but eventually they came up with what we know today-- bright, open spaces with stations that encouraged visitors to use and play with the products. Strangely enough, SiliconUser points out that they are very much like Gap stores, which both disturbs and awes me at the same time.
So when you're standing outside your local Apple store Thursday at midnight while it rains and you stare at the growing-even-more- obsolete- than-it-already-is Treo 650 only to look up at the dry and warm Apple store and the glorious iPhones that lie inside behind the glass, just remember the good folks that designed it all for you. The money they were paid made it worth it, but the irresistible spending draw you feel while walking by is just the icing on the cake.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-26-2007 @ 10:56AM
Fred said...
LMAO! I think that's the Addison, TX CompUSA! I used to work there when it was still a Comp. It's a PetCo now. :( Kinda gives you an idea of the direction Comp is headed.
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6-26-2007 @ 11:21AM
Eric said...
I have to say, the Apple store in the Carousel Mall (Syracuse) has to be the worst one around. It's tiny, there's only two people working, and there's no Genius Bar.
I've never been to an Apple Shop in CompUSA while there is an Apple employee working... but it's always crowded... even in the back corner of the store.
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6-26-2007 @ 11:43AM
Slevin said...
Eric,
While the Carousel Mall is small, it was ment to be a small store, additionally I have gone to that syracuse apple store and have seen a genius at the genius bar (at the back, thats not a checkout counter, checkout is done via the handheld palm pilots that employees carry. And on a weekend there usually 4-5 employees walking around not just one or two.
But yes the store is tiny exp compared to the SoHO and the 5th ave store.
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6-26-2007 @ 11:49AM
manny said...
i love my apple stores (galleria or boca mall), but i fear they will be so crowded so i'm going to my run of the mill AT&T store, what do you guys think?
Both the galleria and boca malls are in uppity areas where i'm sure the rich parents will be buying their 13 year old kids iphones
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6-26-2007 @ 12:25PM
Galley said...
The greater Greenville, SC area is home to one million people, but no Apple Store (yet). Our CompUSA sells a crapload of Macs, though.
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6-26-2007 @ 12:53PM
SwissFreek said...
Mac Specialists joke that the store is called "Gapple". I remember being told during training that Apple looked to clothing retailers when trying to figure out what a positive customer service experience was all about when they were designing the first stores. Another interesting tidbit: at the store where I used to work, several (and I'm not talking one or two) of our employees used to work at Gap, J. Crew, and other similar stores, especially the managers (at one point more than half of those).
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6-26-2007 @ 1:02PM
Jordan Golson said...
The main reason that the Apple Stores seem so 'Gap-Like' is because Mickey Drexler is on the board. Formerly head of Gap, Inc., he's now CEO of J.Crew.
They use his vast retail experience quite a bit, and I know it's not a coincidence that Gap and J.Crew management has been stolen to work at Apple.
That being said, they take the best of the best from other companies, including Best Buy, as well.
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6-26-2007 @ 1:11PM
Joseph J. Finn said...
"Strangely enough, SiliconUser points out that they are very much like Gap stores, which both disturbs and awes me at the same time."
Not that strange at all; Micky Drexler, the CEO of Gap, is on Apple's Board of Directors. Their head of real estate used to do the same for Gap, and the head of Retial used to do the same for Target (a similiar style of merchandising as the Gap).
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6-26-2007 @ 1:18PM
Michael said...
19-aught-7 would be 1907, if i'm not mistaken. pretty sure that should be '87? or is it '97?
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6-26-2007 @ 1:28PM
Mike Schramm said...
Yeah, Michael, that was a little joke that I thought was funny. I spent a little time trying to Photoshop an old-timey Steve Jobs standing outside an "Apple Computer Salon and General Store" in 1907, but my p-shop skillz weren't up to it this time around.
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6-26-2007 @ 5:25PM
nicoliciosu said...
wow. what a nostalgic picture.
I have that poster of einstein. I used to work at comp too. what a joke.
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