Brooklyn's borough prez makes a play for Apple Store
It may seem like New York City is already pretty well stocked with Apple retail outlets. With four full-scale storefronts in Manhattan, including the iconic 24-hour 5th Ave cube and the new Upper West Side 'temple of iPad,' the city's 5th store in the Staten Island Mall seems like an afterthought. Do the Big Apple's denizens really need yet another Apple Store?According to Brooklyn's borough president Marty Markowitz, the answer isn't just "Yes," it's "Hell, yes!" In an email last week to Steve Jobs, Marty implored the Apple management team to consider a retail presence in the 'Creative Capital' of NYC.
He pointed out that Brooklyn's retail resurgence is ongoing and upward-trending in a tough market; the new IKEA store in the ruggedly hip Red Hook district is among the chain's top American outlets (although it's easier to get there from Manhattan, by water shuttle, than from most of Brooklyn), and the neighborhood also hosts the popular Fairway supermarket. Those of you with long memories may recall that a Brooklyn Apple store was 'confirmed'... two years ago.
With Brooklyn's Mac-friendly neighborhoods of Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO and Williamsburg eager to shop local, the idea of an Apple store in the borough does make some sense. DUMBO in particular is home to scores of digital firms, including our friends at Dealnews/Dealmac and Freeverse (in the same office building).
To make sure that Steve got the message, Marty & his team went the extra mile and put together a little video promo. It features a newly purchased iPad that was, to the borough president's shock and horror, imported from Manhattan. Click the 'Read More' link to watch.
As a matter of Brooklyn pride, I'd love to see my borough get its very own Apple store. As a practical consideration, however, my daily commute takes me past one Manhattan store and drops me off a 10-minute bus ride from another, so I doubt I'd be a regular at a store close to home.
Thanks Laurie, Carlos & Kacy!
[via Gothamist] Vimeo embed below; iPad/iPhone users, click the link.
An Apple Store Grows in Brooklyn from Marty Markowitz on Vimeo.
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It may seem like New York City is already pretty well stocked with Apple retail outlets. With four full-scale storefronts in Manhattan,...
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I'm a Mac user living in Brooklyn (Park Slope); also work in downtown Brooklyn. The only really practical place to put a Brooklyn Apple Store would be in the Borough Hall area (ie Court Street, near Montague St). Williamsburgh is impossible to reach from any other part of Brooklyn unless you take a very long (and slow) bus ride on the B62, or go through Manhattan to get to the L train (and in that case, you might as well go to west 14 st). I've pretty much given up on Soho (it's so noisy on the weekends it's nearly impossible to hear the presenter in workshops), and west 14 st is almost as loud now.
April 12 2010 at 8:16 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThis is obviously a ploy to secede.
April 12 2010 at 1:35 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Replyi'd love to see an apple store in my neck of the woods, but alas, i don't live in the 'hip' sections of brooklyn. danm hipsters.
April 12 2010 at 9:50 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply"With Brooklyn's Mac-friendly neighborhoods of Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO and Williamsburg..."
Wow. What exactly makes a neighborhood Mac-friendly? That the people who live there have more money?
To some degree yes. Apple products are not cheap. and they don't put stores by the local Food 4 Less or Walmart.
However, that video did nothing for me. If they want to make a case, they need to make a case. Find a couple of buildings they can be converted to an Apple store, see if there's some way to over some kind of break to the company for doing the conversion (ex. here in LA a bunch of condos went up in old hotels cause you can get a property tax break for not destroying the original structure)
Then hit the streets and show the folks in the area. Let Apple see all the peeps with their iphones, ipads, laptops etc. Do man on the street interviews and let Apple hear folks saying 'yeah I'd go to a local store in a second' blah blah.
Edit it up a little to give it some slickness and send it to Apple as a full proposal that appeals to their business side.
BK doesn't need this Apple Store - We've got Mikey's Hook-Up already in DUMBO and Willysburg. And anybody that knows anything knows to take their service to TekServe in the city in a pinch.
Apple store just doesn't cut it in the real NYC - sorry stevie...
I hope Apple Store is coming to Norway!
April 12 2010 at 9:01 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyWe know it's not coming to Norway already, however Apple *has* teamed up with Elkjøp and is setting up store-in-stores at selected, major locations across the country.
The closest Apple store we'll have in the future is probably going to be in Copenhagen or Stockholm. I doubt we'll even see one in Oslo.
There sure are a lot of "properly used" quotes in that "email."
Seriously though, I used to live in there, and it was a pretty big pain to go to Manhattan to go to the Apple Store. The 14th Street Store is very convenient, however, for anyone coming from Brooklyn on the L train, and the SOHO store is pretty convenient for everyone else.
Not to say that Brooklyn doesn't need a store, but unless it's in your neighborhood, there are a lot of cases when it will be just as convenient to go to Manhattan as it would be to stay in Brooklyn.
Ironically, sometimes the most convenient way to get from Point A to Point B in Brooklyn is to go through Manhattan.
Unless you take the bus!
I think that somewhere in the Downtown/DUMBO/Brooklyn Heights area would be a great location for an Apple store.
It would also be nice if there was one in Queens, somewhere west of Interstate 678, preferably along Queens Boulevard.
I'd "go ahead and tap that" cute assistant.
April 12 2010 at 8:16 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyIt would have been more effective if in the the last shot he didn't have a ThinkPad on his desk behind him
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