Apple opening store in Anchorage, Alaska

Will this put the Mac Haus and AK Mac Store out of business or make them change their model some to stay alive?

Just for clarification; The Arctic Circle is at mile 115 on the Dalton Hwy. That is 200 miles North of Fairbanks, which is 359 miles north of Anchorage. So 559 miles drive from Anchorage to The Arctic Circle.

Hello All, my name is Ray and I am the owner of the Alaska MacStore. I just read your comments for the first time today and I felt that I should respond. First of all I very much appreciate those of you who have responded positively about my business. I do spend a great deal of time preaching to my employees about customer service and it appears (based on these comments) that we succeed part of the time and fail part of the time. We do have a very loyal customer base and our goal is to continually grow it through good customer service. Secondly I would like to sincerely apologize to any of you out there that have a bad experience at my store. It seems that pricing is an issue, and while I don't set the product pricing, I will look into it and make sure our prices are set correctly. I do know that there are some items that cost a great deal in shipping charges to them up here and we have to increase the price a little to compensate, but that's not the norm.
I would personally like to hear your specific problems, address them head on, and have the chance to resolve them individually. I don't think that this forum is the place to do this, so I have setup a specific email address for this purpose, owner@akmacstore.com. Please feel free to send me an email, call me on the phone at 272-7697, or stop by and ask for Ray. Thank you very much for your business and I look forward to making it a better business through your comments.

On a side note: the Eddie Bauer's already moved downstairs. The location they'll be moving into is vacant as far as I know. I, for one, am surprised that they aren't moving into the Northway Mall.

Cash- unrelated comment: love the sidecar...have I seen you around Anchorage in it? I drive a Ural daily...not in ANC, but always happy to see another hack driver.

My IT geek spouse IS a genius bar, but he can't help everyone here. This might make it easier to fondle Apples and use that three-year extended warranty more easily.

AK MacStore and MacHAUS both stink to be honest. It will be great to get some local service straight from the source. Only thing is the 5th Ave Mall is quite a drive for me, but if I need something repaired or want to check out and buy a new product this store will be great!

Ummm...from my experience, I wouldn't call the AK MacStore great. I was glad when MacHAUS moved in just to show the locals that there was more to Apple than the front of MacStore. Maybe I just had a string of bad experiences though....

Unfortunately there is already a fantastic Mac store here in Anchorage that's been here for several decades (AK MacStore). Unlike larger communities supporting Apple Stores, Anchorage has 300,000 people and that's it; there's no suburbs. As for within driving distance of the Arctic Circle, well, that's 865 miles north. I wouldn't say that's very close.

I met a girl from there once when I was in France in 1977 at Tours University, I wonder if she still lives there?