Architosh Staff (info@architosh.com)

19 May 2001

Summary of Apple Store Opening Action, Links

Not our tradition turf per se but nevertheless fun to cover. We were curious about how successful the opening of the two Apple Stores (Glendale, California and Tyson's Corner, DC area) would actually be. Would there be a huge crowd or just a dozen or so crazy Mac users at the door?

Blowing the Doors Off

Turns out the Apple Stores are getting insanely great action...a really great reception. In Tyson's Corner the line to get in the store itself was hundreds of people long after nearly two hours of the store being open. Glendale was the same. But don't take our word for it. Take a look:

Apple user Franck Leveneur (sounds very French to me) took some good pictures and a QuickTime movie while in the store and posted it on his Apple HomePage.

Here is that crazy picture in the Tyson's Corner mall. Have you ever seen anything like this before (just to get into a new store)?

Apple Store Action Grabs All Mall Go'ers

According to a MacCentral reader who actually was there this morning the opening of the Apple Store had garnered most of the mall's attention, as all mall go'ers were anxious to get a peak of the new store in their mall. Hey, five down 95 to go.

It is important to note that while the Apple Store action will definitely simmer down over the week, Apple's placement of these stores appears to be extremely smart.

Some Crude Numbers

The Tyson's Corner mall gets over 57,000 shoppers a day. If only 5 percent of these shoppers enters the Apple store that is over 2800 people a day. And if only 5 percent of these actually buy a system that's 142 systems a day or 51,000+ systems per year. If the average selling price is $1400 that's $71 million worth of revenue from just systems from just one store a year. Not too shabby.

These numbers are probably optimistic; it may be that the Apple Stores garner only 2-3% of mall visitors, but 5 out of 100 of these may walk out the door with a new Macintosh. Fresh after new systems and fancy commercials this ratio could be a lot higher, just like when the new iMacs arrived and like the recent frenzy over the Titanium PowerBook G4.

News on Stores Around the Web

Apple Store opening draws rave reviews - C/net

Live from the Apple Store - TheMacMind.com

Apple Store opens to large crowd in VA - MacCentral

Pictures from Apple Store VA - MacCentral