Archive for: apple store
- November 1, 2011 10:53 am
It is official as of today folks, the mastermind behind the brick and mortar Apple retail locations – Ron Johnson – has left to become the CEO of JC Penney. As announced back in June, the Apple Exec shed light on his plans to leave the fruit for the pant suit come November 1st.
His bio is already missing from the Apple Executive Profile page. He will for sure be missed by us here at Gadgetsteria, as what he has given us by the way of retail stores is a thing of beauty. As all Apple designs, there is just something that has to be said about the level of sexy detail that goes into it.
Good luck to Ron over at JC Penney’s, they need it!
- September 10, 2011 4:15 pm
China has been cloning the Cupertino giant a lot lately. Both with iPhone clones as well as actual Apple Retail locations. Here we are posting another post about someone in China creating an Apple knock-off. This time it is an actual website. If you check here, you’ll see the China based online game company – Giant Network – decided to use the Apple website as a template to promote it’s online game ‘Zhengtu 2.”
As you scroll through the website, you’ll see the likeness of all of Apple’s products all over the website. Take note of the Apple logo turned Pear, and the icon for Lion being a cute little bunny rabbit. Since it is based off of Apple’s design, of course it is sexy, but the random slight Photoshooping is quite neat. Giant Network does not intend to sell any of the products, it is strictly for promotion of their latest game.
Shi YuZhu – founder of Giant Network – was at one time a very successful entrepreneur who was in the Top-10 on the Forbes rich list. But after making some wonky business ventures, he lost a cool 2.5 billion Yuan (read: $400 million real dollars) in one night. Writer for Mic-Gadget compares Shi to the likes of Steve Jobs. Saying that in the same way Jobs was fired years ago from the Company he co-founded and came back to give Apple the boost it needed to own the tech world, Shi never gave up and is coming back with the launch of their new game. I consider that a huge jump and in no way a salute to Steve Jobs and Apple.
Either way, jump on in for a gallery of a collection of somewhat impressive screen caps…
The entire idea of Apple planting one of it’s retail locations in the World Famous Grand Central Station in New York just got a little more real. Apple has reportedly signed a decade long contract which will cost them $800,000/year, and will bump up over 1 million per year after. The new Apple location will be a massive 23,000 square feet — which for the record, is more than 3 thousand sq feet larger than their biggest location to date — and will span across the North and Northwest balconies.
Apple will be pillaging the current Charlie Palmer’s Metrazur restaurant which stands in the current location and pay for all renovations of said location. The deal is set for financial approval with the MTA on Monday – giving it a desired ‘OK’ date of Wednesday. There isn’t a huge amount of shopping in the location – nothing near the amount that Apple will bring. The MTA had this to say about the deal:
…the Apple Store has the potential to bring a great new shopping destination to iconic Grand Central Terminal and significantly increase revenues for the MTA’s transportation system.
Apparently the iPhone 4 is a smashing success over yonder in China, for all of their brick & mortar Apple stores have completely depleted their stock of the popular handset. If you’re a Chinese resident and still want in, you’ll have to take your cash online if you hope to score any touchscreen action. Of course, if scalpers wouldn’t snap up every damn device that’s available and then resell them at exorbitant prices, we wouldn’t be in this situation.
But regardless of who is or isn’t buying up all of the Chinese iPhone 4′s, there is something to look forward to. November should see stock once again replenished if physical purchases are still your go-to method.
The next time you stop by the newest Apple store in downtown Chicago, be sure to check out the first ever “Apple Stop”. Currently, it’s the North/Clybourn station on the city’s Red Line train. But tomorrow after the Apple Store officially opens its doors for the first time, the name will *unofficially* change.
If you think Apple is merely “taking over” a nearby city service, slapping an ad it, and calling it their own, you’re sorely mistaken. During the construction process for the new store, Apple sunk some $4 million into the train stop — polishing/scrubbing bricks, cleaning grime off handrails, touching up paint, and other general TLC. The once nasty, disgusting stop is now a much nicer, less repulsive place to walk through.
Looking past the hubub of a new Apple Store, it’s pretty neat to see how Apple also takes into consideration the immediate surroundings, and if it isn’t up to their standards, they make it so. Now ask yourself: how many other companies do you know that actually tend to the surrounding areas (that they don’t own) around their property on their own dollar?
I have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with Apple. On one hand, they make some pretty awesome products. On the other, some of their policies and how they treat customers really irks me. At the end of the day however, I end up giving them money. I like shiny gadgets. Therefore, I buy shiny gadgets.
For a large majority of readers out there, simply venturing into town or to your town’s local mall will find you in close proximity to one of those almost magical Apple stores. Seeing as how I don’t have one anywhere close to where I live (closest is an hour and a half away in Chicago), when I do come face to face with one, I often wonder aimlessly for a solid 30-40 minutes, awestruck — nevermind the fact that I could tell you just about anything you wanted to know about most of the stock they carry.
So it is with great jubilation and child-like excitement that I announce the coming of a brand new Apple Store to University Park Mall in Mishawaka, Indiana. –>
- December 10, 2009 12:44 pm
In most circumstances I’d advise you to be extra leery and even outright avoid street vendors in large cities such as Chicago and New York. What often seem like nice and honest people are actually anything but, scamming gullible tourists and such out of their dollars in exchange for cheap crap. But every once in a while you find a diamond in the rough. Gear Diary writer Larry Greenberg found just that. It seems Larry shares a love that I myself am completely helpless to — we love phone cases. In his case (no pun intended), it’s for the iPhone while mine has since moved on to the Droid.
While a great deal of iPhone cases sold by Apple are at least a 6 on a 1-10 scale, you ultimately pay for the name and privilege of owning a small piece of the Apple name. But you don’t have to. Many do their shopping online as Apple sometimes has special deals on their online store. You can try 3rd channels both online and party brick and mortar with retailers such as Best Buy and other consumer electronics stores routinely offering their own sales and discounts. Or you can simply walk ten feet outside of an Apple store in Manhattan and find a rather organized and well kept street vendor with a boat load of cheap iPhone cases.
The vendor above was sitting outside of Apple’s new Manhattan store located on the upper-west side of the city. Apple obviously doesn’t like it because the vendor undercuts their prices by a considerable margin. The police aren’t too favorable either as it takes up space and street vendors on the whole have a rather negative image built up around them. But according to Larry, this guy was actually really nice and well kept, flaunting his street vendor badge giving him what seemed like god like powers to resist the powers of the police and Apple alike. Hey, if he’s making money and actually selling legit cases that aren’t crap, more power to him.
As Larry says: “Capitalism at it’s finest”. So true Larry, so true.
- November 12, 2009 3:43 pm
Some may claim the economy is on the way up. I think it’s still a tad too early to tell. Personal opinions aside, it’s no secret to anyone that getting a job is still a monumental chore to say the least. People just aren’t hiring — except Apple that is. Apple will soon be opening their fourth Manhatten store in the Big Apple and naturally need some help runnin’ the place. Today at an Apple press event they let wind that over 10,000 people submitted applications to work in the new store, 10,000. First off, 10,000 people won’t fit inside the store so sadly some names had to be cut…
Of those original 10,000+ only 200 people were hired. Some basic number crunching reveals that’s right around a 2% acceptance rate. Harvard? 7%. Wow. I knew Apple was popular and had a following, but being even more desirable a place to be than one of the most prestigious schools in the country? That’s impressive. Now before you rake me overl the coals, I’m completely aware that the application process and regulations between Harvard and the Apple Store are two completely different environments and aren’t really comparable. Forgetting the more technical (read: fantasy/fun killing) details and just looking at the numbers however makes for interesting tech talk does it not?
Now the next time your friend’s snobby brother brags about Harvard just remind him your employment at Apple’s new Manhattan store is much more “prestigious”.
Anyone elses’ mind full yet?
Alley Insider > Gizmodo
- September 21, 2009 8:05 pm
Work at an Apple Store and feeling a little gipped when wages are concerned? Looking for something new and completely different from your current occupation? It seems Redmond is doing a bit of poaching from deep within Apple these days as Apple Store managers are reporting that they are being contacted by Microsoft personal brandishing promises of greatly increased wages as well as a lucky few even getting lavish gifts such as paid moving expenses. Microsoft appears to be really trying hard on this whole retail front, but are clever signage, store layout, and poached Apple employees really going to make Microsoft stores more hip? Personally I doubt it will do much to improve the “coolness” factor. Instead, I see Microsoft stores being more geeky stores full of…well…geeks with Apple continuing to attract the hipster crowd. However, the added knowledge and consumer based know-how Apple employees bring certainly can’t hurt right?
Ars Technica
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