Apple Stores Turn 10
May 19th, 2011 by Benj Edwards
Ten years ago today, the first two Apple retail stores opened to the public. As you might expect me to do, I wrote an article about it. You can see the result, “A Tale of Two Apple Stores (The First Two),” over at Macworld right now. It’s part of a larger series of articles about the Apple retail stores’ 10th anniversary. Hope you enjoy it.
When you’re done reading, tell us about your first visit to an Apple Store. What were your feelings and impressions? Did you buy anything?
May 19th, 2011 at 6:18 pm
I happened to be in the Tyson’s Corner mall the day the first Apple Store opened and joined the line (short wait when I showed up) and saw the store on that day. Never thought it would be such a “historic” event. I didn’t by anything, but I still have the free t-shirt they were giving out that day.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theory14/sets/72157626613721755/
May 19th, 2011 at 9:29 pm
I was there for the first Perth (Australia) Apple store opening. It was pretty cool. It has turned into a huge hotspot here in a relatively small city… always full of people and giving other lazy retailers a shot of, “This is how it’s done.”
May 20th, 2011 at 2:48 am
Do they really count as the “first” Apple stores? 🙂 I’ve only walked outside of one, but I’ve figured that they were essentially white-and-chrome reboots of the original stores from the ’80s.
May 20th, 2011 at 7:24 am
Xyzzy: There were no “original stores” in the 1980s. The world’s first Apple-run retail store opened on May 19th, 2001. You may be remembering some chain of computer stores that wasn’t run by Apple.
May 20th, 2011 at 11:32 am
I was at the Glendale store opening. I remember that I bought an iBook there. I still have a T-shirt in a tube. Benj, it’s Glendale Galleria, not Glendale Gallerina as you have in your article.
May 22nd, 2011 at 9:52 am
can’t say i have visited an Apple Store, since there isn’t any in Indonesia. But the only time i enter a store that exclusively sell Apple computers is to ask the price for a Bose Companion…
May 22nd, 2011 at 10:19 am
My first Apple store experience was two years ago when they opened one in my area. I went in looking for a case to replace my previous one for my phatty ipod. Only when I asked a genius about where I could find one, he immediately tried to sell me the newer ipods. When I convinced him I didn’t have the money to replace it, he showed me what few cases they had left, for full price though it was a discontinued product. I stormed out and found a leather case for $5 at FYE.
I must give them some props. They didn’t treat me like a thief when I walked in wearing my backpack for school because twice a week I had an hour to kill at the mall while waiting for the next bus to take me home from college this past spring. Some stores had employees tail me while I browsed. I wanted to see what all the hype was about the ipad. Still not impressed enough to pay all that money, but I appreciate not being bothered.
May 23rd, 2011 at 12:40 pm
I don’t know anything about Apple products or Apple stores. We used those old boxy B&W Macintosh computers back in high school, and those were fun. I think that’s the last time I used an Apple product. They really haven’t done much as a company to interest me since then.
May 26th, 2011 at 2:40 pm
In the early days, they gave out free bottles of Avian water. They stopped doing that circa 2002.