by , 11:00 AM EST, November 17th, 2000
It appears, after nearly two years of speculation, that Apple Computer will open their own retail stores. According to the San Jose Mercury, the first such retail store is currently under contstruction a short way from Stebe Jobs' home in Palo Alto, California.
Currently, Apple sells their systems through major 3rd party retail chains, such as CompUSA and Sears. That strategy appears to be changing. Acccording to the Mercury:
Apple Computer Inc. is venturing into the retail arena with its very own Apple shops, selecting downtown Palo Alto, just a couple of miles from Jobs' home, as the start. The new store will sell Apple computers and related products.
The 6,500-square-foot retail business, being built as a prototype for future Apple stores, will set up shop at University and Kipling avenues. It may stay open until 11 p.m. for the downtown late-night crowd, and feature product demonstrations where the public can test-drive the latest iMac before lugging it home.
Gateway, with their national line of Gateway Country Store's, has seen their sales revitalized due to the retail outlets. The Mercury reports that Gateway's sales have increased by over US$600 million over the last year, with much of the credit going to the retail store front presense.
Borrowing another line from Gateway, the Apple retail store is expected to be tightly linked to the Apple Store online. Gateway Country typically has a somewhat limited selection of on-hand stock, but can typically rush process an order placed to their online store from within the retail stores. One can expect Apple to adopt a similar strategy.
After some rocky times with CompUSA, and the Apple Store Within A Store concept, rumors began to appear suggesting that Apple was indeed going to build their own line of retail stores, while most of the rumors had those stores appearing in major markets across the country. While there is no word as to whether or not Apple plans to build more stores, it does seem that they are at least preparing to test the friendly waters of Silicon Valley.
At the time of this writing, Apple representatives had not responded to The Mac Observer's request for information regarding the forthcoming retail store.
You can read the full article at the San Jose Mercury web site.
Rumors of an Apple branded retail store have been circulating for about the last 18 months. It would seem that the rumor sites were spot on with this one. What remains to be seen is exactly what kind of model the new retail outlets will take, and whether or not this will effect any of their existing retail relationships. Our guess is that it will not and that the retail stores will simply augment their existing retail presence. Hopefully Apple will not decide that their stores should handle 100% of retail sales. We won't put it past them however.
These times they are a changin'.