TMO Reports - 6 Apple Mini Retail Stores to Open This Saturday [UPDATED]

by , 5:15 PM EDT, October 13th, 2004

Apple Computer Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer announced Wednesday that the company would be opening six mini retail stores in the US this Saturday. The announcement came during a conference call with Wall Street analysts.

"The new stores' small size will allow us to be in place in a variety of interesting new locations to introduce Apple's innovative products to even more customers," said Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer during the conference call.

The mini retail stores are Apple's small format stores with a smaller footprint, a smaller Genius Bar, and no presentation area. Apple puts these stores in locations where it expects less traffic than its larger stores.

Mr. Oppenheimer said the company's goal is to have 100 Apple retail stores open, large and small, by the end of December.

When asked Wednesday to provide a list of the new mini stores three days before their official openings, an Apple spokeswoman refused to supply a list to The Mac Observer. Apple's retail store Web site also has yet to post a list of the mini retail stores, as of this writing.

ifo Apple Store, a Web site that follows the goings on within Apple's retail store business, reports that the following seven locations are slated for mini store locations:

• Santa Rosa Plaza (N. Calif.), about 40 miles north of the Corte Madera store, and another 15 to the San Francisco store
• Stanford Shopping Center (N. Calif.), just 1/2-mile from the Palo Alto store
• Bridgewater Commons (NJ), about 15 miles from the Menlo Park store
• Shoppingtown Oakridge (N. Calif.), about 15 miles from the Valley Fair store
• Carousel Center (NY), about 143 miles from the Walden Galleria (Buffalo) store
• Southcenter (Wash.), about 10 miles south of the University Village (Seattle) store
• Rockaway Townsquare Mall (NJ), about 20 miles north and west of the Short Hills store

Historically, ifo Apple Store has been very accurate with its reporting on new store locations.

Brad Gibson contributed to this story.