Grand Central Apple Store Open for Business

Apple launched its much-discussed Grand Central Apple Store on Friday, the company’s newest high profile retail location in New York City. The store is located directly inside NYC’s Grand Central Terminal (GCT), a train station used by some 750,000 people per day, according to management.

Grand Central Apple Store

Grand Central Apple Store
Source: Apple

The new location is a very high profile spot for the company, both in terms of the historic nature of GCT itself and the high visibility it will give to Apple. The company had to pay some US$5 million to buy out the previous tenant, and this week there were reports of various NYC entities being critical of the lease agreement with Apple.

While every other tenant in GCT has a revenue sharing component of their lease, Apple does not. The Metro Transit Authority, the body that manages GCT, defended its deal with Apple as a good one for the city, the MTA, and the GCT’s other tenants, because Apple’s retail store will bring more shoppers and more foot traffic to the Terminal.

Other recent mainstream coverage includes an in-depth piece from CNN focused solely on Apple’s extreme secrecy and the tactics needed to achieve that secrecy in regards to the Grand Central Apple Store—a follow-up article looked at the same topic for a new location Apple is building in Santa Monica.

Be that as it may, the Grand Central Apple Store is open for business.