Apple Computer (Cupertino, Calif.) opened a showcase store in Manhattan last Friday that it hopes will burnish the company's reputation for clever design. The entrance to the store, on Fifth Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets, is a glass cube, 32 feet on each side, with a suspended Apple logo inside.
Customers walk down a circular staircase — or take a cylindrical glass elevator — to the 10,000-square-foot store below. The store will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week — a first for Apple and an acknowledgment of New York's status as a round-the-clock city.
“We wouldn't do that in Palo Alto, but this is New York,” said Apple ceo Steve Jobs.
Apple now has 147 stores — all but 14 in the United States — and is adding new ones at the rate of 40 a year. Sales at the stores more than doubled last year, to nearly $2.4 billion, and same-store sales increased 45 percent. Revenue per square foot last year was $2489.
Bob Bridger, Apple's vp, retail development, will be one of the keynote speakers at VM+SD's International Retail Design Conference in San Francisco, in September. Hear Bridger (and other top retailers, from The Gap, Nordstrom and Pacific Sunwear) outline their companies' retail visions and plans. To register to attend, or for more information, click here: IRDC.