A new kind of Apple Store is opening on Saturday.
Across the street from the iconic San Francisco store, Apple is opening a new flagship aimed at being more than just a store. The trademark 42-foot glass doors will open to a kind of Apple-designed public forum, with a conference room, advice for small businesses, concerts, and a layout that blurs the line between inside and outside.
"This is not just a store," Angela Ahrendts, Apple's senior vice president of retail and online stores, said in a Thursday press release. "We want people to say, 'Hey, meet me at Apple.... Did you see what's going on at Apple?"
Apple is not the first business to engaged in an aesthetic revamp for physical store locations. More and more large companies have taken a designer's eye to rebuilding or in some cases building stores to for greater aesthetics, layout, and convenience.
What would you do if you had $100 billion in cash sitting in the bank?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ikanreed on Tuesday May 24 2016, @03:50PM
There's nothing here that a community center or coffee shop doesn't provide better, but because it's apple, and will be shiny and faux techno-futurist looking consumers will eat it up.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Nerdfest on Tuesday May 24 2016, @04:02PM
The should probably just start referring to it as a "cathedral" rather than a "store". It both works better in the "cathedral vs. bazaar" sense, and ties in nicely with the blind Apple faithful (who's numbers finally seem to be dropping).
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday May 24 2016, @04:12PM
No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public. Except Donald Trump.
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Tuesday May 24 2016, @05:08PM
(Score: 3, Informative) by ikanreed on Tuesday May 24 2016, @06:18PM
The fucker crashed numerous businesses, and essentially only has money because of fraudulent financial dealings. I'm not really in the mood to go and collect sources to prove all this, but he's crashed and burned so many businesses, running off with investors' money as direct compensation to himself for his name.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2016, @07:30PM
And it's been calculated he'd be as rich or richer today if he had simply taken his initial "small loan" from daddy and invested it. He's spent his adult life coasting on his father's money and only managed to stay in the black through fraud. He's an absolute failure as a businessman if you measure the amount of honest money he's made.
(Score: 2) by jimshatt on Wednesday May 25 2016, @10:01AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2016, @04:11PM
They will probably get a patent on rectangular cornered walls and sue every company that features this ...
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday May 24 2016, @03:57PM
I doubt they have the patience to replicate this "experience" outside of a few major cities. They are just doing it in San Francisco to attract buzz around techies, press, trendsetters, whatever.
Oh, sure. Let's see what they do to protesters.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by CRCulver on Tuesday May 24 2016, @05:28PM
Apple has already opened one of these next-generation retail centers in Memphis, Tennessee. While it's a largish, nationally-known city, it's still beyond the handful of hip coastal spots you'd expect this to be limited to.
(Score: 4, Funny) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday May 24 2016, @03:58PM
I'd spend it on hookers and blow of course, just like our friends in Cupertino.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday May 24 2016, @04:26PM
Wouldn't a person with such resources not spend it on the realization of the tasp [wikia.com]?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday May 24 2016, @04:50PM
Not me.
There's a daily time for Blackjack, multiple times for hookers, but universe is too big to spend the rest of your life in tech-induced orgasm-coma,
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Tuesday May 24 2016, @04:04PM
Unlike most americans, I don't have a contract phone and haven't for maybe a decade. Save fat stacks of cash that way, I don't need a 75% APR subprime loan to scrape up the cash for an unlocked phone, so its not like my phones are any cheaper, they're just enormously cheaper to finance.
Anyway from my contact with contract people, it sounds like hanging out at a phone dealer, other than when the contract is up, is about as appealing as hanging out at the local Honda dealership other than when your lease is almost up or its otherwise time to buy new.
It just doesn't sound very fun.
Another good analogy would be my dentist. The plan pays for 6 month checkups and he's a really nice guy but I feel no need to hang out in his office every week or whatever.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday May 24 2016, @04:09PM
But your dentist hasn't set up a public forum in the waiting room or held any concerts!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday May 24 2016, @05:00PM
That is a fair point, but car dealerships, especially the service waiting area, are just a thin layer beneath that. Big screen TVs, free wifi, free coffee, free coke/pepsi, free donuts, free fresh fruit, free cookies, and a new one at the recently remodeled Toyota, is free freshly popped popcorn.
On one hand I'm not cool with the $20 oil change for $10 worth of filter and oil, but.. on the other hand I can eat a "free" sickeningly unhealthy breakfast and chill out for an hour in relative luxury, vs going outside in -10F weather and doing it myself. I suppose from their point of view $10 is worth more to them than a donut and a cup of orange juice.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2016, @05:25PM
Get a fumoto oil valve, so you don't have to spend much time outside when you change your oil. I've been using them for years and everyone I've recommended them to love them.
(Score: 2) by Marand on Tuesday May 24 2016, @08:15PM
Anyway from my contact with contract people, it sounds like hanging out at a phone dealer, other than when the contract is up, is about as appealing as hanging out at the local Honda dealership other than when your lease is almost up or its otherwise time to buy new.
Sounds like you haven't encountered many hardcore Apple fans. The company has a sort of cult of personality built around it, to the point I don't find the idea surprising at all. Hell, I've gotten the impression some of them already do it with regular Apple stores.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2016, @04:19PM
I still wouldn't buy Apple products.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Gaaark on Tuesday May 24 2016, @04:24PM
We want developers to say, "Hey, i can't afford this shit, because my job just got given to an H1-B... did you see that H1-B guy doing my job at Apple?"
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday May 24 2016, @04:38PM
The trouble actually is that the Tastemakers on Madison Avenue are slaves to Apple when it comes to technology. There is simply no room anywhere there to talk about Microsoft or, god forbid, Linux. Apple is cool. Apple is designed. Apple is managed by committees of very smart, very over-paid people like the Tastemakers to decide what it is cool to do in the realm of technology. Everything else in the world that deals with infrastructure or anything else that is incredibly important but mundane is totally, I mean like totally, uncool.
Therein lies Linux's basic quandry when it comes to general social acceptance. Apple holds the high ground of "cool," Microsoft holds the high ground of "severely uncool, but helps you steal money from everyone's pocket."
Yet, Linux runs the majority of the world's servers and embedded devices. What wins in the end, the flash that travels on the roads, or the roads that carry every sort of flash?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Tuesday May 24 2016, @08:59PM
"Therein lies Linux's basic quandry when it comes to general social acceptance. Apple holds the high ground of "cool,""
They also hold the it just works for the most part and no changes every god damn time it is updated that breaks the old shit for the sake of chasing the new shinny. I used the Linux from 1998 to early 2008 and the amount of times them clowns borked shit for the chase the new shinny was unbelievable they would just get something working good then time to dump it for this new that is basically useless for years again until they got that right only to rinse and repeat. On the other hand in 2008 when I switched to a hackintosh that install is still running to this day on the machine I am writing this on through many OS upgrades, hardrive changes and machines it is like the energizer bunny it just keeps on going. In short Apple got *nix on the desktop right something Linux will never do with using the always divided method of development they do. Now OSX on/for a server fairly useless I still use Debian for that these days but you can still use all your favourite utilities from Linux on OSX if you install homebrew or similar.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 2, Interesting) by BeaverCleaver on Wednesday May 25 2016, @12:09AM
After getting sick of the windows 10 nagging I upgraded to Linux Mint. Everything "just works," even the weird keyboard functions on this Dell laptop.Hell, it even manages to work with my windows-only printer. Updates have all worked fine in the 6 months that I've been using it. I still have my old win7 on a partition if I need it... and I can count those times on the fingers of one hand. I spend less time making Mint do what I want than I ever did trawling forums trying to get Windows to behave. No, it's not perfect. There is no One OS To Bind Them All. I use my computer differently to how you use your computer, and we probably both use it differently to a grandmother or an accountant or a musician or a teenager. This is why diversity (and also open standards!) are a Good Thing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2016, @04:36PM
newbie here, but srsly ... how many iphone do you need to sell first, hypothetically, to be able to rent prime land-space, build
and then display .. like all your 5 products?
Somehow i seriously doubt that you can make 100 billion dollars with selling a fancy touch screen radio WITHOUT even having
a network or your own factory.
somethin' about this apple smells very very fishy ... or people are just plain b0rked crazy?
(maybe it's along the line of: look a turd! how much is it worth? nothing but everybody and their grandmother has bought share
in it. really? yes!!! follow the sheep! ok, i guess i will buy some turd stocks also...)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2016, @04:38PM
oh, look a TV-channel-religion-preacher build a cathedral ... from turds coming out of his mouth!
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Tuesday May 24 2016, @05:26PM
Gadgets are generally a stupid tax on the income of wage earners. There are darn few who can really justify their gadgets, that they would make so much less money without them. That kid with their $2000 facebook machine will never see the payback. In this way gadgets, like the lottery, are a tax on the stupid. (I am not critical of people spending their disposable income as they wish which may include time wasters and gadgets.)
So to answer your inquiry: very fishy or b0rked crazy? yes and yes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 25 2016, @02:03PM
thank you for reply and being serious :)
(Score: 4, Touché) by blackhawk on Tuesday May 24 2016, @04:40PM
What would you do if you had $100 billion in cash sitting in the bank?
I might consider paying taxes in the countries where I did business. I'd also start to think about contributing to several charities in particular ones for people who were vulnerable or at risk.
I definitely wouldn't use every known tax loophole to avoid paying my fair share of the tax burden - or lobby congress for new and interesting ways to fuck over the general populace.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday May 24 2016, @05:21PM
Good answer. Maybe better than mine.
With that kind of money, I could create a lot of jobs. Jobs are better than charity, IMO. Jobs enable other people to be charitable. Instead of relying on some big charity, I can enable a bunch of men and women to support themselves, and to give something away to family and freinds who need it.
Jobs - but not Steve.
(Score: 2) by GlennC on Tuesday May 24 2016, @06:59PM
And this is why neither you nor I will ever be allowed to put our hands on that kind of money.
How dare we consider people other than ourselves!
Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday May 24 2016, @07:45PM
The .sig speaks the truth. Religiously I may be a Deist, but in the only way that matters, you, and I, and most of us, are atheists and blasphemers.
...good. Mammon and Baculum can go rot.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 25 2016, @11:37AM
It's such a pleasure to see "populace" spelled correctly. I can't remember the last time I didn't see it spelled "populous."
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday May 24 2016, @06:51PM
I sure as hell wouldn't be paying it out in dividends [google.com].
(Score: 2) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Tuesday May 24 2016, @07:01PM
Barnes and Noble tried the "not just a store" thing a few years ago. They had seats. Tables. They wanted you to bring your laptop and sit around all day. Now all that stuff is gone. And I could afford the things at BN. So if it didn't work for them, will it work for Apple? I mean, I sort of want to go to BN and browse, but I'd only go to an Apple store to buy an expensive gadget. Actually, I'd order it online. But BN seemed to be a perfect fit for this not-a-store concept and it didn't seem to work.
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 2) by WillR on Tuesday May 24 2016, @07:51PM
Wasn't that the whole problem - people would go to Barnes and Noble, pick up a new book, sit in the nice leather chair to read a chapter, decide they want it, then pull out their laptop and use the free wi-fi to order it on Amazon for $2 less than B&N?
(Score: 2) by Marand on Tuesday May 24 2016, @08:31PM
Sounds about right. B&N's "not just a store" idea was pretty nice, giving it a library-like feel that made it nicer to shop in vs. other places. Every time I went in one, I saw plenty of people making use of the amenities, so it was definitely popular. It didn't change my habits any -- I'd always randomly sample parts of an interesting book -- but it did give me a place to sit while doing it.
The problem with the idea seemed to lie more with Amazon than the idea itself, because like you said, people would sample it in the store and then buy it off Amazon for less. Other retail stores like Target have complained of similar problems, where people use their stores to window-shop, scan barcodes, then buy the items off Amazon. Some stores supposedly even started taking offensive action against to stop it, but I don't know how true that is.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 25 2016, @11:42AM
Really? What does that mean, employees would tackle you, or they'd hire hackers to stalk your online behavior and wag their finger at you?
It quite reveals what businesses really think of their customers when they use tactics like that--they have a right to your money, and you should be grateful they allow you to give it to them.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Marand on Wednesday May 25 2016, @10:39PM
Really? What does that mean, employees would tackle you, or they'd hire hackers to stalk your online behavior and wag their finger at you?
Nothing quite so aggressive. Mostly I've seen claims occasionally made that some places take deliberate action to reduce signal quality, or that stores offering wifi give degraded performance loading competitor sites, etc. I can't recall seeing any of the claims proven, but I also wouldn't be surprised at all. We've already seen that some hotels and hotel chains have no problems using jammers (illegal!) to block cell reception in order to "encourage" people to pay for hotel wifi, so it's not really so far-fetched even if it hasn't been verified yet.
(Score: 2) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Wednesday May 25 2016, @12:33PM
BN can't compete with themselves, let alone Amazon. BN's online prices are significantly cheaper than their store prices. I can't explain why they don't care about their stores.
Over the past few years, book cover prices have increased dramatically to "price in" a steep online discount. Amazon has no advantage over BN or anyone else now. In the early days, Amazon did have a price advantage over retailers like BN. But recently, that advantage has disappeared because cover prices have increased so much that everyone offers a 25-40% discount. So that's not why BN got rid of their chairs and tables.
I call this huge cover price increase the "Dover effect" because the cheap textbook publisher Dover was slow to get with the program. They kept publishing cheap books long after other publishers capitulated and jacked up their cover prices. But a few years ago, Dover began dramatically increasing their cover prices. The thing is, the amount you pay for their books is about the same as it always was. They've almost doubled their cover prices to "price in" steep online discounts. All publishers have, but with Dover the effect was much more in your face because it seems like they started doing it overnight to catch up with publishing reality.
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2016, @07:03PM
Two chicks at the same time.
(Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Tuesday May 24 2016, @10:04PM
I'd get a new laser printer. What does PC load letter even mean?!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2016, @10:07PM
Might need $200 billion...
(Score: 1) by tractatus_techno_philosophicus on Tuesday May 24 2016, @07:05PM
Anyone remember the Gateway Country Store? Now THAT was a store... Paint the outside of the Apple Store to look like a dairy cow and I might consider becoming a customer. Until then, Xubuntu and my ASUS laptop aren't going anywhere.
No moral system can rest solely on authority. ~A.J. Ayer
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Tuesday May 24 2016, @07:14PM
Apple has enormous mindshare and marketshare among the decision making crowd, and yet inexplicably has refused to become business-friendly. Many midsize and larger operations have Macs for either graphic arts or web design work, so they are in the workplace. For whatever reason, Apple would rather sell lots of one and two computers rather than hundreds at a pop by marketing them to organizations. So if I had a 100 billion electronic dollars, I'd have Marketing and R&D get Macs into the 3-to-5 year business computer replacement cycle.
Why hasn't Apple ever bothered with this?
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2016, @07:47PM
I think that given the current situation with Windows 10, Apple has a unique opportunity to appeal to people like me; folks who set the IT road map but have avoided Apple for numerous reasons. While I resist now, the reality is that I'm facing an inevitable W10 migration at some point. Unfortunately, Linux just isn't an option but if Apple were to convince me that their OS wasn't the same shitty malware infection as Windows then I would consider switching. I just spent two decades keeping our networks clean but now the OS has become the malware. Fix this problem, Apple, and you'll win my business! I don't give a fuck about your silly hipster store...
(Score: 1) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Tuesday May 24 2016, @08:12PM
I don't know how big you business is, but I find it strange that Linux is "not an option" while Apple is, despite avoidance for over a decade.
I will just leave this here:
Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software [gnu.org]
(Score: 1) by tractatus_techno_philosophicus on Tuesday May 24 2016, @08:13PM
I'm glad to see I'm not the only person sharing this sentiment. Apple-culture aside, I am indeed considering purchasing an iMac at some point. I've used Linux exclusively since Windows 10 came out, and as much as I adore it, it can't fulfill my music production needs. The popular DAWs for Linux are unusable for the bulk of music producers due to software which breaks with every new distribution release and virtually no support from audio hardware manufacturers. Wine is not an option either, as DAWs which utilize ASIO won't work properly on Wine or even a VM (rendering CoreAudio unusable as well if I were going the Mac OS route). If I were to purchase an iMac, I would use it for all my audio/video/imaging needs and remain on Xubuntu for everything else. All of this because Microsoft has completely lost their minds. If I could still use the latest version of Windows with a sane GUI and without Big Brother recording my every action, I'd still use Windows for my production needs. I'll never be able to leave Linux as my primary OS though. It's too damn fast and secure for daily computing, and I'm spoiled to it.
No moral system can rest solely on authority. ~A.J. Ayer
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Tuesday May 24 2016, @08:49PM
JACK is the Free Software low latency sound system. (Though I have not actually successfully configured it myself yet).
I find my sound works much better if I just remove pulseaudio (which is apparently a recommended, but not required package for most Desktop Environments).
(Score: 1) by tractatus_techno_philosophicus on Tuesday May 24 2016, @09:16PM
I was actually able to successfully configure JACK recently, but couldn't get any DAW to work with it (most notably Ardour4, which crashed upon the creation of a new project every time). JACK wasn't the problem, rather every natively-compiled Linux DAW I've attempted to run, and don't even get me started on LMMS; I don't care if it is free. That DAW is garbage. Audacity is the only audio (in this case sampling) program which has operated flawlessly for me on Linux, and I wish it had the same multi-track and "overall project" functionality as Cubase. If so, I'd be in business. I understand that multimedia production isn't Linux's strong suite, nor do I expect it to be. It performs every other daily task flawlessly for me, and that's incredible. Until it's capable of professional-quality multimedia production, it seems Apple is the only way to go if your aim (like mine) is to avoid Microsoft entirely.
No moral system can rest solely on authority. ~A.J. Ayer
(Score: 1) by nethead on Tuesday May 24 2016, @09:20PM
Because it's not just the desktops, it's the back of house stuff Domain controllers and calendaring/mail systems that Microsoft supports. Apple doesn't have an "Exchange" server, hell they don't even have a Lotus (IBM) Domino server. Is there a third enterprise level mail/calendaring system that I'm forgetting? Sure, you can make OSX work with those, but not with near the integration that you get with an enterprise version of Windows and an Active Directory domain controller.
How did my SN UID end up over 3 times my /. UID?
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Wednesday May 25 2016, @02:11PM
With 100 Billion Dollars they can't make something better than Office/Outlook/Exchange?
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 25 2016, @11:47AM
Apple rules lawfirms, though, for some reason I've never been able to fathom; they certainly don't care about graphics. They were also one of the last bastions of LotusNotes.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2016, @09:21PM
It's just another PR stunt, get some press, have a shiny thing to point to. I bet they'll pay some big name artist to play a show there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2016, @10:11PM
Android and Microsoft have Apple beat on price/performance, so Apple needs to keep establishing its luxury position. When you're the Four Seasons, you don't have to worry about matches promotional deals at the Ramada Inn.