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Apple assuming retail lease, plans to open new UK Apple Store
Apple's march to world domination continues, this time with a new Apple Store planned for the UK seaside city of Plymouth. What's surprising about this store announcement is that Apple apparently made managers of a successful Zara fashion store at the Drake Circus Shopping Centre (above) in Plymouth "an offer they can't refuse." The Zara store, which fills a 21,045 square-foot space in the mall, has about ten years to go on a fifteen-year lease. Zara is out; Apple will assume the lease for the remainder of the time. ifoAppleStore notes that this space is almost double the size of the standard Apple Store, so Apple may just occupy the ground floor and sublet the upper level. 26 Zara employees are losing their jobs as a result of the announced closing, but there's a good chance that more jobs than that will be created when the Apple Store opens. The Drake Circus store is about 45 miles from the Princesshay Apple Store in Exeter, and fills in coverage for the Devon and Cornwall region of the country.
Photos of Apple's store-within-a-store at Walmart
ifoAppleStore has pictures from a Lowell, Arkansas Walmart that shows an Apple store-within-a-store like those seen in Best Buy. The display at the Walmart location focuses on mobile devices like the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. With its large backlit-signs, wood tables and live demo units, the new in-store display improves Walmart's previous efforts which were drab and not very well maintained. ifoAppleStore says these displays may be a prototype of a rumored expansion of the store-within-a-store concept to Sam's Club, a retail warehouse chain owned and operated by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
New Apple Store in France set to open
Un nouveau magasin d'Apple est prête à ouvrir dans la ville française de Lyon la semaine prochaine. Errr, excuse me -- I mean, a new Apple Store is set to open next week in the French city of Lyon. ifoAppleStore is reporting that the new La Confluence store will open on Wednesday, April 4 at 7 PM local time. That date and time are a bit different from the usual Friday or weekend morning openings; the store opening is scheduled to coincide with the opening of a retail building that is part of a 350-acre redevelopment at the confluence of the Rhône and Saône rivers. There's another Apple Store just three miles away; no word on whether the existing Part Dieu store will remain open after the new facility opens.
Plans confirm Swiss Apple Store
Slowly, but surely, Apple's plans to build a retail store in the Swiss city of Basel are beginning to shape up. As reported by ifoAppleStore, the site for the store was first spotted by Swiss bloggers almost two years ago. The bloggers at MacPrime.ch have now dug up blueprints confirming that Apple's architect has been busy revising plans to meet with city regulations. The original design showed a 30-foot tall glass curtain wall that encompassed the ground and mezzanine levels of the two-level store. These plans have been changed, now showing the existing building at Freie Strasse 47 being demolished and replaced with a completely new facility. The facade now covers only the first level, with the upper level using regular windows. When completed by early 2013, the Basel store would have about 7,500 square feet of retail space and 2,800 square feet for offices and stock room. The two levels of retail are connected in the plans by Apple's trademark glass staircase.
Valencia Apple Store opening forces reseller to close
An authorized Apple Premium Reseller in Valencia, Spain -- Illa Digital -- closed its doors four weeks after an Apple Store opened just four blocks away. ifoAppleStore reports that competition from the Apple Store caused Illa Digital to start losing revenues almost immediately after the official Apple outlet opened for business, and finally laid off four employees before closing up shop earlier this week. There's a second reseller in Valencia, K-Tuin, located further away from the city center where the Calle Colón Apple Store and Illa Digital locations are, and it's apparently still in operation. ifoAppleStore notes that Apple executives have claimed for years that business for nearby resellers actually improves, but that resellers have "generally disputed that claim." To survive, they need to adjust their customer focus to remain relevant -- for instance, putting an emphasis on out-of-warranty repairs, selling used equipment, and so on. For Illa Digital, it looks like it's too late to change the focus and try a slightly different business plan.
Spain's fourth Apple Store to open on Friday
¡Apple Store cuarto de España para abrir el viernes! Yes, the fourth Apple Store in Spain is set to open on November 25 in the city of Marbella on the southern coast. The city is small -- only 125,000 residents call it home -- but it is a major tourist destination, so a lot of visitors are always willing to spend money in the city and especially at the La Cañada mall. As you've probably noticed on TUAW, there have been many international Apple Store openings during 2011. This won't be the last one for Spain this year -- it's expected that another store will open along the Carrer de Cristóbal Colon in Valencia. The grand opening is scheduled for 10 AM on Friday, and as usual we'd love to see any pictures of the festivities if you happen to attend.
New Apple Store planned in El Paso
ifoAppleStore says that Apple's retail team is bringing a new location to El Paso, Texas, right on the border to Mexico down there. The store will sit on the ground floor of the local Cielo Vista Mall, just three miles from the border, where Mexican customers make up 16 percent of retail sales in the city itself. This is an interesting choice -- there's another mall that's marketing itself as a more upscale destination nearby, but apparently Apple wants to open this store before waiting for that place to open in 2012. While the local area is interesting, where this store fits in the greater picture is even more fascinating -- the closest store to this location is apparently way over in New Mexico, which means this new retail outlet will fill in what ifoAppleStore says is a seven-state hole in coverage. Additionally, El Paso is one of the most Apple-loyal regions in the country according to a recent study, and it was actually the fourth-most loyal area that didn't yet have an Apple Store to call home. So this store is actually well-placed, it seems. There's no official date set yet, but if everything goes as planned, the store could open as soon as early next year.
Heatmap shows Fifth Avenue Apple Store is hot place for photos
The image above is a heatmap of photo locations on popular pic sharing site Flickr, put together by developer Eric Fischer. Each dot on the map indicates where a photo was taken in New York's Manhattan borough, with each circled area representing a hot spot of location photography. As ifoAppleStore points out, the locations marked 2, 3 and 4 on the map are pretty obvious photo spots, as they represent tourist standbys Rockefeller Center, Columbus Circle and Times Square, respectively. But the number one circle is interesting -- it's the location of Apple's Fifth Avenue Store in New York City, which is apparently competing for tourist eyeballs and photo snaps. We knew it was a popular location, but this heatmap shows just how popular. ifoAppleStore also has a heatmap of Chicago photos, and while they lament that the new Lincoln Park Apple Store isn't very well photographed, the much more iconic Michigan Avenue store does have its own red blots (though, of course, the proximity to the famous Chicago Water Tower probably mixes that one up a bit). It's clear, nevertheless, that these famous Apple retail buildings are gaining a big following among photographers and travelers.
ifoAppleStore celebrates Apple Store anniversary with a road trip
As you may have heard, Apple's retail arm is celebrating 10 years of existence this May, and the guys at ifoAppleStore.com are doing something special to celebrate. Gary Allen will be driving from California all the way out to Virginia for the opening of the Apple Store at Tyson's Corner there, documenting his trip both on the blog and on his Twitter account. It's a great trip, both because of the Apple tie-in, and because it's Gary just experiencing America first-hand. I've driven from the Midwest out to California a few times (and many times from St. Louis up to New York for my college career), and there's nothing more fun than exploring out on the open road. Gary also says that while he's not sure if Apple will do anything official to celebrate the retail anniversary, he does hear that the stores will quietly be doing something on the 19th or 20th of this month. So stay tuned -- if we hear about anything special next Friday, we'll let you know. In the meantime, you can follow Gary on his trip, and check out the recording of our TUAW Talkcast -- Gary was our guest on the show Sunday night, and he chatted about his trip and the anniversary.
$1.7M Apple Store coming to Berkeley; residents sing with joy
The People's Republic of Berkeley is getting a new Apple Store. ifoAppleStore has all of the details and images of the 15 pound pack of Apple Store blueprints that were recently dropped off at the Berkeley, CA city planning department. The building permit application was filed on November 15th, and shows that the store will occupy and expand upon a current storefront. The Genius Bar is going to be huge, housing 17 seats where Apple-lovin' aging hippies can get assistance. Several local animal rescue and adoption agencies currently use a plaza in front of the location for animal "meet and adopt" get-togethers, but they'll soon need to find a new location as the storefront will obliterate the plaza. While the Milo Foundation and several other animal adoption groups might singing the blues over the loss of their plaza, at least one group of local residents listed on YouTube as the Art Licensing Group were so happy about the news that they recorded themselves singing a Christmas-themed tune welcoming the new Apple Store. Check it out after the break.
ifoAppleStore to host Fifth Avenue event
So the Mac web is buzzing with anticipation as we all wait for Apple Store Fifth Avenue in NYC to finally open for business on Friday, May 19. To help you get into the mood, ifoAppleStore will be hosting a camp out on Thursday night outside the store. The first 100 people to show up will receive the cool commemorative pin pictured at right. It should be fun, and please let us know if you attend!
