Inside Apple's new New York City store
A sneak peek at Manhattan's fourth Apple Store, set to open Saturday Nov. 14
Photo: Philip Elmer-DeWitt
The Upper West Side, that bastion of liberal thinking and discretionary spending nestled between Central Park and the Hudson River on the island of Manhattan, is finally getting its own Apple Store.
The retail outlet — Apple's 279th and the city's fourth — is scheduled to open Saturday morning. On Thursday, the press got an early tour of the facility.
It's a striking edifice, all glass and grey marble. The exterior is dominated by a two-story glass facade, a big white apple logo and a curved glass roof — a first for an Apple Store.
The ground floor interior is classic Apple (AAPL) retail, with 16 stand-alone blond wood tables on roughly 8,500 square feet of retail space — the largest single-floor display of Apple products in the world, according to the company.
More photos and an update below the fold:
Looking south, through the glass roof. Photo: PED
Down a spiral glass staircase is a similar-size service space with two walls of software and gear and another 16 tables loaded with iMacs and MacBooks. There's a giant TV screen mounted in front and a 45-foot-long Genius Bar along the back wall.
In the works for nearly two years, the store is situated on a sharply angled site formed by the intersection of Broadway and 67th Street, one block north of Lincoln Center and a block and a half west of Central Park. The No. 1 subway train stops one block south and there's a big Starbucks half a block east on Columbus Ave.
Street level tables and video display walls. Photo: PED
The address, 1981 Broadway, is the last free-standing retail space on the avenue. It was home for many years to the Cineplex Odeon Regency Theater. The theater was torn down in the 1990s to make room for a Victoria's Secret outlet, which has given way in turn to a high-end computer, MP3-player and smartphone emporium.
Apple began building its own outlets in 2001, and they have proved enormously profitable. A record 42.7 million customers visited Apple Stores last quarter, generating $7.6 million in revenue per store, up 15% year over year. All told, Apple Stores brought in $6.6 billion in revenue in fiscal 2009, more than the whole company generated ($5.4 billion) in 2001.
Basement level, with MacBooks and Genius Bar. Photo: PED
"We have the highest performing retail stores on the planet," boasts Ron Johnson, the former Target marketing whiz who runs Apple's retail division. Johnson told the press on Thursday that the average Apple Store generates $4,300 per total square foot (including storage space), the equivalent foot for foot of 5 Best Buys and 15 Target stores.
The "significant" stores (what Apple used to call its flagship stores) do much better. According to a Bloomberg report last summer, Apple's big glass cube on 59th St., across the street from the old Plaza Hotel, is the highest-grossing retail outlet on Fifth Avenue, bringing in an estimated $35,000 per square foot, nearly double the gross of Tiffany's sales floor and triple Harry Winston's.
Ron Johnson with glass staircase. Photo: PED
"People forget that when Apple began building stores, everybody said it wouldn't work," says Michael Gartenberg, vice president at Interpret, a market research firm. "They ended up redefining retail. Now they're not just the Nordstrom of technology. They are the new Nordstrom."
Doors to the Upper West Side store open to the public Saturday, Nov. 14, at 10 a.m.. Staffers will be handing out 500 free children-size and 2,000 adult-size Apple T-shirts for the faithful who queue up early. For hours and directions, click here. Apple's press release is here.
UPDATE: For video of this store opening (and two others the same day), see Apple staffers go nuts on 3 continents.
See also:
[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]
More energy is wasted re-charging all those cell phones people use unnecessarily for their constant useless chatter day in and day out, than this store will ever use.
Oh lord, how much cr*p. Tons of fossil fuels to heat? Hasn't anyone ever heard about energy efficient glass? Geez.
What do they need to burn heat for? The store is going to be packed daily. There'll be enough body heat to keep everyone warm and toasty. On sunny days, the rays of the sun should provide some warmth. Although, those doors should provide a nice blast of cold air during the winter with people going in and out.
I hope the weather is good on Saturday because I'd like to get a T-shirt. I'm sure the line will be very long so I hope they have a couple of thousand T-shirts. Surely the line won't be like the one in Paris.
I've always been a fan of Apple, but they'd better be careful. The look brings to mind the image of the screen that got the hammer thrown through it in their groundbreaking Supper Bowl ad from 1984.
Does this mean apple is going in to the window cleaning business as well?
And the stairs are neat, but where's the glass elevator?
ex ped: There is an elevator, but it's not glass.
"…it's going to take tons of fossil fuels to heat the place this winter."
Actually, if they can find a source of already-waste heat, they can capture it, pipe it to the store, and be nearly carbon-neutral. And in a city that size, I'd say finding sources of waste heat would be a pretty easy undertaking.
In fact, if they use solar cells that are mounted on the roof of a nearby building to supply their electricity needs, then they can be completely carbon-neutral.
You have failed to capitalize "The City" in your second paragraph.
cf. Edward Albee's "The Zoo Story". (period intentionally left out)
"We have the highest performing retail stores on the planet"
It's a shame that they're not more environmentally friendly. While the natural light is nice, it's going to take tons of fossil fuels to heat the place this winter.
Wow, the anti-5th Ave store, as there, the ceiling is low, while the Upper West store the ceiling is sky high. Too bad, I don't live in NYC, anymore.
2,500 T-shirt according to http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/11/12retail.html
ex ped: 2,000 for adults, 500 for kids, according to Ron Johnson.
Don't worry about the glass windows…worry about the glass ceiling and think about what those incredible New York pigeons are going to do to it. "I don't do windows"