Apple News, Analysis and Podcasts

Circa 1996, Boyz II Men, Happy Gilmore and Doc Martin's were the pop culture of the day. Nordstrom, The Gap and Eddie Bauer were mall favorites and techies were in short supply when it came to the Macy's crowd. But the character and purpose of "Let's go to the mall" was on the precipice of massive change.

Fast forward to May, 2001. Gateway's retail venture had peaked and Sony's radical Matreon in the heart of San Francisco was proving to be a colossal failure. Tech and trend-cool retail just could not co-exist. There was one more small-ish event took place on May 15, 2001. Steve Jobs rounded up some media folk, and introduced them to the first-ever Apple retail store in Tysons Corner mall in Virginia. The mall as we knew it was forever changed.

The Apple Stores themselves were not heavily dinged by analysts, it was the idea itself that made no sense to many (BusinessWeek anyone...). But Apple's focus didn't faulter, even after Apple mini retail stores failed, Apple kept plugging away. Nearly years later Apple retail stores in high-end malls are the accepted norm. SoHo Apple stores with multiple stories draw in tens of thousands per year, and Apple's overall retail venture draws in — and sells too — millions of consumers and small businesses.

Walk into any mall today and Apple is an absolute fixture, but it's no longer alone. Sony Style, Game Stop, Best Buy Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, and if you're "lucky" perhaps even a Microsoft store can be found. Apple has changed the way we think of the local mall, and the very reasons we go there. Makeup, clothes and coffee are still local mall favorites. But perhaps equally as important to malls are iPods, Macs, iPads, games, and TV's. Steve Jobs clearly had a vision, and the Apple retail stores may prove out to be his longest lasting success within Apple's legacy.

1 Comment

1. TheMacAdvocate ~ March 24, 2011 20:05
   Full credit to SJ for hiring Ron Johnson and making this happen. Seeing how the average Apple Store's foot traffic/sq ft. trumps just about any other retail presence at your typical mall, I'm willing to bet these little gems have generated more mall customers by themselves than the addition of any other retailer.

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