Third New York City Apple store [u]
updated 07:25 pm EDT, Tue October 24, 2006
Third Manhattan store
Apple is planning a third retail location in New York City, confirming earlier reports indicating it had signed a retail lease late last year. The company, which launched its second NYC location on Fifth Avenue in May of this year, will open its third Manhattan retail store at SL Green Realty Corp.'s retail joint venture at West 34th Street, just west of Fifth Avenue and south of the company's flagship Fifth Store location, which welcomed its one millionth visitor in mid-September. The comapny's Apple Store SoHo welcomed its five millionth visitor in April of this year. "The team had to negotiate more than six separate transactions and explore the outer reaches of the New York City building code with help of several consultants," SL Green's chief investment officer told analysts during its third-quarter conference. [updated]
After approval issues for its proposed store front, Apple last year retreated from a planned retail store in the Flatiron District in Manhattan, but continued to sublease the location.
Last month, the company launched on a new store design based on elements from its flagship Fifth Avenue location, its only 24-7 retail outlet and its largest layout.
In its last quarterly conference call, the company told investors it was the first time that more half of its retail Mac sales--totaling 323,000 from its retail stores--were to "switchers" and that during the three-month period, each store added about 1,000 new users to platform. Apple opened 10 new retail stores during the September quarter for a total of 165 stores open by the end of September 2006.
Reuters says that the deal for the third location began with discussions of a 50-by-100 square-foot floor plan but ended up being 50 to 75 feet by 100 feet.
The company also has plans to open new retail stores in the Denver and Chicago areas.
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Joined: May 2005
Excellent strategy!
Apple is putting their stores in strategically most important locations in Manhattan. The first one, in SoHo, went for the young, artistic funky crowd. The next one, across from The Plaza (and next to the FAO Schwarz flagship), on Fifth Ave, went for all the tourists with money. Now, this one goes straight at the foot of the Empire State Building, a block away from Macy's, Victoria's Secret, H&M (as well as FootLocker, Banana Republic, Gap, Children's Place, Payless Shoesource and all those other mall-type stores). Half of Manhattan congregates there on the weekends for their shopping.
Basically, this new location won't take any visitors away from the previous two; it will just attract its own. I won't be surprised if this one ends up being 24/7 as well. I've seen the crowd at the 5th Ave store at 4AM on Tuesday; there's certainly interest.
Keep them coming, Apple! Or, as they say, if you build them, they will come!