Three new Apple stores

Apple is already making good on its promise to open 40 new retail stores during fiscal 2008, with plans for three new stores surfacing today. A new store is planned for University Town at the Grand Arcade in Cambridge, and the company aims to erect a new retail outlet in Louisiana to mark the first ever Apple store along the Gulf Coast. Yet another store is planned inside the Pacific Centre Mall in downtown Vancouver, and the company is taking steps to conceal construction efforts on its third New York City store by wrapping the exterior in fabric. Apple detailed the success of its retail efforts on Monday when it discussed its September quarterly earnings during a conference call, announcing that the company experienced record quarterly revenue and traffic in an average of 190 stores globally.

Three new stores

Apple's University Town store at the Grand Arcade in Cambridge, UK, will open its doors to the 602,000 residents in the metropolitan region as well as the 22,000 students of Cambridge University. The city center shopping mall will include a glass roof above a dual-level street-like area as well as a huge atrium. The city attracts around 3.5 million tourists each year, and Apple's new store is scheduled to open alongside the new mall next March.

The first Apple store to open on the Gulf Coast is planned for the Mall of Louisiana in Baton Rouge. The first store in the state will stand as the only one of its kind along 1,000 miles of coastline from Houston to Tampa, serving the 602,000 residents at its location roughly 85 miles west of New Orleans.

An Apple store will also move into the Pacific Centre Mall in downtown Vancouver, Canada. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2009 where Apple will occupy its first western Canada store, which should see completion by the holiday season as well as the 2010 Olympic Games that will begin in February.

Third New York store construction

Workers have masked construction work on Apple's future 14th Street store in New York City with thin fabric, offering only a clouded view of the building's progress to onlookers. Additionally, a large two-faced billboard stands atop the building that depicts iPod ads.

New York store construction

Mac retail blog IfoAppleStore contributed to this report.

by MacNN Staff