Americana outlet an unusual experiment

Apple will finally open its Americana retail store this Saturday at 10AM Pacific time, the company's website reveals. The outlet is notable mainly because of its location in Glendale, California, just 600 feet from another Apple Store in the Glendale Galleria. The distance represents the smallest gap between Apple Stores anywhere in the world, but may be necessary since the Galleria location -- Apple's second ever built -- is reportedly full of visitors at all hours.

Sources meanwhile say that Apple's SouthPark outlet in Charlotte, North Carolina will be joining others undergoing expansion. The claim is that Apple is planning to expand into an adjacent Sur La Table space, gaining about 4,000 extra square feet. Apple's current footprint is roughly 3,000 square feet. Still unknown, though, is when renovations will begin or finish.

Apple is presently engaged in a massive, worldwide retail push, either working on high-profile shops in places like Hong Kong or New York City, or else expanding or renovating existing stores. One of the company's most dramatic overhauls is again taking place in New York City, where it is replacing the glass cube sitting over top its Fifth Avenue location. That construction is expected to cost nearly $6.7 million.

by MacNN Staff