¶ So the Apple Store on Regent Street, London has finally opened. My bro had intended to get up super early and get himself a Lucky Bag. Even if he hadn’t slept through his 6am alarm, reports indicate he would still have been 12 hours too late joining the queue. Still, he went along anyway and witnessed the same scenes reported by Andy Budd and Jeremy Keith (whooping, hollering and high-fiving? Please! That’s just not cricket).
Anyway the store looks great and I’ll wander along one lunchtime when the hysteria has died down. But why has it taken so long for this first store in Europe to open? The first Apple stores in the US were opened in 2001; there are now over 100 stores making Apple a reported $40 million annual profit. I appreciate these things take time and I can understand the need to test the water on their own turf first, however this is another factor contributing to the feeling of neglect from Apple’s loyal customers on this side of the Atlantic. This may sound like a whine, and it is, but heh we wanna be loved too (although you can keep your high-fives)!
Comments
1
That see-through staircase looks quite nice, but I imagine it’d be a bit of a problem for women in skirts.
Or guys in kilts.
2
I also wonder how long it will take to open a store in a second European country.
Apparently 2 more stores are set to open in the UK, and there’s no announcement about ‘mainland’ Europe.
We’ve only got to hope for Apple-Eurostar partnerships for Mac-shopping week-ends…
3
The link to Jeremy Keith points to the photo on Flickr…
4
Mathias – fixed the link to Adactio now, thanks.
5
>feeling of neglect from Apples loyal
> customers on this side of the Atlantic.
Hey, you’re getting better service than Canada. Still no iTunes Music Store here, and it sounds like we might be getting our first Apple Store next year. On the other side of the country… Cupertino itself is closer to me than Toronto.
6
I started queueing at 8am, and when I did a queue-count later, I was around 660th. Amazing, really. Even at 11:30am, there were people who’d arrived at 5am, and weren’t inside yet.
The staircase has tastefully frosted glass for the steps, so women need not fear for their modesty.
My memory tells me I’ve heard something about an Apple Store in Paris. Frustratingly, it stops short of telling me what.
7
Funny… The link to Keith points to the photo on Flickr :)
Add your comment
Comments are now closed on this post. If you have more to say please contact me directly.