Meanwhile, in DFW, at the new Upscale Mall, an un-advertised APPLE
Store was jammed:
Wednesday | August 8, 2001
Apple's new Plano store creates jam of shoppers
Computer company's retail venture designed to take a byte from rivals
08/08/2001
By Steve Quinn / The Dallas Morning News
Brad Loper / DMN
Shoppers lined up Friday morning for the opportunity to go into the
Apple computer store at The Shops at Willow Bend in Plano. Apple has
been one of the most popular stores in the mall.
PLANO – Thousands of shoppers who have crowded into The Shops at
Willow Bend during its five-day history have been lured to the Plano
mall by one specific store.
These consumers, some of whom crossed state lines to get there, are
heeding the siren song of the Apple computer store – the first in
Texas and third in the nation. The shop has been so popular that
customers sometimes have to endure Six Flags-type lines to gain
admission.
"Apple is probably the best PC maker to do this kind of thing," said
Stephen Baker, an analyst with NPD Group in McLean, Va.
The company acknowledges the need: Only about one in 20 personal
computers sold these days has an Apple label. The company says the
retail outlets should drive that number up.
The Willow Bend crowds have come even though the company has done no
advertising in support of the concept. Most customers are Apple
diehards who heard about the opening through users groups and e-
mails.
But customer enthusiasm won't last unless Apple reaches beyond the
loyalists to computer users who aren't presold on the Macintosh or
other company products, Mr. Baker said.
Brad Loper / DMN
Apple sales consultant Shawn Vrabel (left) helped Dallas resident
Robert Doggett Friday morning during the opening of Apple's computer
store at The Shops at Willow Bend in Plano.
"At some point they are going to have to do some sort of target
advertising campaign that drives people to the stores," he said.
Apple hired Ron Johnson, a Target Corp. executive, to help launch the
Apple outlets. Mr. Johnson, whose title is senior vice president of
retail, said the company can win new customers by placing stores in
high-traffic locations such as Willow Bend.
Company surveys showed that the 95 percent of computer users who
don't use Apples "had never thought about Apple," said Mr. Johnson,
who personally greeted shoppers at the Willow Bend store on opening
weekend.
"For us to build our market share, we have to build our stores where
the other 95 [percent of the] people gather. This whole thing, it's
really about growth."
Apple, based in the Silicon Valley city of Cupertino, Calif., plans
to operate 25 stores by year's end, with the next openings set for
Minneapolis, Chicago and Boston.
The first two stores, in Glendale, Calif., and McLean, Va., opened
May 19, collectively drawing 7,700 people and selling a combined
$599,000 worth of merchandise during opening weekend. They now are
averaging nearly 10,000 visitors a week, company officials said. The
company has not released figures for Willow Bend's opening.
The stores basically offer the same products found in CompUSA or
Fry's Electronics. But there are more services and software choices
available in the Apple-only stores, which have about 6,300 square
feet of space. The stores also offer product demonstrations not found
in the retail stores.
Each is outfitted with a 10-foot screen for demonstrations, a
children's computer play area and a Genius Bar, where users can sit
on bar stools, drink bottled water and talk about Macs with Apple
experts. There's a hotline if the experts get stumped.
"This store is made for the user," said customer Rob Doggett, the
first inside when the Willow Bend store opened Friday. "I wanted to
get here so I could talk to people who know what they are doing."
Macintosh user Larry Streck also wanted to be among the first inside –
and he drove in from Oklahoma City to do so.
"I didn't realize the whole mall was opening. I just came down here
because the Mac store was opening," said Mr. Streck, a Web designer.
The drive was worth it, he said, because he would get to meet "people
who know Macs."
Apple's entry into brick-and-mortar retailing comes five years after
mail-order computer maker Gateway began building its Gateway Country
stores. Gateway now has 302 stores, including five in the Dallas-Fort
Worth area.
Mr. Baker applauded Apple's entry into retailing.
"Being a niche product in a mass market is difficult, and they were
having trouble controlling the atmosphere of how they were being
presented," he said.
"Apple has been a designer, a developer, a hardware manufacturer, but
never thought of itself as a retailer."
A version of this report appears in the Wednesday edition of the
Plano Morning News.
-- Anonymous, August 08, 2001
