New Union Square Apple Store Opening on Saturday ⇥ apple.com
This is a brand new store to replace the famous but crowded Stockton Street location. Apple PR:
Apple Union Square’s glass doors open the store to Post Street and Union Square. The building’s unique position connects San Francisco’s most famous square to a rejuvenated plaza to the north, creating a beautiful gathering place for the community. The art-filled plaza offers seating, public Wi-Fi, a 50-foot tall “green wall” and regular acoustic performances. The store is powered by 100 percent renewable energy, including power produced by photovoltaic panels integrated into the building’s roof.
It’s a testament to how iconic these retail stores are that they no longer feel a need to put an Apple logo anywhere on the face of them. They’ve been doing this for a little while with the newer stores,1 and I think it looks great.
Rene Ritchie was invited to the press preview today, and he has some photos of the impressive new space.
By the way, those glass doors will sure be nice for rolling cars in and out of the store, don’t you think?
Update: Jim Dalrymple was also at the press preview:
Ahrendts said the company even thought about how sections of the Apple stores were named, like the Genius Bar. The word “bar” brings up thoughts of a busy, noisy space—not really what you’re looking for when trying to talk to an expert about your problems.
Apple renamed it the Genius Grove and added trees and seating, which gives it a more relaxed look and feel. It’s calming.
How does this scale to smaller mall stores?