I ventured ( I mean ventured! ) all the way out to the new Apple store in the far reaches of north Toronto this weekend and was really disappointed. Not only was there a line up that stretched through the mall ( with 5 police officers to create some sort of mystery) the wait was about an hour.
On top of it all the store looked cheap, small, and really boring kinda like they had just taken it over from one of those everything under a buck stores.. . Not what I would have expected from Apple( visit the NY Chelsea store to see what I mean )
The other question I had was why they would locate the store all the way up there in the middle of no where?? why not downtown? why not somewhere central? I won't be going back until they move it downtown where it should be. This is Toronto not Buffalo NY......
John / Toronto
dude, its 10 mins by TTC from anywhere in Toronto...clearly not in the middle of nowhere
I ventured ( I mean ventured! ) all the way out to the new Apple store in the far reaches of north Toronto this weekend and was really disappointed. Not only was there a line up that stretched through the mall ( with 5 police officers to create some sort of mystery) the wait was about an hour.
Didn't get a shirt huh?
Quote:
Originally Posted by xxethan
On top of it all the store looked cheap, small, and really boring kinda like they had just taken it over from one of those everything under a buck stores.. . Not what I would have expected from Apple( visit the NY Chelsea store to see what I mean )
How did it look cheap? I mean it's one thing to say it looked no different than any of the other Apple stores (mall ones that is). But cheap I don't think is quite a good description. Clean, minimalist design, brightly lit broken & down into the sections you would expect to see (desktop, video, mobile, and of course iPod). You must have passed Ardene or any one of those hair accessory / cheap jewelry / bratty teen girl tee shirt stores on your way in now those stores are cheap looking.
And I have been in the Soho Apple Store sure there's no comparing the two. But then again it's an unfair comparison, as this one is definitely a mall store. They definitely have two different types of stores they build. But they all do the same thing when you go through the doors.
And aesthetic aside, it seemed people didn't seem to have a problem with the look of the store when it came to buying.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xxethan
The other question I had was why they would locate the store all the way up there in the middle of no where?? why not downtown? why not somewhere central? I won't be going back until they move it downtown where it should be. This is Toronto not Buffalo NY......
<i>Let's see downtown:</i> Huge pain in the ass to get to. Parking on approved credit. And real estate likely less available at good prices than Leafs tickets this season aside.
<i>Now the Yorkdale location:</i> Free parking. Easy to get to if you are a Torontian (as someone has already commented about) but more importantly for those coming in from out of town.
And you can rest assured that I am sure they (Apple, that is) did more market research and demographic study than you have to locate not only the first Apple Store in the <s>center of the universe</s> Toronto, but also, Canada.
Anyone I talk to from Toronto claims that Yorkdale is the best mall in Toronto, and it seems to me the stores they have there lend themselves to more of an upscale shopper people that tend to pay more, and care less about doing so. It seems to me that Yorkdale made perfect sense. I mean think of the iPods alone they will sell out there.
And don't be too surprised as many have suggested, if you don't see one opening somewhere much more "hip & <i>nowtro</i>" for the suburban subculture so they can go shop there and be so much cooler and underground than the masses The funny thing is, you'll be doing the same thing at either locale - buying Apple product. Just one locale you can do it in your $40 hipster tee you bought at Urban Outfitters that you could have gotten at Black Market or even better at Value Village for $2 and be cooler.
I don't think they could have done a better job on location and look and feel on their first store in Canada.
<i>Now the Yorkdale location:</i> Free parking. Easy to get to if you are a Torontian (as someone has already commented about) but more importantly for those coming in from out of town.
Yeah for pretty much everyone in Toronto, you can get to it easily (exit right off the 401, or Allen Express, and of course subway via TTC).
I can also see why they didn't choose a bigger location first. Yorkdale is perfect to start off with mostly because of its location; and because it's not a flagship store, I'm sure a flagship will turn up in the near future [in Toronto].
agree totally.... consider a sceranio, what if the 1st one being a mega-store failed to get a less-than-perfect response than Apple would have expected, they would have lost a lot of $$; guess it's better to do a small investment first to see how the profit goes. Anyone remember MacWorld here in downtown Toronto? guess Apple doesn't want to see the same thing happens twice, after all the Canadian market is less demanding than the US or Japanese ones by comparison ..... just my 2 cents.
Man.... i missed the MacWorld and it's been what, 8 years since the last one
Amidst much fanfare, Apple has opened its first Canadian direct retail location, the Apple Store at Toronto upscale Yorkdale Mall.
The store opened on Saturday, Apple's seventh international store after two in London and four in Japan and its 107th location worldwide since it launched its retail strategy several years ago. In typical Apple Store style, it's a bright white and wood store with more than 30 fully-networked computers set up in themed areas for digital movies, music and photography.
"The hands-on experience is part of what our customers love," said Linda Turner, senior director of retail stores for the Eastern United States and Canada. "We try to make it a great place to buy, and a great place to own a Mac as well."
Part of the Apple Store offering are courses, with education on how to get the most out of a new iPod, information for switchers, or how-to courses on using the Macs' built-in digital photography and movie-making software.
In the United States, some Apple dealers have complained that Apple Stores in their area have seriously impacted their business, and some have even sued the vendor, charging them with unfair trade practices such as making stock of new equipment available only to Apple's own retail stores. But Turner said that the opening of the Toronto-area Apple store means a new partnership for Toronto's Apple dealers. In the week before the location opened, Turner said Apple invited more than 20 local dealers to the new location to show them how the store will work and what it will be offering. And that's just the beginning, she insisted.
"The should expect to see a strong partnership, and the opportunity to provide for needs beyond our four walls," Turner said.
Plus, she said, dealers stand to benefit from increased awareness in Apple and its products, which should serve to improve the market for Apple in general.
"Where we put Apple Stores, our market share has grown," Turner said.
When the store opened at 9:30, the hundreds of Mac fans many in shirts for the ehMac.ca online community waiting in line in the mall were greeted by the black-t-shirted employees of the store, cheering and clapping them in. The first person in line had been there for several days. The first purchase from the store appropriately enough, a white iPod case with a red maple leaf.
__________________ Gary
iMac Quad i7 27 MacBook Pro 17 BlackBook Core Duo PMG5 Dual 2.5 G5 iMac 20 iPhone 4 iPod Touch 3 60Gb iPod photo 3G 4Gb Nano 2G 20Gb iPod 5x G3 iMacs PM6100/60 (why am I keeping this?)
Original Apple eWorld member Apple user since 1982 Yorkdale t-shirt #3! Eaton Centre #7 Sherway Gardens #5 Pacific Centre Fairview #5 Got any OS9 educational/kids' software?
Apologies for the reverse-chronological order, but I'm not about to fix it now.
Am I correct in assuming that there was no Globe and Mail today? I'm picking it up on my way to work in the morning in case we made the Tuesday edition.
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