Update: Images of the new store’s facade below via @MikesiOSHelp and @thequinntaylor.
With Apple’s redesigned company store set to open this weekend, details of changes to the new store have been highlighted in a memo to employees (via MacMagazine). Among the changes, the new Apple company store will for the first time sell Apple devices including the iPhone, iPad, Macs, and Apple Watch. The store is also re-opening with a new collection of Apple-branded merchandise including clothing, mugs, and other collectibles that are only available at the company store.
We noted back in June that changes to the store were on the way when the company store, located at Apple’s Infinite Loop headquarters in Cupertino, was closed temporary for renovations.
The new store will include a personal pick-up service, but it’s unclear if that will only be available to employees or the public as well. Apple will be offering pick-ups for the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, but notes that iPhone pick-ups at the store will initially only be available to employees when the device officially goes on sale in one week on September 25.
So the store is now much more of a full Apple Store experience than in the past, which also includes Apple’s new design language for retail thought to be headed by Apple’s design guru Jony Ive. Back in May, Apple announced Ive would be switching roles to “Chief Design Officer,” which would have him in charge of all design aspects of the company including retail. And on that note, Apple’s new company store will include concrete and glass accents, terrazzo flooring, new LED panel ceilings, and new accessory displays made of wood that we’ve seen in some of Apple’s recent store designs.
Apple’s redesigned company store is schedule to re-open this Saturday, September 19 at 10am local time.
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Just curious, does one have to be an employee to shop here?
Nope, anyone can visit and shop.
Am I the on;y one who wished we could buy some of those branded trinkets online?
I’m shocked apple basically fired the manager that worked there for 30+ years. Why couldn’t he have managed the store or had some other role? Just not impressed how apple did this to their staff.
Why be so shocked? Maybe there was a good reason. People get fired every day, and people who’ve been with a company for long lengths of time, do stupid things to get fired.
I think it would be cool if they sold Apple logo merchandise at the larger stores or on the On-Line Apple Store. Being from the corporate computer reseller industry that was with resellers of Apple computers, we would get various Apple logo merchandise from time to time. I have a collection of stuff. I actually got an award and it’s an engraved granite Apple paperweight in the shape of an Apple that has one side sliced with gold engraving.. Kinda cool. Only a few of them were ever made. :-) I even have an old NeXT glass mug because I worked for a NeXT reseller. We got some cool stuff over the years. ;-)
I visited the store during campus even during WWDC ’06 and they had Macs and iPods on display and for sale, so I don’t see how this is the first time the company store has sold devices.