The Seattle Times is confirming what our friends at MacNN reported yesterday, that Apple is opening up a retail Apple Store in Big Redmond’s back yard. According to the Seattle Times, Apple is opening up an Apple Store in the Seattle area, specifically in the Bellevue Square mall in Puget Sound, Washington. MacNN broke the story yesterday when it reported that Apple had listed job openings for a Mac Genius and other Apple Store personnel for the Bellevue area. From the Seattle Times article:
Apple Computer apparently has found a location to open its first Seattle-area retail store, nearly two years after the bricks-and-mortar outlets were introduced to the national market.
A spokesperson for Bellevue Square Managers, which operates the Eastside regional mall, confirmed that Apple has signed a lease for 4,600 square feet with an expectation to open the store as early as next summer.
The newspaper says that the store will open sometime in the summer of 2003. There is more in the full story, including background information on Apple Stores, and comments from an Apple retailer in the area.
The Mac Observer Spin:
There’s a TV ad running right now that shows a satellite dish installer talking to a rather nervous customer about his new service. The customer is looking around while the satellite dish person explains his new service, and eventually the customer asks if the truck, and the installation, could be moved out to the back of the house. "You work for the cable company," says the satellite dish employee knowingly. "Yeah," says the customer.
Now, substitute a Microsoft employee for the customer, and a Mac Specialist for the satellite dish guy, and that’s something we can see happening sometime this summer.
With Microsoft being such a huge part of the local economy in Seattle, it will be quite interesting to see how well this store does, especially with Switchers. In the Austin, Texas area, for instance, Apple does quite well though AMD has extensive facilities, and Dell is based in the city.