Apple building $1.4M temporary store in New York's SoHo neighborhood

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
While its popular SoHo store undergoes major renovations, Apple will set up shop at a temporary location in the same neighborhood on New York City's Greene Street, AppleInsider has learned.



A new Apple Store is currently being built at the address 72 Greene St. According to an anonymous tipster who contacted AppleInsider, construction workers at the site allegedly said the new location is temporary while the main SoHo store at 103 Prince St. undergoes renovations.



Gary Allen of ifoAppleStore.com dug through the city's building permits and discovered that one was issued last Thursday for a $1.4 million project designed by an Alameda, Calif., architectural firm that has done work for Apple in the past. The project is described as:



"Change of use at second floor and portion of cellar and first floor to retail store and accessory offices. Remove & construct partitions, doors, ceiling and finishes..."



The documentation makes no mention of Apple, as is standard procedure for the company. The paperwork also does not include any diagrams of the store. The parcel expected to be utilized by Apple is a five-story building 100 feet deep and 75 feet wide.



"Apple will use the cellar for back-of-house, ground floor and partial second level for public retail, and part of the second for offices," Allen told AppleInsider. "The third, fourth and fifth floors remain as what they are -- offices of other firms, I believe."



Plans to expand Apple's SoHo store were uncovered by Allen this March, revealing the company's plans to use a 5,000-square-foot retail space formerly occupied by the U.S. Postal Service. The extra space would bring the SoHo store more inline with other larger Apple retail stores found in New York City.







Last month, it was discovered that Apple would temporarily relocate its SoHo store to allow for the much-needed expansion, but at the time the location of that temporary store was unknown. The move to 72 Greene St. is expected to occur at some point in the next few months, though no timetable has been given.



The renovations at Apple's SoHo store are the second major New York-based undertaking from the iPhone maker this year. Work is already underway to replace the iconic glass cube that serves as the entrance to the company's heavily trafficked Fifth Avenue store; that project will cost the company $6.7 million.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    Why do successful stores feel the need to reconfigure their appearances? I can understand changing things around if doing it gets more sales. Grocery stores have a specific layout no matter where you go. They've found a formula that works to get people to travel the maximum distance to get to the items that are most popular, thus ensuring other items have a chance to be seen and picked up.



    Wal-mart moves complete shelves around regularly so that it makes customers search for things that aren't in the same place they were the previous month. I hate that. I don't buy anything else. I only buy what I want and intend to get.



    Apple doesn't have too many products. I don't think someone wanting an iPod will purchase an iMac just because they walked past one on the way to the iPods.



    Changing the exterior of an iconic design seems to be a bad and expensive idea. Will Apple ever make up for the expenses incurred during the remodeling with increased sales? I doubt it. It might take twenty years to earn the additional millions of dollars spent for the renovation, and that is only if the different layout attracts more buyers. It might not.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    ouraganouragan Posts: 437member
    Quote:

    Apple doesn't have too many products. I don't think someone wanting an iPod will purchase an iMac just because they walked past one on the way to the iPods.



    Changing the exterior of an iconic design seems to be a bad and expensive idea. Will Apple ever make up for the expenses incurred during the remodeling with increased sales? I doubt it. It might take twenty years to earn the additional millions of dollars spent for the renovation, and that is only if the different layout attracts more buyers. It might not.





    I agree. Apple should watch how much it spends on its brick and mortar stores if it ever wants to become price competitive.



    Alas, I suspect that, under the current administration, it has no plans to ever cut back its selling prices, if only to increase the Mac market share and/or catch up with Android smartphones.





    \\\
  • Reply 3 of 8
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Smallwheels View Post


    Why do successful stores feel the need to reconfigure their appearances? I can understand changing things around if doing it gets more sales. Grocery stores have a specific layout no matter where you go. They've found a formula that works to get people to travel the maximum distance to get to the items that are most popular, thus ensuring other items have a chance to be seen and picked up.



    Wal-mart moves complete shelves around regularly so that it makes customers search for things that aren't in the same place they were the previous month. I hate that. I don't buy anything else. I only buy what I want and intend to get.



    Apple doesn't have too many products. I don't think someone wanting an iPod will purchase an iMac just because they walked past one on the way to the iPods.



    Changing the exterior of an iconic design seems to be a bad and expensive idea. Will Apple ever make up for the expenses incurred during the remodeling with increased sales? I doubt it. It might take twenty years to earn the additional millions of dollars spent for the renovation, and that is only if the different layout attracts more buyers. It might not.



    its not intended to completely redesign the store, just to make it bigger. In an earlier report apple insider said that they're changing it to make room for the demand. They're expanding to the post office in the back i believe. and they could always be more successful...
  • Reply 4 of 8
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ouragan View Post


    I agree. Apple should watch how much it spends on its brick and mortar stores if it ever wants to become price competitive.



    Alas, I suspect that, under the current administration, it has no plans to ever cut back its selling prices, if only to increase the Mac market share and/or catch up with Android smartphones.





    \\\



    Like, they do not earn money? Hunting for low price is easy. Success thru outstanding performance is harder - but so much more sweet.



    Why should they be "price competitive" - whatever you mean by that? Have you ever realized customers may view things differently? Maybe not everyone want cheap?



    Ohhh. Well, I think Apple proves you wrong. Every day, every hour, every second.
  • Reply 5 of 8
    bageljoeybageljoey Posts: 2,004member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ouragan View Post


    I agree. Apple should watch how much it spends on its brick and mortar stores if it ever wants to become price competitive.



    I won't even bother to mention that Apple has no intention of competing with Dell or Acer on computer pricess. This is so obvious and has been explained to you many, many times before.



    Concerning phones, Android fans go rabid when you say Android is the low cost option to the iPhone--they quickly point out that there are plenty of Android models that cost as much. So one could make the case that they are price competitive without mention that the $49 3GS is also a top seller.



    In terms of the tablet market, which Apple reinvented (if not saved), there is no evidence that Apple's competitors can put out a a tablet with the iPad's fit, finish and experience at a comparable price and make any profit.

    Quote:



    Alas, I suspect that, under the current administration, it has no plans to ever cut back its selling prices, if only to increase the Mac market share and/or catch up with Android smartphones.



    I wanted to respond to this thoughtfully, but I couldn't stop laughing...
  • Reply 6 of 8
    akhomerunakhomerun Posts: 386member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Smallwheels View Post


    Why do successful stores feel the need to reconfigure their appearances? I can understand changing things around if doing it gets more sales. Grocery stores have a specific layout no matter where you go. They've found a formula that works to get people to travel the maximum distance to get to the items that are most popular, thus ensuring other items have a chance to be seen and picked up.



    As I'll state below, this is just an illogical statement. This is a high end retail store and it's all about the experience. See my comments at the bottom of this post. The appearance of any retail store is what gets you inside in the first place!



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Smallwheels View Post


    Wal-mart moves complete shelves around regularly so that it makes customers search for things that aren't in the same place they were the previous month. I hate that. I don't buy anything else. I only buy what I want and intend to get.



    Right, and Walmart doesn't know what they are doing. Do you remember how they looked before their visual refresh? I know my Walmart looked ghetto and now it almost looks like they sell quality items just because they changed the way the store looked and was laid out. They rearrange things a lot because they are always adjusting based on what products sell and what products don't (for example, they recently expanded their electronics sections, but then soon after they decided to shrink them again because for many of the products people preferred to go online).



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Smallwheels View Post


    Apple doesn't have too many products. I don't think someone wanting an iPod will purchase an iMac just because they walked past one on the way to the iPods.



    What? How do you know? The iPod revolutionizing music players is what encouraged people to take a second look at Macs in the first place. Why do you think there's a back to school buy a mac, get a free iPod promotion? Without the Apple store there's no place to try out the computer - that's the whole reason for the massive success of these stores, they are far more interactive than any other computer store (remember when Best Buy had clamps on their laptops and didn't let you use the actual operating system or use the internet?)



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Smallwheels View Post


    Changing the exterior of an iconic design seems to be a bad and expensive idea. Will Apple ever make up for the expenses incurred during the remodeling with increased sales? I doubt it.



    Do you honestly think they didn't run the numbers first?

    http://blog.gaborcselle.com/2010/08/...ple-store.html



    An average Apple store brings in $34 million per year. That's on average, and this is a flagship store that brings in far more than average revenue. So with 30% gross margins Apple makes ~$10.2 million in profit from each store per year, on average.



    The Fifth Avenue Apple store is probably one of the oldest flagship stores and is extremely high traffic. I can see even an Apple store looking tired after just a few years of wear - they have tons of people in them all the time! A high end retail store is an experience and therefore one of the most valuable things is to change its look. The way Apple stores look makes you want to go in the store and Apple needs to keep them fresh and impressive, especially for a flagship.
  • Reply 7 of 8
    akhomerunakhomerun Posts: 386member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ouragan View Post


    I agree. Apple should watch how much it spends on its brick and mortar stores if it ever wants to become price competitive.



    Alas, I suspect that, under the current administration, it has no plans to ever cut back its selling prices, if only to increase the Mac market share and/or catch up with Android smartphones.





    \\\



    Price competitive? Why would Apple have to be price competitive? When you make someone that people want badly you can charge a premium and you would be an idiot not to do so. That's like saying Mercedes should make a $15k car. The difference is that Apple has a complete monopoly on high quality "luxury" computers, unlike Mercedes. Anyway, in the smartphone world, Apple is completely price competitive. iPhone 3GS is $49, iPhone 4 is $200, not much different than other smartphones. the iPad is the best value in its product category because Apple gets the components at a huge volume discount, and it also uses the best materials.



    I don't even think the computers are heavily overpriced. Even though Apple doesn't have the greatest specification value, it has spent the money in all the right places instead of making the computer marginally faster in a way that 99% of the users won't notice. No other competitors out there have a 100% glass and metal enclosure, nobody is willing to include a quality large capacity battery, large glass trackpad, excellent hardware/software integration (you show me built in volume and OS integration buttons, automatic screen brightness, and automatically adjusting backlit keyboards that work as well as an Apple machine. actually, you could just show me another laptop that even has all of those features!) Show me one other computer that gets 7 hours of battery life with a Core i7 without the battery sticking out!



    Chasing market share is bad business, unless you are trying to sell ads like Google. Again, does Mercedes try to chase market share? Only among other luxury makers. Apple isn't "losing" to Android - the iPhone is by far the most popular single model of phone, and they are literally competing with every other Android phone on every other network.



    The iPhone sells half the amount of all Android devices (hundreds of models) and yet it's only available on two wireless networks and it's not available as a prepaid phone, either.



    Apple sells 20% of smartphones but makes 50% of industry revenues by doing so. HTC, LG, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Huawei...do you want me to go on? They all get a sliver of the Android pie and they can't sell their phones at the same markups as Apple.



    Apple also gets a head start on everything they introduce because they make products that didn't exist until now. The iPad currently has 80% or more marketshare in its category because Apple created the category.



    Apple makes over $30 million gross revenue per store per year on average. In a flagship store like the Fifth Street location spending a few million dollars on making the store larger is not only an excellent investment, but it's necessary and it's completely chump change compared to the rent Apple is paying.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    Yeah Apple better lower it's pirces. hahaha



    Sales have risen from three million or four million units per quarter in the first two quarters of iPad shipments to 9.25 million last quarter. That?s more than the company sold in last year?s holiday quarter and appears to be vastly more than any rival has sold in total. Even Android phone owners tend to buy iPads, rather than an Android tablet.
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