The Calgary Apple Chinook store opened its door two days ago on Wednesday, 29th Sept. My friend Garry (thanks for above the photo, Garry) was there bright and early at 8am to check out the new store and was one of the lucky ones to get the free Apple Chinook t-shirt. Apparently, the crowd at 8am wasn’t big as most people (~100) were lining up to buy iPhone 4 and some of the 1,000 free t-shirts were still available before 11am.
I went to Apple Chinook in the afternoon and it was buzzing. Was I blown away by the Apple Chinook store? Well, it looks nice and bright, but it is definitely no Apple New York. While the staff were pleasant and helpful but I felt some of the sales staff were not as technically knowledgeable as I had expected. What Apple Chinook will likely do is to add some serious challenge to nearby Apple resellers (e.g. London Drugs, Best Buy, Future Shop) or even other Apple stores in town. Time will tell.
Here out a video of the new store.
Oct 3 Update: This Calgary Herald article is worth reading “Customers in line at 3:30 a.m. for new Apple store, Chinook Centre expansion” (with photo). Here is an excerpt (emphasis added),
“People like Jonathan Shonicker, 22.
“I’m here to get an iPhone 4,” said Shonicker, who was the first in line at the Apple store. “Because my phone sucks hard-core. Doesn’t do anything. I don’t care what it costs. It could cost anything I’ll pay it right now. I need a new phone.”
Dylan Ostafie, 22, was also at the mall since 3:30 a.m. and first in line at the Apple store.
“We randomly decided we wanted an iPhone. They’re sold out everywhere,” he said. “We figured we’d just beat everyone else.”
It is words like “I don’t care what it costs” and “We randomly decided we wanted an iPhone” that give Apple the power that it has over its customers/fans. And it is this kind of power that turns the opening of a “store” into “news”.
More news about the mall’s expansion from CBC “Chinook Centre expansion brings ‘global brands’“.
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Subscribe by email
Kempton - ideas Revolutionary 
Probably nothing. Apple store is not really a store, it’s just a showroom. Have the Sony store hurt any Sony TV sales in Future Shop?
I am not so sure. Actually there are substantial sales of Apple products at Apple store, so it is definitely not just a “show room”. Have you seen on TV the crazy lineup of people for new Apple products when new gadgets are launched?
Also re pricing of products. Sony TVs can usually can be bought at a lower price at Best Buy or FutureShop when they are on sale. Whereas Apple product usually have a rather “fixed” price and don’t usually go on sale at all until newer models come out.
Apple store are not just showrooms. Last quarter they had 2.58 billion in sales.
Thanks Patrick for the figures. I haven’t checked the figures at Apple’s annual/quarterly financial release but I can see it.
An interesting piece of info a friend told me. Apparently, the Calgary Market mall Apple store has the second highest grossing in sales after the NYC flagship store. If it is indeed true, it is quite an amazing achievement for the Market mall store.