Good for them.
Now Apple; Think Victoria BC. That's V...I...C...T...O...R...I...A for your next store.
Please?

Finding a genius in Oklahoma reminds me of that joke about how we know that Jesus wasn't Italian. You know, because you can't find three wise men and a virgin in Italy...

Well, that's the second Apple store within 10 miles of me. All they gotta do is hit Southridge in Greendale and they will have the trifecta of rich 99% white suburbian communities covered in the Greater Milwaukee Area.

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Well, that's the second Apple store within 10 miles of me.

That's why it's so bloody annoying. A lot of cities have more than one. The Minneapolis area where we used to live has three. All of Canada has just four with three in Toronto and one in Quebec. It's like the West Coast doesn't exist.

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geoduck wrote:

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Well, that's the second Apple store within 10 miles of me.

That's why it's so bloody annoying. A lot of cities have more than one. The Minneapolis area where we used to live has three. All of Canada has just four with three in Toronto and one in Quebec. It's like the West Coast doesn't exist.

It's not just Canada. Apple Stores can go into smaller cities/metro areas like San Luis Obispo, CA (metro area pop about 257K), but not larger ones, like Roanoke, VA (pop 293K). In fact, the only Apple stores in Virginia are in the metro DC area, Norfolk and Richmond. There's nothing in western Virginia. In Oregon, all three are in the Portland metro area, which has several other Apple dealers. (Fortunately, most of the other larger areas--Salem, Corvallis, Eugene--are served by a very good independent Apple dealer.)

If you check the map of US Apple stores, several states that are larger than BC (4.1M) have no Apple stores:

Alabama 4.6M
South Carolina 4.3M
Louisiana 4.3M
Kentucky 4.2M

Birmingham, AL, has a metro population of 1.1M. Louisville, KY, is 1.2M; New Orleans, LA is 1M. Several metro areas in South Carolina are over 500K.

I'd like to know what logic they use to site new stores. There must be a rational why Minneapolis has three while Vancouver, Edmonton, Nashville, and Mobile have none. Apple must have a good business reason for where they put stores, but it beats the heck out of me what it is.

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geoduck wrote:
I'd like to know what logic they use to site new stores.

Apple must have a good business reason for where they put stores, but it beats the heck out of me what it is.

Really? Does this help?

MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME

Have Apple Stores:
Bethesda, MD $99,102
Minneapolis, MN $53,315
San Luis, CA $42,428
Denver, CO $39,500
Richmond, VA $31,121
Bimingham, AL $26,735

Don't have Apple Stores
Huntsville, AL $41,074
Nashville, TN $39,797
Louisville, KY $39,457
Mobile, AL $31,445
Roanoke, VA $30,719

Looks to me like "average household income" is one of their main concerns. Yes, there's not a hard line. Birmingham makes it while Huntsville doesn't, but I'm not trying to prove a hard rule here. It's more of a general preference for higher-income communities. You can't deny that, on average, this is the main factor Apple is looking at. Look at those numbers again...yes the line is blurred, but for that to be true there has to be a line in the first place, which there clearly is.

Which makes sense when you're selling (mostly) $1,000+ computers.

I suspect these "have not" cities will eventually get Apple stores as well. Apple isn't ignoring them, they're just making the choice to go after the sweet spots first and then move on from there.

I'm not saying it SHOULD be that way, but when you look at the facts it's clearly what's going on. The SIZE of a city is pretty much meaningless.

I do have to admit to a small bit of schadenfreude over the issue. The way I see it, having lots of Apple stores is my reward for having a ridiculous mortgage. There are 6 Apple stores within an hour of me, and an additional 2 more within 90 minutes. As punishment, I get to live in an area where small Condos start at $250,000 and finding stand-alone homes for under $500,000 is almost unheard of. So go ahead and enjoy your affordable housing, wherever you live. If not having an Apple store is your price for owning a home, consider yourselves lucky. I'd gladly trade all 6 stores near me for a half-priced mortgage.

Interesting. That makes a lot of sense. Couple that with a preference for urban areas over X population and voile', no Apple Store anywhere near me.

Victoria is probably a long ways off, but I gotta think Vancouver has to be on someone's radar.

Those data don't quite match the US Census Bureau's data by Metropolitan Statistical Area (a better measure than purely by city) quoted in this Wikipedia article. Roanoke, for example, is shown as $39,288.

Santa Barbara-Santa Maria, CA, is shown at $46,677. That includes Santa Maria, where I used to live, Lompoc, and a lot of other towns/cities that are not that well off. (It includes all of Santa Barbara County. Santa Maria is about 75 miles from Santa Barbara by the best route.) Santa Barbara, proper, is quite ritzy--but no Apple Store. People there have to drive to the outskirts of Los Angeles--it looks like Thousand Oaks would be the closest. On the other hand, San Luis Obispo, $42,428, has an Apple Store. The omission of Santa Barbara is, IMO, a glaring one. There are lots of very well-off people who live in Santa Barbara or over the mountains in Santa Ynez, Solvang, etc.--doctors, lawyers, CEOs, even Michael Jackson, Nancy Reagan and Bo Derek--but no Apple Store.

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gslusher wrote:
even Michael Jackson, Nancy Reagan and Bo Derek--but no Apple Store.

Somehow I just don't think those three are in Apple's target demographic

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geoduck wrote:

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gslusher wrote:
even Michael Jackson, Nancy Reagan and Bo Derek--but no Apple Store.

Somehow I just don't think those three are in Apple's target demographic

No, but, I expect, the thousands of people in that area who make over $250,000/year are. The cheapest 2 BR condo I could find a listing for in Santa Barbara was over $250K. That's the cheapest. There is really no limit on the top.

Well, one of them is - Bo Derek is a X.

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geoduck wrote:

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Well, that's the second Apple store within 10 miles of me.

That's why it's so bloody annoying. A lot of cities have more than one. The Minneapolis area where we used to live has three. All of Canada has just four with three in Toronto and one in Quebec. It's like the West Coast doesn't exist.

France has 0...

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macinnerd wrote:

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geoduck wrote:

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Well, that's the second Apple store within 10 miles of me.

That's why it's so bloody annoying. A lot of cities have more than one. The Minneapolis area where we used to live has three. All of Canada has just four with three in Toronto and one in Quebec. It's like the West Coast doesn't exist.

France has 0...

Ah, but you'll always have Paris ...

Plus better health care, better retirement, longer vacations, and a bit less idiocy from the government. (At least France learned from its mistakes in Indochina and Algeria.)

"You'll always have Paris" - nice.

It's all very well having those things (and I can boast all those as well), but why can't we have that and an Apple Store?

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LaurieF wrote:
"You'll always have Paris" - nice.

It's all very well having those things (and I can boast all those as well), but why can't we have that and an Apple Store?

Why not, indeed?

I should have expected that you, of all the participants here, would appreciate that allusion. (For those too young to know, do a Google search on, "We'll always have Paris." It's a classic line like, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn;" "Go ahead, make my day;" "Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore;" "They're here!" and "I'll have what she's having.")