Sam Oliver
Customers at Apple's forthcoming Madison Avenue store on Manhattan's Upper East Side will be privy to a special Apple Store experience, as the company will reinstate its dormant personal shopping service and observe shorter-than-normal hours in order to fit in with the tony neighborhood.
"The Upper East Side store is designed to serve an important role in the neighborhood and respect the surrounding community," Apple told the Wall Street Journal. "In this case, that means a smaller footprint, earlier closing time, and private shopping options for customers."
The company's previous personal shopping effort allowed customers to pre-book appointments for one-on-one service from Apple Store staff. Apple shuttered the program in 2010, after it became untenable as store popularity exploded.
Apple's statement was in response to concern over the store's contruction on the part of Upper East Side residents, who fear that the new outlet would bring a down-market feel to the otherwise posh area when consumers line up and camp out for new product launches. Area businesses and residents have banded together to oppose the store.
Madison Avenue "has been a fine retail corridor that doesn't generate the crowds that Apple does," according to Herbert Feinberg, the opposition leader, who owns a five-story townhouse in the neighborhood. "The Whitney [an art museum which relocated from Madison Avenue last year] didn't do that at all except for Friday events, but it was a dignified line. No shouting, no screaming, no tents, no sleeping bags, no barbecues."
Said another long-time Upper East Side resident, the Madison Avenue location is "so shockingly the wrong place."
Apple has brought in an architectural A-team for its new store, which will be located in the 93-year-old former United States Mortgage and Trust Company building at the corner of East 74th Street and Madison Avenue. Longtime partners Bohlin Cywinsky Jackson — whose name has been on numerous flagship Apple Stores as the architect of record —  are handling the design, while Eckersley O'Callaghan will provide critical expertise in structural glass engineering.
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27 Comments
It's an apple store not a brothel... If they think that their area is pristine they need to review their crime rate, it would shatter their delusions of an oasis of civility.
Cue the Abe Simpson "old man yells at cloud" photo.
according to Herbert Feinberg, the opposition leader, who owns a five-story townhouse in the neighborhood.
Screw this guy and his five-story townhouse.
If he wants peace and quiet, then he should move to the country side, and not live in Manhattan.
These people sound like real stuck up snobs. Apple not good enough for them heh?
I say that Apple should ship in some of those nice protesters from Baltimore and set them up outside this guys' townhouse and around this snobby neighborhood to give the residents there a thing or two to think about.
Apple, please don't pander to these 1% pricks! They are no more special than any of the rest of us. They are simply self-important asshats. Keep the store just like every other store, including the hours and lines. Down market??? Absolutely ridiculous. Steve would never have tolerated this. As for the A-Hole that is leading the effort opposing the store, here is an example of the type of people he hangs out with - "Mr. Ashley pleaded guilty to making a counterfeit copy of $900,000 in Pepsico stock owned by Herbert Feinberg of 138 Madison Avenue and then offering the forged stock certificate as collateral for an investment loan from Halsley Investments." (from the NYT)
Many places people would love to have an Apple Store move in. Not here, will bring in too many lower class peasants to our snooty area of town.
Maybe you can take up donations to pay Apple to stay out? Figure out what the Apple store there would make in 10 years or so and start collecting!