William Gallagher
Apple Belfast, which opens on Friday October 18, 2024, replaces the city's previous Apple Store as the only one on the island of Ireland.
The city's original Apple Store opened in 2008 as Apple Victoria Square. It closed on October 15, 2024, and has been replaced by Apple Belfast in a new location. That location is in Belfast's Cornmarket, approximately one minute's walk away from the previous location.
According to the Belfast Telegraph, the move follows a similar exodus of high profile brands from Victoria Square. Apple Belfast is now situated in a new shopping location called The Keep, which reportedly also recently added a multi-floor H&M store after that departed Victoria Square.
"We are thrilled to be opening our new store in Belfast, after serving customers in the city since 2008," said Wendy Beckman, Head of Retail for Apple's European operations. "Our new home will be a place for all of the community and serve as a destination to explore and buy Apple's incredible product line up, experience unparalleled service and support, and learn how to get the most out of Apple's devices."
The new store is a single level instead of the old store's two. It will employ more than 90 people, which reportedly includes poets, musicians, and singers.
That suggests that Apple Belfast will feature the kind of special, local "Today at Apple" sessions it has done for other store openings. Apple has yet to announce any sessions, however.
Apple Belfast is the sole Apple Store in Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and so one of the UK's 40 such stores. There are no Apple Stores at all in the rest of Ireland, despite the country being home to Apple's overseas headquarters.
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3 Comments
I had the pleasure of attending the opening of the previous one in Victoria Square. It’s quite the surreal experience! Won’t make it for tomorrow’s opening, unfortunately, but will try to visit it very soon. Visiting an Apple Store is always enjoyable.
Not surprising. The way Ireland lured Apple in with tax breaks and then let Apple take the fall when the EU started breathing hard on Ireland - certainly didn't encourage Apple to invest in the region. Will be intersting to see if Apple is still holding a euro HQ in Ireland 5 years from now.
Woudn't be surprised to see Apple do a lot less in the EU in the future. You bite the hand that blesses you and see how that works out. I see a burgeoning American tech import scene in the EU not too long from now.
I was here yesterday. Magical experience.
But Apple News outlets need to understand, this is the only Apple Store in Northern Ireland. This is a UK Apple Store - go to Apple's UK website to view it. There are no stores in ROI / "Ireland". Yeah, yeah, "Island of Ireland..." geographically correct, but intentionally misleading to what are two separate, night and day countries despite the silly border. It's quite a serious thing to the people who live here who are sick of not being respected as Northern Irish citizens... I mean you might as well cover a Canadian Apple Store and completely omit the term Canada and refer it it as another Apple Store in North America just because geographically, it's correct.
And there won't be one in ROI. It's a totally different (much lesser) economy by all means. Apple aren't stupid. They'd have 3 or more in ROI if it was profitable given it's a bigger population than NI.
Victoria Square (the former Belfast Apple Store) is really sad to see gone. It was narrow and small, but it was a magical era of Apple for me, metal walls, bright lighting (back in the day) and felt so exciting. The new store is beautiful, but I'll miss going to the old' steel or aluminium wall Apple Stores that felt like standing inside a Mac itself! End of an era. One store at a time.