A cloudy, cold and rainy day in London does not stop the masses from jamming the new Mac store in London on Regent Street, five days after it’s first opening. Sharing the same street as famous name retail shops such as Hugo Boss, Rolex, and Gap, the first new Mac store in Europe is a smashing hit. Read More for the rest of the story and more pictures…
A cloudy, cold and rainy day in London does not stop the masses from jamming the new Mac store in London on Regent Street, five days after it’s first opening. Sharing the same street as famous name retail shops such as Hugo Boss, Rolex, and Gap, the first new Mac store in Europe is a smashing hit.
The location on Regent Street, 6 blocks off of Piccadilly Circus, is located in a proverbial gold mine of potential customers. Since Regent Street is one of London’s posh, posh shopping areas, Apple is definitely setting itself up for a very successful venture here, where, crowds of shoppers have money in their wallets, and they are ready to spend.
On a sun-less afternoon, the store had six cash register lines full of people. The Genius Bar was filled with customers, and the iPods were flying off the shelves. The store manager told me that since they have opened, the store has had to work the employees overtime every night to handle the check-out lines of people that come in after dinner. He felt like they could stay open well past the Tube closing time of midnight to handle the all the customers. Last night, when he closed the doors to the store, there were still 45 people in line checking out, and people outside on the sidewalk banging on the glass trying to get in. The Theater was filled with people who already had Macs and brought them along with them so that they could follow along with the instruction.
The store is filled with many security guards in flat black outfits, talking into radios or into their sleeves, listening back with in-ear headphones. The sales staff on duty were very friendly, and very well educated in Mac, and the accessories. Everyone of them says, “Sir, May I help you please,” and the like. Very polished and polite, and above all intelligent on the product line. I received much better customer service here in the London store than any other store in the US I have visited. Nearly every single Londoner I asked on the street knew of the store, and its location because of the buzz around London regarding the Store’s recent opening.
No one can argue with the profits, interest and enthusiasm that Apple generates from their successful retail enterprise. Now for the fun part, pricing. Don’t forget to multiply the price times 1.86 the current exchange rate of the the British pound to the US dollar.
- 14″ iBook G4 with SD 60 gig drive
