Ten years ago, Apple CEO Steve Jobs offered a “private” video tour of Apple’s inaugural retail store at a mall in Tysons, Corner, Va. The proud proprietor showed off areas dedicated to home and professional users and invited customers to come and see the company’s latest products and “see what it’s like to have wireless connection to the Internet,” which was a big deal at the time.
In the video, discovered on YouTube by The Washington Post, Jobs also shows off the software gallery; shelf space for non-Apple products, including Sony camcorders and Palm Pilots; and stands behind the very first genius bar, with the disclaimer, “I’m not a genius.”
Today, plenty of business analysts and Apple shareholders may disagree, as Apple now has 300 retail stores around the country, a key component in the blockbuster sales engine that has made Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple the eighth most profitable company in the U.S. and number 35 in this year’s Fortune 500.
Risky Business
The direct retail push was widely considered a risk. BusinessWeek at the time said the stores might be “one step forward, two steps back in terms of getting Macs in front of customers” because it would take away business from Apple’s distributors.
“Given that at that point Gateway was in the process of closing all their stores, I’d say it was a bold move, and at the time many predicted failure,” said technology analyst Michael Gartenberg of Gartner Research.
He was referring to the Irvine, Calif.-based Gateway, which saw its fortunes slip after the burst of the dot-com bubble in the late 1990s and whose final outlets closed in 2004.
“Apple’s success at retail underscores the level of attention they have paid to every part of the retail process and become a model for the retail industry,” Gartenberg added.
With sales of iPads, iPods, iPhones and…
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