The new Apple Bridge Street
A look inside Alabama's latest store. Plus: An old Boardroom takes on a new life.
On Saturday, Apple Bridge Street in Huntsville, Alabama reopened in a new location.
At first glance, there’s nothing here we haven’t seen before. The facade is composed of large quartz panels over a glass entrance. There are Avenues, acoustic fabric surfaces, and terrazzo flooring. In many ways, the space is nearly identical to Apple The Summit, Alabama’s other Apple Store — it reopened in a new space last year.
But then there’s the totally redesigned back wall. The wall is still wood, yes, but there’s no Apple Pickup signage and counter or Today at Apple displays and round tables. Instead, one large, backlit graphic panel stretches across the wall behind… a big Genius Bar! The bar has lower sections on the left and right to accommodate order pickup and improve accessibility. Apple has been replacing old Genius Bars at dozens of existing stores with this design for over a year a now.
Behind the main back wall along the hallway to Backstage are two recessed sections covered with the same vertical slat wood panels typically used to accent both sides of the Apple Pickup counter. Today at Apple has moved to a more traditional configuration at the left rear of the store. Strangely, sessions are held at a standard service and learning table with an old style Today at Apple display, even though Apple debuted a significantly more accessible and aesthetically superior table and display for Today at Apple in May 2023.
The new back wall is quite intriguing. The easiest way to explain this design choice is that Apple Bridge Street is simply not large enough to accommodate a standard fixture set, and compromises needed to be made. After all, the store is just three tables wide and three tables deep. And with Apple Vision Pro demos now in the mix, there are simply not enough free tables to host Genius Bar appointments. In this case, I wonder if a tenant space unable to accommodate the full Apple Retail experience is a tenant space suited to handle the foot traffic Apple attracts.
On the other hand, if this is now The Way going forward, it would appear to be a bit of a backpedal on the original vision of Vintage D.2. Apple Pickup is deemphasized, and so is Today at Apple. And if you pause for a moment to reflect, it’s striking: aside from the Avenues and material palette, this store recipe calls for the same basic ingredients Apple prepared and spent a decade seasoning to perfection with Vintage C — the stainless steel stores. If you pretend the last nine years never happened, you could draw a straight line from summer 2015 — the end of Classic stores — to today.
I’ll need to see this design in person before I can decide how I feel about it, but one thing’s for sure: it reminds me of why I enjoy studying Apple Retail so much. There’s always something new happening.
Meeting adjourned
Last Monday, the same day I published an article about the new floor layout at Apple Ginza, someone posted a photo of an easel at Apple Shibuya in Tokyo showing an updated floor layout. Floors 1 and 2: iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple Vision Pro, iPhone Accessories, and Order Pickup. Floor 3: Genius Bar and Today at Apple. Floor 4: Mac?
Since reopening in 2018 (archive link), Apple Shibuya has always had three public floors. So what happened?
Hearing the news, Karagana, who runs the blog Karagana Park, visited the store to get the story straight. You can read their full account of the trip here. The post is in Japanese.
For the past six years, Apple Shibuya’s fourth floor has housed a Boardroom and employee areas. When I heard this space was now a product display area, I assumed the worst: Apple had removed the Boardroom. It wouldn’t be unprecedented. In the past year, I’ve learned of five stores, some extremely high profile, that have lost their Boardrooms or Briefing Rooms — and there could be more that I’ve missed. The concept and execution of the Boardroom as a key component of Apple’s best stores has felt like it’s been a fading vision since at least the pandemic.
The store easel notes that you need to ask a Specialist to visit the fourth floor. That’s because not only has the Boardroom been maintained, it’s now the only place to get your hands on a desktop Mac. Since August, when meetings aren’t being held, customers are now allowed inside.
Credenzas along the wall which once held lilacs, an Atollo Table Lamp, and a copy of “Designed by Apple in California” have been turned into ad-hoc display counters lined with Macs. According to Karagana, some Mac laptops are still displayed on floors 1 and 2.
It’s a bit disquieting to see the Boardroom in this makeshift state, but as iArigato points out, this is not the first time Macs have been displayed in this room. And if you think about it…. this serene environment is probably an ideal place to buy a Mac.
Apple Shibuya has always been one of the most charming Apple Stores in Japan and one of my personal favorites specifically because it’s so small, but now that size is starting to work against it. I hope to see this store expanded sooner than later to match the customer volume it sees and the breadth of Apple’s product line today.
Visit Karagana Park for more details (and some great closeups of the Apple Park artwork in the Boardroom.)
Apple Mall of Georgia
On Thursday, Apple announced that Apple Mall of Georgia in Buford, Georgia will soon reopen in a new location. Like the original Apple Bridge Street, this store is one of the smaller remaining locations in the U.S. and opened between the launch of the first iPhone and iPad. A grand reopening date hasn’t been revealed yet.
Featured image
Apple Champs-Élysées
Photo via Brahm Shank.