In good company
A neighborhood survey and an update to Facades.
When Apple switched locations in May, Tysons Corner Center announced, “Apple now begins their next chapter with us, with a newly-reimagined space coming soon to the upper level between Nespresso and Victoria's Secret.” Joe from MacRumors messaged me to pose an interesting question: Are Apple and Victoria’s Secret intentionally choosing locations near each other?
While I knew it wasn’t universally true, he was able to quickly produce enough examples beyond Tysons Corner to make a compelling case for me. Do both brands simply demand the best locations, or is there something more to it? I needed to do some research.
Joe’s idle musing sent me on a week-long data harvesting mission. For the purposes of my survey, I studied 266 Apple Stores — roughly 50% of all locations. With tenant consistency in mind, I limited my search to stores in the U.S. and Canada that exist within managed retail developments. That eliminates some freestanding stores like Apple Tower Theatre but includes others like Apple Broadway Plaza, which is part of the Broadway Plaza mall. You can view the full list of stores I surveyed here.
I first located Apple’s two closest neighbors for every store on the list. In most cases, this was the store immediately adjacent to Apple on the left and right. The data is a bit subjective due to vacancies and unusual mall configurations. There are some locations at which the stores across the hall or even on another level are physically closer than the nearest neighbors. Mall tenants are changing every day, so consider this a snapshot in time.
What I found partially confirmed Joe’s suspicions — Victoria’s Secret/PINK neighbors Apple at 16 locations — more than any other brand, but not enough to prove some kind of secret scheme. It’s a close race, though. Lululemon and Sephora are right behind with 15 and 14 stores, respectively. There are 50 brands with three or more locations neighboring Apple, 39 with 2 locations, and a whopping 197 brands with a single store nearest.
Next I surveyed which mall level Apple is located on. I defined “main level” as the primary level of the mall, not necessarily the ground floor or even where the mall entrance is located. Once again, this data is a bit subjective. At all but 54 stores, Apple has a main level location.
Finally, I collected the mall operator for each location. There aren’t many surprises if you’re familiar with the relative size of property groups in the U.S. and Canada, but the data is still fascinating.
Together, Simon and Brookfield malls carry 98 Apple Stores in my list — over 18.5% of the global fleet. Collectively, the top 6 operators control 155 of the 266 malls I surveyed. Taubman, number 6 on the list, is a subsidiary of Simon Property Group. As I worked through the data, it felt like small blocks of store rollout numbers loosely correlated to mall operators. If true, this would indicate that Apple planned stores in groups around a portfolio of properties. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to draw a confident conclusion.
Most reasonable people (if you consider visiting 266 mall websites “reasonable”) would stop there. I decided to go a bit further. Thanks to the consistent format of major mall websites, I was able to harvest the entire tenant list for every Simon, Brookfield, Macerich, and Westfield mall with an Apple Store. I’m still processing that mountain of data, so I’ll update you in a future newsletter if I find any interesting patterns.
Facades summer release
I just published a fresh update to Facades, the field guide to Apple Retail Stores. New in this version are grid and thumbnail views in store lists, support for the latest store designs, and the ability to sort by “outdoor” locations. I’ve also improved VoiceOver access throughout the app and added a “What’s New” section in settings where you can see the latest updates to the store database at any time.
On the technical side, I’ve rewritten much of the networking layer of the app. That means the database and store images should load and cache more intelligently both online and offline. In addition to adding Vintage E, “New Store Design” (NSD) is now labeled Vintage D — its proper name. Nothing is new forever.
If you haven’t tried Facades, you can download it on iPhone, iPad, and Mac in the App Store. Your continued feedback, feature suggestions, and corrections are valued. I’m already working on the next update.
Featured image
Apple Zorlu Center
Photo via @ozsvath.arch.
As a former Apple employee for many years, I don’t believe Apple is intentionally putting stores next to Victoria Secret or Sephora. I think they all just have similar lease location requirements.
Here are a few requirements I do know about though:
1. Apple DID intentionally position the original Apple stores for many years near Nordstrom Stores and originally only in malls with Nordstroms. Nordstrom customers were the original target customer for Apple.
2. Apple almost always requires their stores to be on the ground or “main level” of almost every mall. It’s very rare that they are not on the main level (not always the ground level).
3. Apple usually prefers centrally located sections of malls and not outer wings, unless there is a Nordstrom on the outer wing or if the design of the mall makes the outer wing desirable as part of the design, like Scottsdale Fashion Square.
4. As part of Apple’s lease, they don’t allow kiosk stands or advertisement signage immediately in front of their stores.
5. As part of their lease, they try to prevent competitors or those cell phone repair kiosks from being within a certain distance of the store (but this isn’t always possible).
The Apple Store at Mayfair Mall, Wauwatosa, WI, is 2 store down from Victoria’s Secret and directly across from Lululemon and Pottery Barn. Mayfair is a Brookfield property. The original location had a Bath and Body Works next door.