PicoBlog

On February 28, 2004, Apple opened its first store in San Francisco. It was a long time coming. The store’s arrival was publicly announced by Steve Jobs at WWDC 2003:

We’re opening three really great stores — one in Chicago, one in San Francisco, and one in Tokyo… In San Francisco, we don’t have anything constructed yet. We’ll open San Francisco next spring. But this is a rendering. I wish it was this easy to build them!

This is at the end of Stockton Street viewed from Market Street, this is what it will look like. Only a few blocks from where we are sitting here right now…

The rendering Steve presented depicted a bright, shining landmark with huge stainless steel panels — a design that defined the look and feel of Apple Stores in the minds of the public even before the Fifth Avenue cube.

Fun fact: that early WWDC rendering served as the store’s official hero image through 2016. If you zoom in and look closely, you can see that the graphic panels on the walls match 2001 merchandising.

San Francisco was the only US store opening where customers had a chance to buy a $249 Lucky Bag full of mystery products. For more on Lucky Bags, check out my post from December. (This post was previously paywalled, so you might have missed it.) The store also opened with a huge Theater featured by Apple in a special grand opening gallery on Apple.com. That gallery is offline, but has been brought back to life on the store’s timeline in Facades.

Beyond its design, the San Francisco store came with perfect timing for the height of the iPod’s success, the original iPhone and iPad launches, and the golden days of WWDC at the Moscone Center. For countless international developers making the trek to San Francisco, the corner of Stockton and Ellis was a must-see destination. And it was an easy trip — the Powell Station BART entrance was literally built into the store.

Apple celebrated a move to Union Square in 2016. If you can believe it, that store is already nearing the age of the original San Francisco store when it closed!

Here’s to the next 20. 🎈

In Wales, Apple Cardiff has been temporarily closed since February 19. The store is currently under renovation, though I don’t know the scope of the changes at this time.

Starting March 2, Apple will offer a new Today at Apple session inspired by the Apple TV+ Peanuts special Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin. The session, Spotlight: Draw with Welcome Home, Franklin, invites participants to “enjoy scenes from the show, then draw yourself into the story using iPad and Apple Pencil.” Right now, signs ups are available at just three stores: Apple Michigan Avenue, SoHo, and Third Street Promenade.

On February 22, Netherlands TV station AT5 and Videoland premiered De gijzeling in de Apple Store (The hostage situation at the Apple Store), a documentary exploring the terrifying hostage scene that unfolded at Apple Amsterdam on February 22, 2022.

If you’d like to watch the documentary and are in the Netherlands, iCulture has put together a guide with streaming options. It’s a bit harder to stream internationally, but it can be done with some effort (and translated subtitles). Here’s the official trailer.

Content warning: some of the scenes in the documentary are challenging to watch and may be traumatic, especially if you’ve worked at an Apple Store. The film makes extensive use of body cam footage captured in the store by the hostage taker. I normally wouldn’t call attention to something so violent here, but I think it’s worth highlighting Apple’s response to the piece.

The documentary features an interview from Alex, an Apple Amsterdam employee who hid in a storage closet in the store during the hostage situation. Alex was dissatisfied with the support Apple provided to staff traumatized by the incident, saying the company did “absolutely nothing” to help.

Apple Retail Senior Director Wendy Beckman responded to newspaper AD (translated):

We care deeply about our team members and they are our top priority. As the incident unfolded, we took swift action to provide immediate assistance to our team and we continue to provide a wide range of support, including comprehensive counseling services.

The paper noted that Apple booked a hotel near the store where employees could discuss the incident and briefed staff about the documentary before it was released. An optional private screening with support from social workers was offered to all employees.

Netflix is also working on a film about the hostage event, and Apple appears to be doing everything it can to support its employees during the disruption. Crews haven’t been allowed to film inside, and Apple Amsterdam closed on February 19 and 20 so staff wouldn’t have to relive traumatic events while filming occurred in the public space outside the store.

Apple Union Square

Photo via @honobolbin.

ncG1vNJzZmilmZi1orHLrKuenZKav2%2B%2F1JuqrZmToHuku8xop2hqYGLGpq3RrGSipl2orq95xauYp5uZqLCw