Friday, August 3, 2001 <Plano, Texas> Apple Computer's™ newest retail store opened here today at 10am. To be known as the "Dallas Store", the opening coincided with the opening of the latest glitzy mall in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex, The Shops at Willow Bend.

My wife Avalyn and I arrived about 8:50am, earlier than we expected, as the monthly grooming for our schnauzer, Mr. Mack, was right on the way, but we have to get him in by 8:30am. Traffic was just beginning to stack up a little on the Dallas North Tollway, as we exited at Park Road and turned west, half a block. The mall has lots of parking and an excellent circular street system, so we quickly found a close-in parking place near the new and highly visible Neiman Marcus store. Inside the mall the Apple Store is located in the southeast quadrant, between Neiman's and Dillard's. It was already hot, and we soon discovered that Neiman's was not opening their doors until 10am. Thankfully, Foley's was open and we trooped quickly through their nice cool store to the mall entrance--only to discover it was locked! A small crowd was already gathered, waiting, and we were not too surprised to see many of our Apple friends in the crowd. Suddenly, inside the mall, a girl in shorts (obviously a shopper and not a mall employee) came to the other side of the glass and signaled, "Go upstairs! It's open!" We did, and it was...

We immediately caught a down escalator to the first floor again, and uh'd and ah'd at the fabulous décor of the mall, repleat with a lot of filigree work depicting what else--willows. A mob of men in suits were assembling for the official ribbon cutting, but we rushed on to the front of the Apple Store. Having seen the other stores on the web, the store itself was not a surprise, but very striking in its stark white motif. They soon turned out the lights in the store, to await the opening bell.

Perhaps 15 store employees in black Apple t-shirts were present, greeting and mingling with the crowd. The word was, the store would open at 10am on the dot. The Apple faithful were gathering by the minute. By 9:30 the que was stringing around the mall, blocking entrances to some of the stores. Mall employees were already alerted to cordon off three waiting areas; the walk to the end of the line got longer by the minute. The Apple-Dallas employees (officed at the InfoMart) were also out in force, lead by Ms. Mac/Dallas herself, Martha Whitehouse.

I decided to stay out of the que in order to get pictures and mingle with my Apple friends. (It seemed like every fifth person had a digital camera of some type.) However, the really impressive part of my mingling was the encounters with perfect strangers. Many of them had never heard of Apple Computer and were curious about the store that had more people waiting to get in than any other store in the mall! I thought to myself, this is what these stores are all about! We Apple faithful will enjoy them and use them, but the real impact on sales will be the casual shoppers in the mall who will be exposed to the brand name for the first time, and perhaps, to a fabulous experience with Apple Computers.

The Apple Store employees were aggressively greeting anyone who seemed to want to talk or ask questions. I told one of them, "This is not the first Apple Store in Dallas." He looked puzzled and rejoined, "But they were not owned by Apple, right?" I said, "To me, the first Apple Store in Dallas will always be the first Apple store in Dallas--where I bought my Apple II in the fall of 1977. In a very real sense, they were Apple Computer, to a public that was only beginning to hear about the upstart computer company in California, who had named their computer after a fruit." I'm not sure he was impressed with my bit of history, but conceded, "Point taken."

As 10am approached, the three waiting areas were full and still growing. In fairness to those who had arrived early, a mall guard was stationed at the store entrance to prevent line-breakers. At 9:55, the Apple crew inside and outside the store began clapping and cheering and the excitement quickly spread to each of the waiting areas. At 10 sharp, the lights were turned on, and with no further ado, the Apple Store at Willow Bend was opened to the waiting crowd. After the store was pretty full, they began gating those in the waiting areas into the store in groups of about 50, which seemed to work well Rather than go to the end of the que, Avalyn and I did some of her shopping. As we returned by the Apple Store about 11am, two of the waiting areas were still occupied, and people were still arriving.

I really don't know the numbers, or have a comparison with the other openings, but to me it seemed like a great success. Now I finally have a place to send my friends who want to know about Apple computers, knowing they will get a hands on experience, aided by Apple employees who have been trained for the job and given the time to do it well. And maybe even a few PC'ers, who would not be caught dead at the Apple Store inside CompUSA, will drop in to take a look--anonymously!

Ray M. Thompson

Founding Member, Apple Corps of Dallas - January 1978
<raymackt@home.com>