The mystery that wasn’t has finally been solved.
Apple Inc. acknowledged this week what has been obvious for months to passers-by at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto: It is bringing a gleaming new retail location online.
The Cupertino-based company confirmed in an email blast to its faithful legions that the store will open Saturday at 10 a.m. The first 1,500 customers will even receive a free “commemorative T-shirt.”
The approximately 12,000-square-foot, 23-foot-tall store will replace Apple’s 9-year-old outpost at the upscale mall. The doors will close for good at the old shoebox-shaped store at 9 tonight.
Enclosed by glass on three sides and topped with a cantilevered roof, the new location next to Niemen Marcus is divided into two sections. Familiar offerings beginning with the letter “i” will dominate the front half while services including a 360-degree Genius Bar will occupy the rear.
This so-called “pavilion design” is a first for Apple and is expected to influence the look and feel of future stores.
Altogether, the new Stanford Shopping Center retail location is seven times bigger than the one it is replacing, with nearly four times the space for products and nine times the space for services.
Brian McCaul paused Thursday to watch orange-shirted construction workers apply finishing touches to the roof of the store. The Menlo Park resident said he enjoys the use of an outdated Apple laptop thanks to his brother, who works for the company, but otherwise maintains a high level of skepticism when it comes to bleeding-edge technology.
Nonetheless, he found the gleaming structure worthy of praise.
“I suppose it’s iconic in a way,” McCaul said.
Jason Parry, meanwhile, picked a shady spot outside the store to wait for a friend. He was disappointed to find the store largely cloaked from view by an 8-foot-tall fence wrapped in black fabric.
“I thought there would be more uncovered,” the San Jose resident said. “I’m looking forward to seeing it on Saturday.”
Parry owns several Apple products, including a 15-inch laptop and an iPad Mini. He said both are critical to his work as a user-experience designer. Most recently, he was part of a team that built an award-winning app based on Matthew Modine’s character in the film “Full Metal Jacket.”
“In general, I would say Apple products enable me to be creative and do my work — it’s not about (being a) fanboy or anything,” Parry said. “If you want to produce content, you need Apple. If you want to just consume, maybe not so much.”
The secrecy surrounding the store has been amusing, said Parry, adding, “It’s got Apple written all over it.”
Email Jason Green at jgreen@dailynewsgroup.com; follow him at twitter.com/jgreendailynews.
