MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

May 05, 09 - 09:07 am Comment from: JRoy

Link to SB store on Apple web site is present but not functioning yet. Grew up in that town, and I'm pretty sure the storefront has to stick to the low-key Spanish colonial style mandated on State St. No multi-story glass cube. Sure hope they can make a go of it in SB. State St. businesses (the main downtown street) have been struggling to survive for years due to high rents and competition from big box stores in the suburbs. Apple could boost business in the surrounding blocks by generating foot traffic. Go Apple!

May 05, 09 - 09:47 am Comment from: NoSpamMan

We're local here and are both excited and a little concerned about the negative impact on local businesses. We have at least 3 Apple Authorized dealers here that will certainly take a big hit on their retail sales which often lead to the service hours and add-ons that really pay the rent. Our sense is that Apple wants to work with everyone here to join our small town, but it's hard to know what the impact of that will be until they've been here awhile. On the other hand, it's great advertising for the platform and will definitely grown market share here in Santa Barbara. So we can all hope for the rising tide metaphor.

This is great and a long time coming.

See you there for the grand opening.

May 05, 09 - 11:58 am Comment from: JRoy

Link is fixed, no photo on Apple site. Google photo shows five boarded-up arches - may be an old photo of the building where apple put its store.

It's a great idea. It's a very affluent town + it gets a tons of tourists = exposure. I would think that lower State street would be a bit better location as there is a little more foot traffic, but all in all great.

May 05, 09 - 03:08 pm Comment from: ken1w

Hey... I thought Apple was not opening any more stores until the economy gets better.

Just shows how resilient Apple is, compare to other tech companies. By the time the recession is really over, Apple will be on top of the world.

This is great. My sister lives there and if I need to get anything for her Macs, it it's been either an hour south for the Thousand Oaks Store or two hours north for San Luis Obispo. It's about time.

May 05, 09 - 03:23 pm Comment from: NoSpamMan

@adambomb

Actually, that's not true, Adam. There are at least 3 Apple Authorized dealers in Santa Barbara, MacMechanic, Samy's Camera, and Mac Shac in Goleta. These 3 places have been serving Santa Barbara quite well, some of them since the beginning.

As I said earlier, yes, it's cool finally having a place to deal with your iPhone other than ATT (who don't really give a fart about iPhones), but SB has always had places to buy, upgrade and repair Apple computers and the AppleStore will certainly make it more challenging for them to continue.

Apple Stores can be beautiful like Mercury.

Early reports say that the team there is very eager to work with all the local businesses engaged in supporting Mac users in Santa Barbara County and we hope that is true. But it's a game changer too. We're all just wondering what the new game is going to look like in a few months.

Suitable storefronts don't open up all that often on State Street. I've heard that Apple has been looking and waiting for many years for the right spot. When the old Pier One left they finally had a large enough space.

Lower State street has a bit too many bars and restaurants, plus the Farmer's market takes it over the part of the street every Tuesday afternoon.

I'm impressed that they went to the expense of gutting the entire insides and tearing down the back half of the building to create a second floor theater.

This new store is just diagonal across from Saks Fifth Ave and a block away from the main shopping mall on State. Just above is the totally remodeled Granada theatre and another large, heavily remodeled shopping area. So the part of State Street that the Apple store is located is about the best they could hope for.

It's true that the largest amount of tourist don't usually get up that high, especially if they get stuck at the bars. But when you see that black flag with a white Apple on it fluttering just a small distance away...

postponed = fire

May 08, 09 - 07:31 pm Comment from: NoSpamMan

Santa Barbara has been declared a National Disaster and now there are about 30,000 people who have been displaced from their homes due to the fire. Apple made a good call in postponing the opening.

Does anybody know the Terminal command for rain?...