I’ve always admired, in a strange way, ifo Apple Store. It’s a site almost manically devoted to a single niche — namely, tracking the expansion of Apple’s retail stores across the globe’s malls and downtowns. (The about page is almost charming in its devotion: “This personal, non-commercial, not-for-profit Web site was originally posted to support the ‘Overnighters,’ a group of people who camp in front of (ifo) Apple Stores the night before their grand opening.” I mean, I love me some Apple, but the camping-out people always seemed a bit much.)
Anyway, the site is concrete proof of one of my core Internet beliefs: If you pick a niche small enough, you can in short order become the absolute king of that niche. Start a site for toothpick-holder collectors, and you can own toothpick-holder collecting.
(Aside: that last link is to what is, by far, the snarkiest story I’ve ever snuck into an American newspaper. It’s also the one story that got me into the most trouble with my bosses, who mistook my quirky affection for offense. Also, the mortuary quote may be the best I’ve ever typed.)
But back to ifo Apple Store. Notice, in the April 10 entry, a bit of news relevant to Dallasites: the impending arrival of a third Apple store in DFW. This one is coming to NorthPark, which certainly would have been a better spot for the first store than the ever-vacant Willow Bend. Considering the big crowds I always run into at the Knox-Henderson store, I can imagine there’s enough market to support it.
(NorthPark is, of course, the retail temple built by Raymond Nasher, now known as the man behind the excellent Nasher Sculpture Center, where I was this a.m. I can also verify that Nasher’s also a very courtly, kind interview subject.)
(Addendum: West siders, don’t feel left out. Apparently Southlake is getting an Apple store, too.)
4 thoughts on “new apple store in dallas”
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Wow, with quotes like this:
“I can tell you that the minute the Bulletin arrives in a member’s house, it’s read,” said Fred Phelps, the society’s president and mayor of Colesburg, Ia., population 361. “Before the bills, before the correspondence from the local mortuary, it’s read. It’s the nerve center.”
you claim it’s merely quirky affection?
I guess that the jokes, as they say, just write themselves…
Hey, I really liked these folks. But how can you write a story about a toothpick-holders-collectors convention straight?
That said, if I were writing it today, I’d tone back some of the second half, just because it’d be funnier if it were more restrained.
I should also say that the toothpick collectors loved the story. I mean, they loved it. I got Christmas cards from a couple of them. It was one boss of mine who thought I was inappropriately making fun of them.
toothpick collecting is very “fast-paced”
Apple and NorthPark seems to make good sense, but I have to admit that I’m not a big fan of the expansion of the facility. Not that a public facility can belong to anyone, but it’s been “my” mall for my whole shopping life. By making it the biggest in Big D, it will no doubt be much less quaint… much of its charm will be lost.