The Apple Store In Omaha Is Open For Business

Posted on September 23, 2006 at 05:32 PM

Early this morning (early by this blogs standards), the entire JoeSchmidt.com staff trudged out to stand in line and be some of the first people to go inside Nebraska's first Apple store, located in Village Pointe Mall. We arrived at 9:15am, 45 minutes before the store's 10am opening, and were greeted by a throng of approximately 300 people. Most of whom were probably lured to the store to get one of 1000 free t-shirts apple was giving away that day. (alright, I admit it, so were we)

Ten Minutes prior to the opening, I heard quite a commotion coming from the back of the line. Turned out it was the Apple store employees cheering and shaking hands trying to pump up those in line. With all the noise they were making you would have thought Steve Jobs himself was there, but I highly doubt Steve has ever set foot in Nebraska.

We made it into the store 15 minutes after it opened. Inside the store was packed, wall to wall people, iMacs, iPods, MacBooks; the Apple reality distortion field was in full effect. I've got to hand it to Apple, everyone knows they design great products but their retail stores are designed just as well.

Here are a few pictures from inside the store:

Shot from the back of the store:

The Genius bar

apparently blue hair better equips you to deal with Mac related issues

The Studio

This is where you can get advice from an Apple Creative

Here is the JoeSchmidt.com staff putting an iMac through it's paces:

And here is an shot of the outside facade:

It took all my might to leave the store without purchasing an iMac or an iPod. The Head of my Culinary Arts Department even gave me the go ahead to get an iPod and also flirted with the notion of how having an iMac would be nice as it takes up such little room. This was reverse psychology at work on her part, I did not cave though.

We left the store, having only purchased an I Spy game for the Head of my Legal Departments Orange/Blue iMac G3. We were handed our free apple shirts as we left the store and headed for home.

Here is the Head of My legal Department styling in his new Apple shirt:

I guess one size really does fit all

My only complaint about the store is...

it's location. The new Apple Store is located in Omaha's newest, trendiest, outdoor Mall. I'm sure Apple did quite a bit of research as where to place their store in Omaha, but this blog contends that they would have been better served by locating the store in an old remodeled building in Downtown Omaha. Granted, they may get a bit more traffic by having the store in affluent West Omaha, but with all the growth happening downtown, the Apple store would have been become a key destination for many citizens AND visitors to the downtown area.

It would have been neat to see an old building retrofitted with Apple's modern style. Though, I guess Nebraskans should be happy they have an Apple store at all.

Maybe next time, hey Steve?

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