PUTTING THE SHINE ON
FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
The Apple Store in Ala Moana Shopping Center opens tomorrow. Assistant manager Donovan Benton worked yesterday setting up the kids' section.
Apple boots up
at Ala Moana
For a change, a big mainland retailer's move into the Hawaii market is actually being welcomed by local competitors. Apple Computer Inc. will open Hawaii's first Apple Store tomorrow morning in Ala Moana Center, retailing direct from the factory to Hawaii residents and tourists.
Resellers of Apple's products, including the popular Macintosh line, say they are happy about the move because they see it as broadening the market and therefore good for them.
One example is CompUSA, a computer giant that has two stores on Oahu, one in Kakaako and the other in Waikele. For several years, the national chain has had a licensed "Apple shop" inside its stores.
CompUSA doesn't see the Apple Store as competition but as a marketing aid. "We have a very strong relationship with Apple," said Patricia Steerman, a spokeswoman at CompUSA headquarters in Dallas, Texas.
"We know they are putting these stores in to showcase their product and they do a very good job of it," she said. What that does, she said, is extend the market and benefit everyone that has an Apple specialty.
Ron Johnson, senior vice president for retailing at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., said CompUSA has shown a strong increase in sales in every market where Apple has introduced its own store.
And the Apple Store concept introduces customers to the Apple and Mac products, still a small percentage of an overall computer market dominated by the IBM/Windows PC concept, he said.
FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Apple Store assistant manager Donovan Benton worked setting up the store yesterday.
Some of that results from the publicity that surrounds the openings of Apple stores, which debuted two years ago. The rest has to do with meeting the Apple equipment hands-on for the first time, Johnson said.
"Over half the people buying computers in our store are first-time Mac buyers," Johnson said. He said 52 percent of the computer buyers in Apple stores have switched to the Mac concept from Windows, a trend encouraged by Apple's recent national television advertising campaign.
The 4,000-square-foot Ala Moana store will have 20-25 employees, counting part-timers, all hired locally, he said. Johnson said half of them have been to Cupertino for training.
The high-traffic, mall-level location is ideal for Apple, he said. Not only will it attract local residents, it will catch tourists as well, including those from Japan, a strong Mac market.
"People buy portables, they buy iPods," Apple's pocket-sized music recorders and players, he said.
Johnson said he cannot predict how many people might line up for the store opening, but there was a crowd of more than 1,000 at the launch of a new Seattle store a week ago.
The Ala Moana store will be Apple's 57th. The 56th opens a few hours earlier in Sacramento.
The stores feature "Mac Genius" experts to help with technical problems and a non-commission sales staff.
Mac Made Easy, a local Apple reseller in the Nuuanu Shopping Plaza, said the new store is welcome.
"It means more market share. With the heavy foot traffic they are bringing in, they are broadening the Macintosh community," said Mark Tanigawa, Mac Made Easy service manager. That will mean more Mac users and more business for stores that sell and service Apple products, he said.
