Six Reasons Why Freeport is a Better Location for an Apple Retail Store than the Maine Mall
An Apple Computer retail store is finally coming to Maine. Justin Ellis of the Portland Press Herald broke the story in mid-April (after discovering job postings by Apple), but to date there has been no formal announcement of timing or location. The job posts, unfortunately, indicate the location is the Maine Mall so it’s possible that this post is too late. But no one I’m aware of, including the vigilant folks who write about the Maine Mall on the LabelScar blog, can identify a specific site under construction yet. Apple brilliantly controls its PR and is notoriously clever in their public relations. Maybe, just maybe, this isn’t a done deal.
Apple’s retail strategy, thoroughly detailed here on the ifoAppleStore blog, is driven by the company’s effort to gain market share, and is partially credited (along with the tagalong effect of iPod sales) with their recent steady gains in the personal computer market. In simple terms, high traffic retail locations enable Apple to expose their array of elegant products to a broad audience of PC/Windows suckers like me (I’m writing this post from Dell Hell) and to debunk firsthand all the old “doesn’t work on a mac” myths. The steady creep of iPods and other entry-level devices eventually lead to iMacs and PowerBooks. At a time when bricks and mortar retail successes are scarce, Apple’s strategy is rocking. From essentially nothing in 2001, Apple retail revenues surpassed $4 billion in 2007.
Being in an Apple store is a phenomenal experience. Great displays, unbelievably cool products, just the right service touch, free wireless, a free genius bar to get your technical questions and issues resolved. The locations of the stores fit in two camps: big, high profile, architecturally stunning “flagships” (like the recently unveiled Boyleston Street store in Boston) and smaller, inline stores typically located in malls. For the smaller locations, ifoAppleStore says that Apple has a preference for lifestyle malls that have other attractions besides shopping–theaters, restaurants and other “experiential” activities.
Looking at Maine, there are probably only three locations that could deliver the traffic volume that Apple’s strategy demands–the Maine Mall, downtown Portland or Freeport.
Here is my case for why Freeport would be a better location than the Mall:
1. A “flagship” store opportunity.
Freeport’s new Village Station project provides Apple with an opportunity for an externally facing, highly customizable store location akin to it’s flagship locations in major cities. Village Station is in the heart of high traffic Freeport, directly across Main Street from L.L. Bean. The project is under construction now and, for Apple, I’m sure the developers would work a package for an architecturally significant presence in a premier anchor location.
2. A location that better serves all of Maine.
Thanks to Maine’s laptop program (high five to Angus), the distribution of Apple’s “presence” in the state is geographically broad. It is a fair assumption that we’ll be a one Apple store state for the foreseeable future, and the ideal location would serve all of Maine. Locating just slightly north of Portland is a nod to Apple’s current and future customers in northern and eastern Maine, while remaining easily accessible to folks from the south and west. (Presumably people living in far southern Maine will continue to use Apple’s locations in tax-free New Hampshire.)
3. A true experiential shopping destination.
Apple likes lifestyle centers where there are activities beyond just shopping. Freeport is the ultimate experiential shopping location–the original lifestyle center–offering attractions you can’t find anywhere else: the L.L. Bean Outdoor Discovery Schools, where you can take walk-on lessons in fly casting, archery and kayaking for just $15; an emerging “see-it-made” retail/manufacturing sector led by Wilburs Chocolatiers, Simply Divine Brownies and Cold River Vodka; an exciting array of great, authentic, locally-owned restaurants and bars (see my prior post about Bucks Naked BBQ and the restaurant sector); a terrific free summer concert series with major national acts. And there are lots of future plans, including Bean’s outdoor adventure center, that will continue to enrich the Freeport experience.
In contrast, the Maine Mall’s efforts to add more experiential component have fallen flat. In April, the Mall’s owner, General Growth Properties, abandoned a $20 million expansion plan that would have included a new theater and new restaurants.
4. The decline of the Maine Mall.
Thanks to sprawl zoning policies, the mall area is fast becoming the place you go out of your way to avoid. It is increasingly congested and ugly, a seemingly endless march of standalone big boxes and adjacent mini-malls all separated from each other by a mile or two and 15 minutes of red lights. These ancillary malls, like the one anchored by Target, or the new Cabela’s Gateway Shoppes, suck energy and store prospects from the Maine Mall. And there’s evidence that the impact of this is real. The new theater and food court project is dead. The old Filenes remains vacant as do a number of storefronts within the mall. With a few exceptions, the new brands that have located there aren’t exactly top tier stores. The Stroudwater project proposed in neighboring Westbrook is most likely a pipe dream, but is being positioned to draw premier stores away from the mall. How any one location will be able to thrive amidst the store dispersion and mall sprawl taking place in S. Portland, Scarborough and Westbrook isn’t clear.
Meanwhile, Freeport continues to concentrate the focus and energy in its walkable, core village anchored by L.L. Bean.
5. Higher quality traffic and better demographics.
Freeport sees 3.5 million visitors every year and is the top tourist destination in the state. While the mall may be able to claim higher shopper volume (GGP doesn’t publish Mall traffic volume), the quality of that traffic is questionable. Freeport’s demographics are better than what the Mall publishes publicly. With the battle for high-end customers continuing, the Mall’s prospects for improving demographic characteristics don’t seem good.
6. A shopping destination with a future transportation plan.
With crude oil over $130/barrel and gas prices around $4/gallon, any long-term retail strategy needs to contemplate the decline of the automobile as the sole form of transportation. In Freeport, prospects look very positive for expansion of the Amtrak Downeaster north of Portland by 2010, and the train stop in town is immediately adjacent to the Village Station project, providing walkable access to the heart of the village.
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Comments
I agree in theory about the attraction of Apple. But it seems inconsistent with your other post in which you describe the need to keep chains out and local stores in. Also, I have been to the new Apple Store on Boylston in Boston. It is cold, alienating, trendy and ugly. In the hype of its opening there were decent crowds. But I can see a version in Freeport being cold and empty on a February weekday.
What is the story with the spec-built empty shell just after Shaws entering town?
I had (almost) exactly the same thoughts when I read about the Apple store’s move to the Mall area - the only difference in my reaction being that I thought Apple belonged in downtown Portland instead. I’m a devoted Apple customer, but I will never visit their store if they locate in the Maine Mall area.
I thought that Apple’s brand was supposed to be hip, well-designed, and easy-to-use. The Maine Mall exemplifies the opposite. It’s like John Hodgman, the PC, in the TV ads. What are they thinking?
Regarding Apple, I’m hopeful the Mall location isn’t a done deal. It seems very uncharacteristic for them to have advertised for staff with a May hire date yet there’s no evidence of a storefront in the mall under construction. What I like about Apple Stores (acknowledging that not everyone likes the aesthetics)is that their strategy is about community–free wifi, a genius bar to hang out, workshops, summer camps for kids–all things that turn a std retail location into something more. More than anything, Apple in Freeport would be the kind of game changer we all hoped the Village Station would bring.
Frankly, I disagree. While I’m no great fan of the Maine Mall, I’d rather go there when I want to simply get into a store and get out again. In Freeport, it’s park a quarter mile away, walk for 15 minutes - often up a steep hill and outside in inclement weather - brave your way across an extremely busy street filled with poor drivers, and battle throngs of tourists who don’t know L.L. Bean from their behinds.
At the Mall it’s park, walk in, buy, walk out.
I love Freeport but it’s far better for recreational, touristy shopping. People who want to buy a high-end computer product do their research beforehand. They know what they want, and they don’t want to have to push their way through the line at the fresh-squeezed lemonade stand to get it.
Besides, the vast majority of Mainers live in greater Portland. And incidentally, I used to work within a mile of the Mall and the only time I’ve encountered inconveniently heavy traffic has been on Harry Potter release days and the day after Thanksgiving.
In the end it doesn’t really matter that much. People who truly love Apple will visit the store even if they’re not fond of its location. Or just order online, since their shipping is fast and often free.
Let’s be real. The Apple store is not supposed to be a tourist attraction, it’s supposed to be a place for local Mainers and students to purchase technology. The best location for that will be central to where thousands of Mainers live, work and shop every day.
(I am not affiliated with Apple or the Mall.)
have you ever been to Freeport in the winter??? it’s a ghost town, also tourist aren’t going to buy a computer while on vacation.
What an interesting blog. Will visit more often.
I have visited many Apple stores across the country and have a feeling Apple knows a thing or two about selling their product. I have always avoided going into the Maine Mall because it’s so unappealing from the outside. But I ventured in a few months ago and it felt just like I was back in Newport Beach, California — much of the same mall stuff. It was strange walking outside and not seeing palm trees.
I’m just thrilled that I don’t have to go out of state anymore. Thanks a bunch Apple!
Thanks Susan. As everyone probably knows by now, despite my incredibly compelling case for Freeport, the new Apple Store opens at the Maine Mall Saturday September 13.
[...] opening of Maine’s first Apple Store at the Maine Mall Sprawl. OK, I knew in May when I wrote 6 Reasons Why Freeport is a Better Location for an Apple Store that the odds for Freeport were on the order of a lottery ticket. Still, to me, Apple remains [...]
I hope someone from Apple reads this and understands that there are loads of people like me who avoid Maine Mall Hell like the plague. Furniture genius Thomas Moser is building a new showroom at the gateway of Freeport village. Their other retail locations are aesthetically delicious and well-integrated into their locales. http://www.thosmoser.com/showroom.list.php Apple could be in their company if they were smart.