Apple Store at Kahala Mall

[pzarquon]

Apple to open in Kahala Mall on Feb. 10 (http://starbulletin.com/2007/02/06/business/story02.html)
Apple Inc. is planning to open its new store at Kahala Mall on Feb. 10. A notice on www.apple.com announced a week of grand opening events starting that day. Events include a T-shirt giveaway for the first 1,000 people to visit the store. The store, which is expected to occupy about 5,000 square feet in what was formerly the ground-floor Gap space at Kahala Mall, will be Apple's second retail store in Hawaii.I was there for the Ala Moana opening (http://www.lightfantastic.org/gallery/200305/17appleopening06)... good times, good times. For, you know, a store in a mall.

[craigwatanabe]

Man with the high rent costs at Kahala Mall coupled with the high cost of a Mac, that's gonna be one expensive Apple.

[tutusue]

Man with the high rent costs at Kahala Mall coupled with the high cost of a Mac, that's gonna be one expensive Apple.
With so many vacancies after last year's big flood I wonder if Kahala Mall is cutting deals. Does anyone know if the price per square foot tends to be higher at KM than Ala Moana Center?

[adrian]

Anyone want to meet up there?

[pzarquon]

I might be there, and I know several people who definitely will!

Apple is very picky about their locations. Actually, I'm surprised Kahala Mall made the cut... and that was before the floods. I'm pretty sure they got a good deal, and probably re-negotiated after the flood (hence the delay from the planned pre-Christmas opening).

Frankly, the Apple Store will do more for Kahala Mall than vice versa. They're lucky to have them. It's pretty unusual, for example, for a tenant adjacent to an Apple Store to be a vacant space! Meanwhile, Kahala lost Tower Records, and soon, Star Market, both large tenants.

The Kahala Mall guy seems to be expecting a lot of traffic to be driven by the Apple Store. I hope he's right.

[LocalMotion]

i'm going to miss the pro bowl AND the Apple store opening... i got hit with a terrible weekend for having to travel to the mainland :mad:

good to know the Kahala store will be MUCH bigger than the Ala Moana store (that one is tiny)

[mel]

I like Apple, own Macs and iPods, but I can't see the logic in standing in a very long line to just get a free Apple T-shirt. Free Macs maybe.

[achow]

I like apple... i own a ipod from apple. I am glad that Kahala Mall is gaining an Apple Store because the one at Ala Moana is getting a bit crowded...

[craigwatanabe]

Apple is very picky about their locations. Actually, I'm surprised Kahala Mall made the cut... and that was before the floods.

Actually I'm not surprized at all since the clientele of Kahala Mall is more upscale and can afford an Apple like one buys toilet paper.

Growing up in Waialae Nui after a short stint in poverty in Palolo, I've come to realize that if any of my rich neighbors dropped their laptop and broke it, they'd simply buy another one. Me I'd cry for a day and then determine how I would afford to replace it.

To them if I said buy this because it's the best, they'd buy it without asking the price. Apple will do well in Kahala Mall. :)

[pzarquon]

Got here at around 6:45 a.m., and there were maybe 30 people in line. The guy at the front of the line, Dean Asai, was here at 3:30 a.m., but no one else showed up for another two hours. And she was just the Apple fan's mom, who called home to wake her son and summon him down to take her place!

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/162/385641619_70a8167e3c_m.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawaii/tags/applestorekahala/)

More photos here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawaii/tags/applestorekahala/), updated live! (I also met another Flickr user, Tony (http://www.flickr.com/photos/41954656@N00/), as we spotted each other's pictures on the site. How geeky!)

Now there are maybe 300 people in line (looks like they've setup a second one to keep the first from blocking too many other stores). Lots of lit-up Apple logos, and several Nintendo DS players. Kenna, from the Ala Moana store, is walking down the line with her HD video camera, interviewing people at random. They've set up a ti leaf ribbon to cut.

This Apple Store is an innovator for the retail operation, as its among the first (Kenna says the first) set up with absolutely no permanent, centralized cash registers. At the back of the store is the Genius Bar, but presumably if you want to buy something, you can do so with an Apple salesperson anywhere in the place.

[1stwahine]

Is one the photo's ~ is that Linkmeister?:)

Have FuN!!!!

Auntie Lynn

[tutusue]

OMG!!! I'm a huge Apple fan but I can't imagine waiting in a very long line for a store opening...any store opening...much less getting up in the middle of the night to do so! Sorry, I just don't get it. Maybe I'm just a recluse at heart! :D

[Pomai]

OMG!!! I'm a huge Apple fan but I can't imagine waiting in a very long lineYou should've seen the line going out the door of Diamond Head Video yesterday for folks trying to get autographs of Tera Patrick, an "adult film" star. It was wrapped all the way back past Rock-Za. Driving past there to go home, I couldn't believe the demographic of young people in line. Lots of chicks must like her too. :eek: :D

My friend works at the Apple store in Ala Moana and was temporarily transferred for the Kahala grand-opening.

Like Mel, the only way I'd wait in line, is if they were giving away a Mac. ;)

[GeckoGeek]

Lots of chicks must like her too. :eek: :D

Seems like I've read that before on another "adult" star. Seems some of the young ones don't really differentiate between someone who's made it in "legitimate" business vs. the "dirty" kind. They got fame, they got money, therefore, they have succeeded. It's just another venue, like the difference between singer and actor. :eek:

[Glen Miyashiro]

This Apple Store is an innovator for the retail operation, as its among the first (Kenna says the first) set up with absolutely no permanent, centralized cash registers. At the back of the store is the Genius Bar, but presumably if you want to buy something, you can do so with an Apple salesperson anywhere in the place.Didn't they do that at Christmastime? I remember that the Apple staff at the iPod table could do that.

[pzarquon]

If you weren't insane to show up early to stand in line, you can be there vicariously via the power of video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPHCcK98NRo

[tutusue]

Very cool, Ryan! I'd much rather vicariously stand in a cyber line than get up early! Gotta love the chanting and dancing. Only in Hawaii!!! I saw a couple of familiar Ala Moana Center Apple Store employees. Hopefully one of them is back at AMC tomorrow 'cuz I need him...bad. I have a 10:40 appt.! :eek:

[pzarquon]

Absolutely, there were a lot of Ala Moana staffers there. I think they were just covering for the grand opening, and hopefully will be back today. It seemed there was a full set of new faces for Kahala.

A guy I knew from... wow, at least fifteen years ago was there, griping that he didn't get hired as an Apple expert despite over a decade of experience in retail and with Macs... but they hired "some girl with pink hair."

He thought that was iffy in older, affluent East Honolulu.

"Apple Stores have to have a pink haired girl," I said. "It's in their lease."

[tutusue]

[...]"Apple Stores have to have a pink haired girl," I said. "It's in their lease."
See, Blue...you have job security if you move to Hawaii and you don't have to know anything about Macs! :D Well...maybe just a little!

[craigwatanabe]

I would imagine with the clientele aim at the younger, hipper generation, pink hair would be what you'd want in an innovative store suck as Apple's.

It definately separates Apple from the black business suits of IBM.

[tutusue]

I would imagine with the clientele aim at the younger, hipper generation, pink hair would be what you'd want in an innovative store suck as Apple's.[...]
OMG...Paul Ogata could have a field day with this typo! Paul? Where are you? :D

Sorry, Craig...couldn't resist! :rolleyes:

[craigwatanabe]

OMG...Paul Ogata could have a field day with this typo! Paul? Where are you? :D

Sorry, Craig...couldn't resist! :rolleyes:

oh man I'm choking on my lau lau as I type this. At first I thought, "did I spell clientele wrong?" Then I saw the typo, and no Apple's don't suck:D