Sunday Morning at the Boylston Street Apple Store

I'm not one fore crowds, that's why I passed on the grand opening of Apple's largest US store last Thursday. So, I decided to head on over this morning. And what a beautiful morning it was!

My buddy Jerry and I got there early because we thought the store hours were 8 AM to 11 PM, 7 days a week. That's true, except for Sundays, when they open up at 9 AM. So we took advantage of the time, went to Starbucks, and snapped off a couple of pictures of the store front. The facade is incredible, as it appears to be floating, suspended by several massive laminated glass beams that extend to the top of the building and over.

We walked around the corner to check out Tech Superstore. They were tucked away in typical Newbury Street style, they're obviously not the early birds that Apple is. If you recall a previous post, the founder and President of Tech, Michael Oh, was the guy who planted the T-shirt under the Apple Store foundation, and chronicled the building of the store on his blog Birth of an Apple Store, using time-lapsed photography.


So after we finished our Grandes the store was about to open, so we positioned ourselves in front of the doors to make sure we were the first ones to enter. A crowd started to form rather quickly gathering behind us. Upon entering the store, you are overwhelmed with this incredible glass column wrapped DNA style with a magnificent spiral glass staircase.

I went over to the stair case and peered straight up to the sky. I'm told that the roof has as lawn and garden. We weren't permitted to go up there just yet, maybe next time.

So, the first floor was all Macs. On the right were the desktops, in power order. First the Mac Minis, then the iMacs, and in the back of the store was the big iron, the Mac Pros. As you followed around to the left, there were the laptops, lined up in descending power order, from the 17 inch MacBook Pro in the back corner to the MacBooks near the front of the store. On the second floor are the iPods and iPhones flanked the sides, with every conceivable accessory for Macs, iPods and iPhones along the back.

On the third floor was the Genius Bar, one-on-one stations, software and books. There's an elevator next to the Genius bar so you don't have to haul your Mac up the stairs. Boy, these guys think of everything.

I snapped this picture of the floating Apple logo, and caught the entrance to the Prudential Center across the street. We spent a fair amount of time speaking with the employees and managers, and marveled at the simplicity and elegance of the store layout. Well, that was that, both Jerry and I had to leave prematurely, because we both had Sunday morning kids sporting events to attend. It was one of the few times I have left a Mac store empty handed.