14 DAY TRIAL // A local Apple reseller in Santa Barbara (Calif.) may be put out of business, after a new Apple retail store opens in the city next year, ifoAppleStore is reporting.
The source dealing exclusively with news and information about Apple's retail stores reveals that Craig Smith, a friend of Mike Bishop's, interviewed the Mac Mechanic owner to find out how he thought the Apple Store on State Street would impact his business.
“I knew they were coming to town,” Mike told the interviewer. “I'm shocked at the location and I'm shocked at the amount of money they're wasting when they didn't have to.” According to Bishop, Apple is likely to be spending roughly $2 million on remodeling the old Pier One Imports store at 928 State Street.
Bishop's “well-placed friends” have allegedly told the Mac reseller that Apple has already signed a 10-year lease at a rent of $67,000 per month for the new location. “It's not fair!” Mike said. Nevertheless, Bishop admitted that business wasn't fair in general, even though a Mac reseller like him could well be considered the guy who laid the first brick of store-to-open, conceptually speaking. “We kept Apple alive in Santa Barbara for 10 years. We poured a lot of our treasure and time into this community,” Bishop said.
When the new Apple Store opens next Spring, Bishop's businesses would undoubtedly be killed, he said. “The future looks kind of bleak,” Bishop went on to explain. According to the report, other resellers that have had an Apple store move in on them have lost 20 to 30 percent of revenue in the first year. “They will kill me retail wise,” Bishop said. “And, if they're going to do repair work in there, that will kill me.”
Bishop has an 8% margin on the products he sells. His profit on a sale is approximately the same as what the customer pays in sales tax, which Apple can beat simply by offering the company’s standard 10 percent educational discount, ifoAppleStore points out. According to the friend who interviewed Bishop, “He can't compete with that.”
Moreover, now to further break your hearts, in an effort to emulate the look and feel of an Apple Store, Mike remodeled his store a few years back, after being forced to buy the property so he could actually make the necessary modifications to its structure. How's that for a bad investment? If only Bishop knew...
On the bright side, Apple has yet to officially acknowledge that it is coming to Santa Barbara, according to Mr. Smith, the interviewer. Who knows, maybe it'll change its mind. What do you think it would take for Apple to actually give up on the Santa Barbara location?