McDonald’s new flagship store is making a clear effort to mimic the Apple Store. AppleInsider takes a look at the plan, and also a takes a look back at Microsoft, Sony, and others who have “borrowed” elements of the Apple Store aesthetic in retail.
The Apple Store concept debuted in 2001, and in the years since Apple’s retail move has thrived, growing to more than 500 stories in 24 countries.
There are many reasons for the Apple Store’s huge growth, and it’s even more astonishing for another reason. Retail, in that same time frame, has largely collapsed, at least in the United States. Many chains have closed, and the ones who have survived have needed to come up with a compelling reason to attract customers who could just as easily order online.
And in that time, some companies have decided the easiest route is to borrow significant elements from the Apple Store.
The Apple McDonald’s
The latest to do that is, of all businesses, McDonald’s. The fast food giant announced this week that it has opened a new flagship store in downtown Chicago that features a wood-and-glass aesthetic very familiar to anyone who’s ever been inside an Apple Store.
The store, which is on the former site of the famous “Rock N’ Roll” McDonald’s on Clark and Ontario streets, is less than a mile away from the Apple Store’s Chicago flagship on Michigan Avenue. McDonalds also recently relocated its global headquarters to the Windy City, to the former headquarters of Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions.