Quote:
Originally Posted by counterfactual
I've heard all of those same rumours, but notice the result-- none of them have proven true. People widely expected Apple to be on SGR. So my question is... how, then, did it end up in a commuter mall? Someone either dropped the ball, or never picked it up. Which is very Halifax.
|
2 reasons I don't think this is a very big deal:
Of the 29 Apple store locations in Canada listed on their website, it only looks like 2 of them are
not in malls (and both are in Quebec). Even the stores in Toronto and Vancouver all seem to be in malls. So it's not really "very Halifax", it's just the business model that that company is used to. I'm fairly sure that most of their US stores are in malls too. Particularly in Halifax's case, this makes sense; if I'm going to buy expensive electronics (that are notoriously easy to damage) then I'd rather step out of the store into a climate controlled environment than somewhere where I could immediately get rained on (such as Spring Garden). For the record there
were (possibly still are?) indie computer stores in the south end that specialized in Apple products before the actual Apple store moved into HSC, not sure if they're still around.
Other thing is that while HSC is a mall (not sure exactly how you'd define "commuter mall") it's not like it's way out in the suburbs or that no one lives around there or that it's hard to get to. It's basically at the edge of the inner city and is very accessible by transit (particularly from the peninsula/Clayton Park, which I would imagine is where the majority of its customers are from). If HSC was way out in Bedford or Fall River (which, in terms of proportionate distance, is where a lot of large NA malls are located relative to their city centres) then I'd see a reason to complain, but it's located in a location that's arguably more accessible to more people than SGR (in terms of total
travel time).
I'm also not really the type to care much about clothing labels so I don't really care which brands set up shop downtown. Although I do have a few friends who are very label-conscious, I would argue that it's actually a local cultural trait to reject major labels/designers in favour of owning something "different" - which is likely a contributing factor to the lack of things like J Crew downtown. I'd rather see independent retailers, local designers, and brands not really seen elsewhere in Canada (like Cintamani) than the semi-luxe brands that you could find in any American state.