Apple store anniversary poster chock-full of trivia
A poster spotted in the back of one of Apple's retail stores has provided a number of interesting facts about the company's retail efforts, which turned 10 years old last month. MacRumors, which snagged the photo from a source, has shared an image of it (right), along with a full transcription of its text. Some of the more interesting bits include:• To make sure the full-scale front of the Regent Street store would look like it did in plans, the company built a full-sized replica in a parking lot nearby Apple's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. • After the company noticed that the steel used in its first store was dulling, the company began using a different finishing process on it. "That's when we learned that blasting steel with virgin sand makes it less prone to scuff marks," the poster reads. • Apple closed down a street in Sydney to get the three-story pane of glass to go in the downtown retail store, along with building a special piece of machinery that could install it. • The company has found shirts with too many colors to be confusing, while blue shirts are "just right." Why no black T-shirts? They "blend in."• The Apple logo that's embroidered on store employee T-shirts takes 4,253 stitches. • Restoring the Paris Opera retail store involved more than 500,000 tiles. • The red phone that was previously placed behind the Genius Bar to give store employees a direct line to Apple's experts in Cupertino has been phased out in favor of making store employees more knowledgeable. • It's harder to get a gig working at an Apple Store than it is to work for Apple at its headquarters in Cupertino. "It can sometimes take two to three years to bring someone in. Not because they aren't right for Apple. But because we want to be sure the opportunity we have to offer is right for them," the poster reads. For more Apple store tidbits, including details on how they were almost cyber cafes, be sure to read our story from last month.
