Apple Store launch in 2001 reshaped retail forever

On May 19, 2001, Apple opened its first two stores in Glendale, California, and Tysons Corner, Virginia—following a video launch on May 15. Over the next 25 years, the Apple Store grew to more than 500 locations across over 20 countries, helped build demand fo

When Steve Jobs said, “This is our store,” he wasn’t just introducing a shop—he was changing the rules of how people would buy Apple hardware and get help after they purchased it.

The moment landed on May 15, 2001, when Apple unveiled the Apple Store in a video launch ahead of the first-ever openings the following Saturday, May 19.

The very first Apple Stores opened that day with two locations—Glendale, California, and Tysons Corner, Virginia. Apple’s first foray into its own retail space didn’t just give customers a new place to walk in. It altered brick-and-mortar retail for everyone watching.

One AppleInsider staffer was present for the opening of the Tysons Corner store.

The scale of what followed is hard to miss: in the 25 years since 2001, the Apple Store grew to more than 500 stores in over 20 countries. Its first location in India arrived in April 2023.

The growth also came during some of the toughest years for consumer electronics retail, when the sector was struggling more broadly. And even the coronavirus didn’t push Apple Stores into the collapse that struck many other chains—including Microsoft.

From the start, Apple built its physical retail around more than just sales. The company had decided to go beyond selling computers through big-box retailers and authorized sellers. In the 1990s. Apple computers were sold through a mix of chain stores and authorized Apple retailers. but customer support from big-box stores was often inconsistent—tied to how frequently Apple representatives. and later contractors. visited to keep staff aligned.

In 1997, Apple tried a “store within a store” concept with CompUSA, shortly after Jobs’ return to the company. At the same time, Apple pulled its products out of most non-CompUSA big-box retailers.

Dell loomed as the main competitor, doing extremely well with online sales. In an irony Jobs would likely have appreciated later, Dell’s system was built on technology called WebObjects—created by Jobs’ NeXT firm—something Apple could leverage after acquiring NeXT.

Inspired by Dell, Apple launched its own online store as it was preparing to launch the original iMac.

Even with that digital push, Jobs didn’t want retail to disappear. Instead, he opened Apple-branded stores. In early 2000, he hired executive Ron Johnson, formerly of Target, to run them.

On May 15, 2001, Apple announced it would open 25 retail stores that year, including its first two locations opening on the Saturday that followed.

Jobs described what customers would find in the first stores: products placed in the front section. including iMacs and iBooks. alongside the then-new PowerBook G4 Titanium and Power Macs. The iPod wouldn’t be released for another five months. and it would take six more years for the iPhone to arrive.

The stores weren’t limited to Apple devices. They also featured music, movies, photos, and a kids section, and carried non-Apple digital cameras and camcorders. There was also a heavy presence of boxed software—at a time when Apple was already reshaping how software would eventually be sold. to the point that boxed applications can now feel like relics.

Another original selling point that remains familiar, at least in spirit, was the Genius Bar. Back then, the Genius Bar included pictures of Albert Einstein and other famous geniuses drawn from Apple’s “Think Different” ads.

Jobs positioned the in-store “geniuses” as people able to answer customers’ questions. If they couldn’t, there was even a landline to someone in Cupertino.

On the first day at Tysons Corner, more than 500 fans lined up starting at pre-dawn. Over the weekend, Tysons and Glendale hosted over 7,500 visitors, and the two stores combined sold $599,000 in products across the first two days.

The original Tysons Corner store isn’t something shoppers can still visit. It was relocated to nearby larger premises in 2023.

Still, the launch day lives on in a different form. A virtual tour of the original store is available because artist and developer Michael Steeber created it.

The Apple Store’s success wasn’t only about being the first. Apple came to the concept after other companies tried it; it was simply the first to do it right. Dell had moved online after a retail “tiptoe” failed, and Gateway followed a similar path.

What Apple did next built momentum that never really slowed. Its first urban flagship opened in 2003 on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, and the first international Apple Store arrived later that year in Ginza, Tokyo, Japan.

Five years after the first two stores, in 2006, Apple opened its iconic “cube” location on Fifth Avenue in New York.

As the worldwide count crossed 500—starting with its first location in Korea in 2018—Apple’s earliest stores kept their gravity. The store Apple designated number one in Glendale remains a popular site for fan pilgrimages.

Apple kept renovating its stores, preserving architecture in older buildings and creating new, modern spaces when it started from scratch.

Then came 2020.

Apple shut every store in 2020 when the coronavirus swept across the world. For months, all Apple stores across the globe were closed. They reopened slowly, and then sometimes closed again.

China was the first to see Apple Stores reopening, followed by parts of Europe, then selected locations in the US. In each case, reduced opening hours came alongside social distancing and healthcare procedures.

One decision drew attention almost immediately: Apple paid its retail staff during the shutdown.

For over 500 stores, the company quietly paid wages for two months while many employees elsewhere faced furloughs or layoffs. Apple also sent care packages to some employees in the early days of the pandemic, and kept them updated about what was happening and what Apple was doing.

Deirdre O’Brien appears in the record here as part of Apple’s retail leadership—named as a figure who later ran retail, after Angela Ahrendts. The piece also notes that Vanessa Trigub has become vice president of stores and retail operations.

Apple’s approach also blended physical and online commerce from the beginning: the stores sold boxed software, while Apple was planning to move applications online. That balance helped keep physical and digital shopping moving even during lockdowns.

It mattered for people forced to work from home. Even when they couldn’t visit a local Apple Store, they could order online and receive contact-free delivery.

Steve Jobs couldn’t have anticipated the coronavirus. But the steps he took early—especially the decision, in 2001, to bring Ron Johnson into the picture to run Apple’s stores—helped Apple Stores survive the kind of pressure that shut down many rivals.

Success, however, didn’t make the Apple Store immune to new battles.

One pressure shows up in labor and union disputes, an issue that would have felt unimaginable back in the era when Apple Stores were defined by an almost anti–sales-floor feel.

Apple Stores became known for low-pressure advice. For years, customers could ask store staff for help and receive guidance instead of being pushed toward a purchase. The idea—described in the record—is that staff would point customers to another electronics store across the mall if that was where the right product could be found.

Over time, the company has remained committed to the notion that this model protects customers and helps staff do their job.

But the tone has changed for some workers and observers. In 2022, one Apple Store summarized its relationship with staff as so poor that “writing to Santa” was as effective as saying anything or complaining about anything.

Apple rejects that criticism and says its relationship with staff is strong. Specifically, Apple’s head of retail, Deirdre O’Brien, said Apple Stores should not have unions.

“I worry about what it would mean to put another organization in the middle of our relationship,” she said in May 2022. “An organization that doesn’t have a deep understanding of Apple or our business, and most importantly, one that I do not believe shares our commitment to you.”

O’Brien also said Apple is improving pay and conditions for its retail staff, and that changes came only after the threat of unionization grew.

The company has also been repeatedly accused of taking illegal anti-union steps, including allegedly firing activists.

Outside the US, the stakes turned more visible. In Australia, when talks with Apple failed, retail staff went on strike—reported as the first workers’ strike in Australian retail history.

The story of the Apple Store is often told as a retail revolution. But even as that model spread—imitated by Microsoft, attempted by Sony, and even copied as knockoffs in China—it now faces a conflict inside its own walls.

For a chain that began with Jobs’ insistence that “This is our store,” the question in 2022 and beyond is no longer only about shopping. It’s about who gets a say in how that store works, and what happens when the bargain between customer experience and labor conditions starts to break down.

Apple Store Steve Jobs Ron Johnson Genius Bar retail coronavirus unions Deirdre O'Brien Vanessa Trigub iPhone iPad