I would love to be able to make this suggestion to Apple, but they make it very clear on their website that they are not interested in ideas or suggestions.
Looking at a Map of the Apple Stores in the UK and you will see stores in London, Birmingham, Bath which leaves a big triangle in the South West Midlands, Thames Valley region.
View Map of Apple Stores in Bath, London, Birmingham in a larger map
In that triangle you have Stratford-upon-Avon
Wouldn’t it be amazing to have a brand as iconic as Apple in a town like Stratford-upon-Avon the Birthplace of William Shakespeare.
Another thing to note is that the Stratford shopping centre is currently in the planning stages of being redevelloped and is small enough for Apple to buy outright.
Stratford-upon-Avon may be too small for an Apple store but Apple could buy the whole shopping centre and create a unique Apple experience in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Hopefully someone in Apple will pick up on this little idea and at least give it some consideration, in my opinion it is a fantastic opportunity for Apple and would be fantastic for the town of Stratford-upon-Avon too.
eh…no.
I don’t know whether or not you live in Stratford upon Avon but if you do …One. you should know better and Two; you should already know that any bright ideas (which this is) are doomed to failure. Shops are closing left, right and centre in Stratford and have been doing so for a number of years. There is a distinct lack of any risk taking in the mind-set of those who have influence over what happens in this town, the consequence being that anything with a bit of ‘colour’ or adventurism as a theme is usually left to the Royal Shakespeare, which of course leaves most things of any worth, theatre orientated, which of course is not to (understandably) to everyone’s liking.
Unfortunately much of the inner structure of Stratford or as I like to call it, ‘the family silver’ was sold off years ago so we have, for instance, outside bodies, like the developers London & Regional Properties who have what appears to be a million year lease on an area known as Town Square. At this present moment they seem to be wanting to have yet another go at re-visiting their last cock-up on this very same site, this time by adding a five screen cinema (we already have a cinema) smack dab in the middle of town, which is after all said and done a small market town. Duh!
(Note: One has to wonder at their thinking behind this latest idea because an area and situation of Town Square in the middle of Stratford should actually (one would of thought) be not too difficult to make a success of.
E.G. Allow every shop in Town Square an individual owner/shopkeeper enterprise. They would sell goods that are special to them with good quality and fair pricing being an absolute part of the deal. People/customers, even in these hard times, would flock to an innovative and interesting scheme like this and perhaps more importantly, make a day of it and STAY in Stratford.
The fact that this London company show such a lack of imagination etc has to beg the question ‘What do they know that I/We don’t? Why all these half-hearted suggestions and ideas that they come up with-a five screen cinema? In a small market town!!? And why only now? Surely it doesn’t pay to keep an area in a run down condition, or does it?).
Anyway, to sum up.
An Apple store in Stratford has one only physical area where it might have a chance of being successful and that would be on the *Maybird shopping precinct/area which is,surprise, surprise, out-of-town. At least there’s parking (of sorts) and more people, when they’re not visiting the better shopping experience provided by the likes of Leamington Spa might just drop in n the offchance
*(Built and named after the mother of that well known ex-scrap dealer and Stratford/Lover/Stalwart, Mr Tony Bird. Who for a man who is I once supposed to have Stratford upon Avon carved on his heart, appears to be immune to any suggestion that the Maybird Centre monstrosity has sucked the heart out of the centre of Stratford upon Avon).
Hi,
long time no hear, whatever happened to shakespearewuzere ?
was highlight of my week reading your rants and stories about your favourite newspaper.
Apple could buy the whole of the Bell Court Precinct (is it still called that?) glaze it all in and create a whole Apple Store Experience complete (with mini cinemas streaming content in from iTunes if people want that sort of thing).
Even if Stratford is too small for Apple make a profit from, the iconic value of being in the centre of Stratford would be great for them.
Blimey a reader…just started again with world class stratford upon avon .com