As our friends at the St. Louis Egotist have already pointed out this week, Apple will be re-opening their St. Louis Galleria location in new bigger digs. It will be Apple’s biggest mall-based store ever, topping out at 6,000 square feet and will feature a new “Genius Lounge” area in the front of the store equipped with free WiFi and cute little emo Apple chicks that will convince you to buy another iPad (“Ok so you have one right? …now think about if you had two!” “Shit, that’s a good point. Sold!”) while you wait for your genius appointment.
“According to mall observers, Starbucks is soon moving its coffee sales operation to the second floor, outside the entrance to the Nordstrom store that opens in September 2011,” Allen wrote. “Apple will then reportedly occupy the 592 square-feet permanent kiosk as a Genius Bar check-in space, Wi-Fi lounge and/or training space.”
The “Genius Lounge” concept would be unique to the St. Louis store, a first of its kind for Apple’s highly successful retail outlets. The new store will occupy over 6,000 square feet, and will have a storefront 55 feet wide.
If you like getting to the Galleria and wading through the old people mall-walking in pastel jumpsuits, you can get a free celebratory t-shirt for being one of the first 1,000 through the doors Saturday morning starting at 9am. Be prepared for the neighborhood kid that wants people to think he’s smart because he’s on his computer all the time (but he’s just playing World of Warcraft and jacking off) to snort at your Apple love though. “Non-replaceable battery huh? Classic Apple, always after your money!” he’ll say, and follow up with “Pffft. What about when you want to upgrade your graphics card to one with 512 mb of RAM or a maybe a solid state hard drive to optimize data throughput? Good luck doing that with Apple Care!” Go ahead and just punch him. It’s your best chance at feeling tough today.
via Apple Insider