My “What’s in Store” retail column from Aug 23, 2013, about the possible addition of an Apple Store.
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Life would be a lot easier if I didn’t have to drive an hour to the Brandon Town Center mall or Tampa’s International Plaza to see the latest Apple gadgets or have my Macbook Pro serviced.
Unfortunately, Tampa’s malls are the closest I’ll get to an Apple Store as a Sarasota resident — unless I decide to drop by Apple seller Computer Advantage’s store on U.S. 41, near the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport.
But that soon may very well change.
With a new 880,000-square-foot mall in the works here, Apple may have a renewed interest in opening a store in the Southwest Florida market. Although Apple Inc. employees would not confirm if the electronics company is looking into the Sarasota-Bradenton market, local retail sources are buzzing about Apple and the possibility of a new store here in one of our regional malls.
This isn’t the first time Apple, which is known for being very selective when it comes to opening retail operations, has shown an interest in Southwest Florida. In 2011, Westfield Group’s Southgate Mall was reportedly courting Apple and developing plans to open a store there that same year.
At the time, Apple would have been the latest in a slew of high-profile, national chains that committed to expanding into Sarasota. The others, like Costco Wholesale Corp., which opened last summer in Westfield’s Sarasota Square Mall, and Trader Joe’s, a California-based specialty grocer that opened its second store in Florida on Tamiami Trail in Sarasota in the summer of 2012, were among the first to commit to the region.
Read more here.