Apple has announced that it will be opening its 21st retail store in China in Dalian, a major port city in southern Liaoning Province, on Saturday, October 24 at 9:30 AM local time. The new store will be located in the six-floor Parkland shopping mall at 19 Jiefang Road in the urban Zhongshan District.
Parkland six-floor shopping mall in Dalian, China (Image: yongonthego)
In early 2012, Apple promotional signage in Dalian stated "Apple’s world's biggest flagship store will be coming soon to Parkland Mall," but it's unclear if that claim remains true over three years later. More recent rumors suggest the first Apple Store in Dubai, which opens October 29, may now be the "world's largest" store.
2012 signage advertising upcoming Apple Store in Parkland mall as "world's biggest"The new Parkland store will be open Monday-Sunday from 9:30 AM to 9:00 PM local time and offer traditional Apple Store services, including the Genius Bar, Workshops, JointVenture, events and seminars. The closest Apple Store was previously in Shenyang, China, the capital city of Liaoning Province, located nearly 250 miles northeast.
Dalian, a city of 4 million people with a total of over 6.5 million people in the region, is located on the Liaodong Peninsula separating the Bohai Sea from Korea Bay in northeastern China. It is a major seaport, financial center and tourist magnet for the region, drawing significant numbers of visitors from China, Japan and Korea.
Top Rated Comments
2) Don't worry, there will be 3x chinese happiness to offset your unhappiness. ;)
For many Chinese, they have been living under shadow for decades, poverty, unfairness, constantly being looked down from weather neighbor or provincial police.
The happiness of showing off using that large screen gold color iPhone in front of public is beyond a normal US person can imagine. You'd feel you are a very presentable person. Don't just call them materialistic people. They are happy to buy Apple product and all.
Tim Cook seems to know Chinese cultural background, he occasionally shows his appearance in retail stores in China signaling closeness to the consumers. Chinese people are particularly keen to looking up looking down relationship. Chinese don't like people look Chinese down. No one does but they are sensitive.
I know Chinese because my wife is one.
The economy is growing so there's more money to go around if you're a corrupt government official who uses their position for personal benefit (whereas before you'd be super corrupt and you'd still be poor).
These people largely have no taste and more money than anybody needs access to in China, so they splurge on consumables. Unfortunately Apple have latched onto this market, to the detriment of TRUE middleclass people (who are more interested in style and innovation rather than bling bling and showing off).
IMO if Apple neglect their core middle-class customers, they'll risk becoming cheesy and irrelevant.