In some ways, it was oddly fitting that on the night of Steve Jobs’ death, Wednesday, October 5, 2011, Apple’s flagship global retail location – the infamous glass cube on Fifth Avenue, New York City – happened to be covered entirely by plywood walls, invisible to the outside world as it underwent dramatic changes underneath.
“We’re simplifying the Fifth Avenue cube,” read a message printed on the barriers, “By using larger, seamless pieces of glass, we’re using just 15 panels instead of 90,” to recreate the iconic, patented store design.
And instead of descending down below the busy street through the grand glass staircase into the bowels of the actual store filled with gleaming Apple products, customers attempting to get into the location (open and humming with activity 24-hours-a-day, even through the construction, even on the day of its company’s magnate’s death) were forced to navigate a Kafka-like maze of nondescript tunnels and staircases to get to the store.
Inside, business seemed to be proceeding as usual, with blue-shirted employees chatting up groups of customers as individuals wandered over to tables lined with iPads and MacBooks, quickly becoming entranced in their own personalized digital experiences.
If anyone had occasion to chance upon a computer or iPad that had been reset to its default mode, they’d have seen the face of Jobs staring back at them from the Apple website and the accompanying note explaining his death. It was unmissable.
“We just found out from the iPads on display,” said Katrina, age 49, who sat on a bench with family members waiting to pick up their new iPads. “He [Jobs] was a real visionary. In the future, the company is probably not going to be the seen in the same way ever again.”
“He was a visionary,” agreed Daniel Brody, age 17, looking up from an iPad. “He knew what people were looking for, he anticipated what they wanted and needed, and what they would like. His great name will still be associated with their products for 20 or 30 years to come, but after that, who knows?”
Outside on the street, a small, impermanent stream of gawkers moved steadily by a larger assemblage of news cameras and photographers crowding around the store.
Vigil-keepers were few and far between, so the camera people pounced on two young women who perched on a ledge near the store to light two tall memorial candles, one red one white, in honor of Jobs.
They declined to give their names, as “I still work here,” one of the young women told TPM’s Idea Lab, “And she used to,” pointing to her friend.
“We’re just paying tribute to Steve,” she said. “I have a lot to thank him for. I’ve met some of my best friends here. We’re not Steve experts, but we’re big fans of what he’s created.”
Meanwhile, construction continued on the store redesign. Revamping just the retail space is costing the company an estimated $6.7 million, chump change for the most valuable tech company in the world, and the project is expected to be completed in November.
