 Apple store coming to Dublin

OU812

On way back from a business trip to San Francisco.

Went into the apple store to get something and got chatting to an Irish guy who works there. He was telling me he hadn’t been home in a couple of years and I was bemoaning the fact that there was no  store in Dublin.

He told me (and showed me an internal memo from April 26) that had Dublin listed as a new location among others for a store.

Unfortunately no timeline or location other than Dublin, but good news at last.

sandyxxx

Long overdue & most welcome,.....how those jokers in compuB are the closest thing to an Apple store I'll never know!,.....saying that,I'll believe it when I see one!

lee_baby_simms

I always assumed they couldn’t operate a store here due to their tax arrangements in the same way we don’t have a native Amazon store either.

The UK have almost 40 Apple stores.

lertsnim

There is no apple store here yet the EMEA HQ is in Cork. Mind boggling.

Agent Coulson

Didn't the group that bought Clerys try to get Apple to be there flagship store 6/7 years ago.

I'll believe it when I see it actually open.

Stewball

Do people still buy Apple products?

pad199207

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119140399#Comment_119140399

Most do yeah

sam t smith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119140606#Comment_119140606

Most?

I thought Samsung alone outsold Apple for mobile phones?

whippet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119140399#Comment_119140399

A few people do - only 235,000,000 iPhones in 2021 .. Samsung managed about 35m more.

So - yep Apple dead in the water 🙄

Revenues only up to $378bn in 2021 from $294bn in 2020 .. struggling badly.

I've been hearing rumours of an Apple store in Dublin for the last 15 years ... won't be any time soon

skimpydoo

I heard back in 2019 that Apple was opening a store in the old Central Bank building. So who knows?

eeloe

Any of the Apple Stores i've been in, in the States or Europe, are generally busy, all day. you usually have to wait to be served.

Do we have the disposable income here to be able to warrant them opening a store?

I'm not sure of the expected turn over of an AppleStore, but i'd imagine it's pretty high.

thomil

I’d absolutely say that the potential is there. Even discounting iPhones, which are more likely than not going to be purchased on a carrier plan, there are still more than enough people running around with MacBooks, iPads and so on, and not the older models either. Back during my time in Apple support, I was sometimes asked to help out on the English-language support lines and the amount of people in Ireland who had bought their devices in the Belfast Apple Store was surprising.

Given that there are nearly 2 million people in the Greater Dublin Area as of the 2016 Census, likely even more at this point, there is tremendous economic potential there, both from the Dublin area itself and from people coming up from Cork, Waterford or over from Limerick. After all, Apple Stores, a bit like IKEA, are a destination in themselves. Minus the meatballs you can get at IKEA, which is a shame 😉 Hell, if that store opening happens at the right time, I might go up to Dublin myself once the time comes to update to a new MacBook.

eeloe

Now that you mention it, the belfast store is quite small, i guess they don't need a huge flagship store like one of the ones in California or Florida, and it could still be profitable i guess!

I really do hope they open one!

brophs

It wouldn't be uncommon for a company like that to have the stated intention of opening a store in a particular territory, without anything specific in place. And without being cynical, I would guess there may have been various memos over the years with Ireland listed.

whiterebel

I just don't see the turnover in Dublin for an Apple Store. Sales figures here were always far behind other markets per head. May have changed in the intervening years, of course.

Type 17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119210025#Comment_119210025

Considering that places in the UK like Norwich (population: 143,000) and Aberdeen (population: 198,000) have Apple Stores, I think Dublin (City population: 554,000, Metropolitan population: 1,417,000) could support at least one...

murpho999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119210025#Comment_119210025

Why wouldn't a city and metropolitan area like Dublin with a population of over 1 million people not generate enough turn over for Apple but works perfectly fine for the likes of Ikea (who wanted to open a second large store), McDonald's, Disney, to name but a few?

Smaller cities than Dublin have Apple stores so that is not the reason, I think it's something to do with their tax arrangement and how they book their revenues.

whiterebel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119244333#Comment_119244333

Bit of a difference between a cheap flatpack furniture outlet and the prices that Apple products sell for. It doesn't matter how many people there are, if they are not buying a lot of product. Long ago, when I worked up there, the UK/Irl desk took very few calls from Irish customers, 99% UK. That was Tech support, Sales were the same. Big change since the iPhone, but big enough for a dedicated AppleStore? I doubt it.

OU812

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119247612#Comment_119247612

With them having rebranded & this new information, I'd suspect that the contract has expired

pnott

Apple have been rumoured to be opening a store in Dublin for at least a decade now. I don't see Apple opening a flagship retail store in Ireland. Apple has retail stores in just 25 countries. The smallest of these countries is Switzerland which has a population of ~8.5 million. There are lots of cities and towns around the world with Apple Stores that have a smaller population than Dublin. These stores are part of a larger network of stores in countries that have a much larger population and a much larger market than Ireland so Apple can afford to open stores in smaller locations. Belfast for example.

murpho999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119244826#Comment_119244826

No there's not much a of difference at all, yes in terms of their products but and Ikea is a major brand and a massive business and will need a large footfall and catchment area to make their huge stores feasible and they are there and wanted to open a second store.

I sorry but I just don't believe that 99% of calls to an Ireland/UK help desk was from UK. The population just don't stack up.

The point is that big brands are in Ireland and I don't believe it's down to population.Why would there be a store in Belfast then?

askpt

Checking the marketshare for Ireland… https://gs.statcounter.com/vendor-market-share/mobile/ireland/#monthly-202105-202205

Creamy Goodness

I'll believe it when I can walk into in and purchase something but it's very long overdue and Dublin (and it's catchment area) is definitely big enough to support an Apple Store. Look at the amount walking around in designer gear (€600-1000 Canada goose/moncler jackets) and with apple devices you'd arguably get more value out of it.

Having a hard time believing (no disrespect OP) that an Apple Store employee would be so blasé about sharing this info let alone Apple wanting this info to leak out via their retail team.

Retail are usually the last to know and if you believe them then Visual Voicemail and Cellular Apple Watches are just around the corner

eeloe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119260501#Comment_119260501

Ah Visual Voicemail, 15 years later and still no sign.

swampy353

Check out hullomail it visual voicemail for about 30€ per year

Creamy Goodness

Might have been worth €30 back in the day, but it's 2022 now. Visual Voicemail was just used as an example of when retail/sales staff over selling the "it's coming soon"

OU812

I turned off voicemail years ago.

I’d probably turn it back on if visual was introduced.

IIRC, it wasn’t introduced here because the networks charged by the minute so keep you on as long as possible.

swampy353

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119269001#Comment_119269001

It actually is €3 per month. Instead of calls going to your carriers voicemail, they get sent to the hullo server. You then get the VM in the app or on the web. What I find works well is that apart from been able to pick through a list of voicemails, I can forward the mp3 of the VM across Whatsapp or email if another member of the team needs it. While a bit hit or miss, it will also transribe the first 10 seconds of the VM and show as text, which helps filter out what I dont want to listen to.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119140050#Comment_119140050

One small observation on that. I worked for a number of tech companies in Central Europe, and they all had their EMEA headquarters in Cork. One place I got a corporate credit card and was bemused to see it was a Bank of Ireland Credit Card. In more than one case the Cork office was pretty much 5 accountants, 2 lawyers and a HR person. Central/Eastern Europe = Europe's Silicon Valley. Cork = Tax dodgers Anonymous.

Oafley Jones

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119280126#Comment_119280126

Cork will be up to 7k Apple employees by the end of the year.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119280473#Comment_119280473

Being a former Apple employee, I know that. My comment was in relation to some of the other "tech giants" inhabiting Cork.

OU812

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119322666#Comment_119322666

What sort of discounts do employees get? Is it a fixed percentage or an amount and does it extend to services?

brav

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119323752#Comment_119323752

From: https://www.glassdoor.ie/Benefits/Apple-Employee-Discount-Ireland-BNFT117_E1138_N70.htm

You get 27% off per product type once a year for you, and 10 x 17% off for family. You also get an additional €500 off every 2 years.

Noxegon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119140399#Comment_119140399

In an ever-changing world it is great to see that some things remain constant – and one of those things is that those with nothing better to do will invariably come into forums targeted at Apple users to troll.

Please find something better to do with your time.