By Slash Lane
Published: 12:00 PM EST (09:00 AM PST)
Apple said Monday it plans to open its third San Francisco retail store just in time for the holiday shopping season, with a grand opening slated for Black Friday -- the day after Thanksgiving.
When it opens for business at 9:00 am local time, the shop at 2125 Chestnut Street will stand as San Francisco's third Apple retail store, joining an existing flagship location on Stockton Street and another in the Stonestown Mall.
Given that the grand opening takes place on Black Friday, the store will launch amid Apple's largest yearly sale, in which dozens of items will be slashed below their suggested retail price.
Black Friday is the day immediately following the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and marks the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season. The term "Black Friday" dates back to the 1970s, when it was coined as such by retailers who saw the heavy foot traffic on that day as a means of returning to the black (or turning a profit).
For its part, Apple cranked its construction efforts at the Chestnut St. store into high gear in order to meet its goal of launching by Black Friday. The company's contractors successfully razed an old Walgreens shop and then constructed the new Apple retail store in just over 5 months.
The Apple Store on Chestnut Street was a mere crater on June 18th, 2007.
By November 13th, the same space (as above) housed a nearly complete Apple store.
A
photo archive documenting the store's construction shows that Apple most recently replaced the sidewalk in front of the new location, which as of last week still contained no windows or signage.
The store appears as a single level structure, but in fact
contains a second-level storage area set at the back of the property, according to
ifoAppleStore. This was done to assure that the structure matched the adjacent heritage buildings and the neighborhood in general.
