Apple heading to Edinburgh

by Simon Aughton on October 6, 2010

Apple is hoping to open its third Scottish retail store on Edinburgh’s Princes Street.

The Herald newspaper reports that the Mac maker is in “advanced” discussions with Edinburgh City Council and could submit plans within the next few weeks. The newspaper has identified several potential locations on the capital’s main shopping street.

Apple opened its first Scottish store in Glasgow in 2007 and it was another two years before the second opened in Aberdeen.

However the openings have not met with universal approval. Local Mac reseller Scotsys went in to administration earlier this year, blaming a 50% fall in revenues on the opening of the Glasgow store.

Earlier this year, another UK reseller, Computer Warehouse, also folded, though Apple’s expansion was not publicly blamed. The company now has 30 stores across the country.

CW’s assets were acquired by another Mac reseller, Square Group, which has responded to Apple’s burgeoning retail presence by expanding into business services, most visibly in the hotel industry.

[photo: Princes Street - Scotland (Edinburgh) by Romain Morel; some rights reserved]

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  • Gary_

    > Local Mac reseller Scotsys went in to administration earlier this year, blaming a 50% fall in revenues on the opening of the Glasgow store.

    Actually, it’s not as simple as you paint it here.

    As I recall it, Scotsys went into liquidation five years ago. (I used to deal with them, both professionally and as a personal customer.)

    They were then bought over by the Adventi Group in 2005, who continued to trade with the old Scotsys name. It was the Adventi group that went bust earlier this year, taking the Scotsys brand with it.

    Their Glasgow retail outlet, in Great Western Road, closed several years ago (leaving just their Edinburgh branch on the retail front). I vaguely remember that the final nail in the coffin of Scotsys Glasgow was probably the opening of the new Glasgow city-centre Apple Store – but Scotsys had already been struggling (in my opinion) for a while at that point.

    Frankly, “blaming a 50% fall in revenues on the opening of the Glasgow store” is 50% sour grapes.

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