Two Apple Stores in U.S. and Australia Will Soon Be Temporarily Closed

Why are these temporary closings of random stores always news here? I can understand if it's a big flagship store undergoing significant renovations, but I'm not sure why we should care about what these small stores are doing.

I wrote it just to bother you mainly.

Uh oh..

TIL Rancho Cucamonga was not just a Craig gag, but a real place. ;)

And great to see Chermside get a mention on GeekWebGuides! Shout out to the Queenslanders in here :)

Uh oh..

Here are the details about the renovation for the Victoria Gardens store:
✔️ The temporary space is in the Athleta store by the courtyard, just across the street from the permanent store. The manager took some pictures from the outside and was talking about it with her colleague and me. The facade looks the same, except for the Athleta signs and the fabric awnings. The windows are currently covered with black, words and rainbow-coloured apple logos, which is similar to what you’d see at an under-construction Apple Store.

Made a visit to the temporary store, to get a watch band.

Photos of the temporary store, with the original Athleta store side by side.




The original Athleta store which closed down last summer there:


The temporary store in the small Athleta store is currently in a pickup window format. Due to this, they control the store capacity and have three lines.

There are no small tables inside, and the demo devices are placed on accessory shelves. The store is a fourth of the size of the original store. Since it’s located in a clothing store area, I knew it would be quite small. You have to line up in three different places: one for checking out items, one for the Genius Bar, and one for purchasing items outside. This setup will remain in place until September. Fortunately, they will be in the original store and complete renovation for the iPhone 18 Pro launch event there, as the situation could become extremely chaotic to manage. It’s similar to the COVID lockdown-style Apple pickup windows, but you can still browse items inside.

The wood walls that will also be incorporated into the renovated store are depicted in the temporary store too. So it has a few Vintage E elements in it.

Due to the limited space of the store, Vision Pro and certain Genius Bar repairs are not available and there aren’t any tables so no cash registers either, everything is card only. Prepare to use Apple Pay!


Photos of the store being remodeled. They even blocked the back parking lot with big trash cans and fenced it off.

I popped by the  Victoria Gardens location one last time today ❤️. I chatted with the Apple specialists about the renovation, and they confirmed the details I had found out about the temporary store. They even showed me pictures of the location (though I didn’t manage to snap them from their iPhone).

Here are the details about the renovation for the Victoria Gardens store:
✔️ The temporary space is in the Athleta store by the courtyard, just across the street from the permanent store. The manager took some pictures from the outside and was talking about it with her colleague and me. The facade looks the same, except for the Athleta signs and the fabric awnings. The windows are currently covered with black, words and rainbow-coloured apple logos, which is similar to what you’d see at an under-construction Apple Store.

Employees have been aware of this since March, a month ago, and they officially announced it on the Apple website at the start of April, after Apple’s 50th Anniversary. They also confirmed that they’ll reopen in September for the iPhone 18 launch, so they don’t have to worry about using the cramped and smaller Athleta clothing store location to handle an iPhone launch day, which is one of the busiest times of the year when customers fill stores.

All online order pickups and Vision Pro demos/genius bar reservations are paused for the time being including on weekdays due to the closure.

Everything checks out perfectly with my tip!

Here’s a nice thing the manager/lead did with the last customers in its final days: she gave me free Apple Camp shirt ❤️ as they started winding down for its final closing day tomorrow. I wasn’t expecting them to give out free stuff on closing days, but when the grand reopening comes out this September, I’ll definitely swing by!

Not having worked there since 2014, delayed openings and mid-week closings aren't terribly uncommon. It's not always a team meeting, sometimes it's as simple as "they were having the stone floor buffed and cleaned" or "we had to replace all the display tables."