Apple has announced it plans to shutter its iconic Infinite Loop store in California, which has served as the retail arm of its headquarters since 1993.
As reported by MacRumors, a statement from Apple Thursday confirmed, “After many years of serving customers at our stores in the Bay Area, we plan to close our store at Infinite Loop. All of our valued team members will have the opportunity to continue their roles with Apple. We look forward to welcoming our customers at our nearby Apple Park Visitor Center and other locations, on Apple.com, and the Apple Store app."
The store will permanently close its doors on January 20, along with the Royal Hawaiian store in Honolulu.
However, it’s the Infinite Loop news that has captured attention because that was Apple’s headquarters for nearly three decades.
The end of an Era
As the report notes, Apple used Infinite Loop as its headquarters from 1993 until 2017, when the iconic Apple Park spaceship campus supplanted it. The buildings are still used as Apple offices and lab spaces and form an integral part of Apple’s history. Notably, there was once a protest on the Campus in March, 1998 to protest the discontinuation of the Newton.
The Infinite Loop store was initially called “The Company Store” when it opened, and sold Apple merchandise, much like the Apple Park visitor center today. It had operated as a more conventional Apple Store since it was refurbed in 2015 but was so small it didn’t offer Genius Bar services or Today at Apple. Opened in 1993, The Company Store technically predated conventional Apple Retail, selling Apple-branded merchandise and collectibles. It was overhauled in May 2000 to reflect Steve Jobs’ aesthetic vision for Apple’s retail stores, the first of which opened in 2001.
With the Apple Store at Infinite Loop closing, the closest Apple retail store is the aforementioned Apple Park Visitor Center store.
