Apple's May 15, 2001 newsroom post, preserved at web.archive.org, states a plan for 25 retail stores across the U.S. The first two open May 19 at Tysons Corner in McLean, Virginia, and the Glendale Galleria in Glendale, California. This is a vendor page, not a desk report, so the figures carry Apple's own authority. No second source in the packet confirms or contradicts them.

The spec table holds the counts: 25 stores, the opening date, the software title floor, the screen dimension. What the table does not prove is the operational architecture behind those numbers. Every Mac on the floor is connected to the Internet. The Genius Bar is staffed at all times, with a stated fallback to an Apple "hot line" at Cupertino headquarters. The store carries inventory for every Apple and third-party product displayed, so the customer leaves with the unit they touched. The Theater section runs a 10-foot diagonal screen for Mac OS X demonstrations. The Solutions area splits into four subsections covering desktop movies, digital photography, music, and education software. These are structural commitments written into the press release, not aspirational language.

The constraint falls on Apple's logistics, not the buyer. A store that holds inventory for every displayed product is a fulfillment node, not a showroom. That is a different architecture from the electronics retail model of 2001, where the floor was a demo space and the warehouse held the stock. Apple is converting shelf space into working capital. The software floor, listed at over 300 titles and annotated with a note that it reached nearly 600 by August 3, 2001, extends the same logic: the store is the point of sale, not a catalog. The buyer does not order and wait. The buyer picks up the box. The Etcetera section, stocked with printers, scanners, cables, and ink, applies the same principle to accessories: if it is on the shelf, it is in the back room. The Products section splits into Home and Pro, which tells you the floor is segmented by buyer type rather than by product line. The press release dates itself May 15, 2001, and the first stores open four days later. The 25-store commitment is the only forward-looking number in the document. Everything else is a description of what the store looks like on opening day.

The document does not state square footage, staffing counts, opening hours, or the addresses of the remaining 23 stores. Those figures were not in the press release and are not in the archived capture. The 25-store plan is the number Apple committed to in writing, and the four-day gap between announcement and opening is the only timeline the document gives.

The constraint falls on Apple's logistics, not the buyer. A store that holds inventory for every displayed product is a fulfillment node, not a showroom, and the 25-store commitment is the only forward-looking number in the document.

Apple is converting shelf space into working capital. The store is the point of sale, not a catalog, and the buyer picks up the box rather than ordering for later delivery.