This Day In Market History: Apple Opens First Retail Store

Each day, Benzinga takes a look back at a notable market-related moment that occurred on this date.

What Happened? On this day in 2001, Apple, Inc. AAPL opened its first retail stores.

Where The Market Was: The Dow finished the day at 11,301.74. The S&P 500 traded at 1,291.96.

What Else Was Going On? In 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists led by Osama bin Laden attacked the U.S. by flying hijacked planes into the World Trade Center buildings in New York. Timothy McVeigh was executed for the Oklahoma City Bombing. The average cost of a new house was $136,150.

Apple Store Opens Doors: Back in May 2001, Apple opened its first retail stores at Tysons Corner in McLean, Virginia, and at the Glendale Galleria in Glendale, California.

At the time, CEO Steve Jobs said the stores would offer Apple customers a unique experience and that Apple would open an additional 23 stores by the end of the year.

“Rather than just hear about megahertz and megabytes, customers can now learn and experience the things they can actually do with a computer, like make movies, burn custom music CDs, and publish their digital photos on a personal website,” Jobs said of the Apple Store.

At the time, the newly launched Mac OS X operating system was one of the major draws. It would be another six years before Apple would launch its revolutionary iPhones.

Today, Apple has 511 Apple Store locations, including 240 stores outside the U.S.