When Apple Moves In Small Business Suffers

Apple recently relocated its first ever retail store in Tysons Corner Center to a new "reimagined" location. 22 years after opening the first ever Apple store they relocated to a more popular section of the mall. This much ballyhooed reimagined location was celebrated with lots of pictures in the official Apple press release.

Seems by all accounts to be a joyous celebration for one of the largest tech giants in the world. Kind of. All except for two small businesses that stood in the way of this corporate titans reimagining. Notice the picture below from the press release:

Outside the new Apple Store May 2023

A few months before this picture you would have seen a successful mall kiosk that had been in operation for more than seven years. This small business had the misfortune to 1) be in the line of sight for this new Apple store, and 2) offer competing products at a better price. See the before picture below:

Small business kiosk before Apple moved in 2022

You see, Apple doesn't like to compete in a fair market that lets consumers choose. They prefer to simply get rid of the competition altogether. which is a practice they have perfected over time.

In this case, word has it they simply conspired with the owners of the mall to force out small businesses they don't like. Two longstanding kiosk operators were forced to leave (one directly in front & another nearby location). Both offered affordable tech repair solutions for customers of Apple products. Both were owned by small business people who don't have the resources to fight against Apple. 

Their exit from the mall left a large unusual footprint of valuable real estate in this extremally popular mall. See the photos below:

The picture to the right shows the huge space left vacant directly in front of the new Apple store. This is one of the busiest sections of Tysons Corner Center >>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The picture to the left is from a different angle of where the small business was located before being forced out

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Nearby -- now vacant location -- of another mainly tech repair kiosk. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Tech giant Apple destroys small business people every day all over the world. This is only one small example. And they do it in many different areas.

For instance, when the first iPhone first launched in 2007 small business people who owned and operated AT&T dealerships all across the country were NOT allowed to sell the iPhone. This caused many formally successful small businesses to either close or sell their business.

Since then Apple has fought to keep many independent repair people from doing affordable repairs on Apple products. Which has helped to inspire the right to repair movement.

The truth is Apple hates small business and will do whatever it takes to destroy them.

Don't believe me, take a few minutes to read my past blog posts. What you'll read is countless examples over the years of how Apple moved in and then small business suffers -- including my own story.

This seems to be the playbook for all big tech companies. Stifle the competition and the creative small business people who could impact their bottom-line. It's past time for our elected representatives to do something about big tech companies like Apple.