Saddle up, Mac fans, for it's once more into the retail breach! As we all know, the Germantown Apple store's grand opening is still on indefinite hold while Apple lovingly crafts a new sign to that community's exacting standards; the last we heard is that Apple's fourteenth effort was rejected for three reasons. Firstly, the logo is still visible from a distance of eighteen inches, and therefore must be de-emphasized still further. Secondly, while hand-carved mahogany was an acceptable material for the summer months, it's now out of season; Germantown recommends brushed platinum or silk brocade for autumn. Lastly, any proposals submitted on the fourth Thursday of a month ending in "r" must be spiral-bound and typeset in a sans-serif font-- a requirement with which Apple utterly failed to comply. (At this point we have to wonder whether Apple has considered bribery and/or kidnapping as expedient alternative ways of getting this show on the road.)

However, the Palo Alto store is just about ready to go, thus bringing to an end Apple's three-week grand opening dry spell-- a drought that's all the more painful in light of Apple's stated goal of getting twenty-five stores open by New Year's Eve. Last week we mentioned that Apple would have to start opening two or more stores a week in order to hit that target, and at least according to one source, that's exactly what's going to happen this weekend. Apparently this shindig looks to be a (semi-)bicoastal affair: in addition to the Palo Alto opening out there on University Avenue, MacMinute is reporting that the store at the Walden Galleria in Buffalo, New York is also slated for the big kick-off.

Personally, we're a little skeptical. MacMinute's source may be Apple itself (in the form of a Hot News graphic clearly labeled with an opening date), but there are several good reasons not to shuffle off to Buffalo just yet. For one thing, we tried reloading the Hot News page fifty or sixty times and we never once saw that graphic; all we saw was one for Palo Alto. There's also the fact that the Walden graphic's filename is "retail-walden09292001.gif," implying that said graphic has already been updated at least once, from an apparent 9/29 opening date. (For that matter, the Palo Alto graphic is named "retail-university09292001.gif," which suggests that continually forward-slipping grand opening dates is an all-too-frequent occurrence in the whirlwind world of Apple retail.)

Most damning, however, is the fact that Apple doesn't mention the Buffalo store once anywhere on its web site, and so far we've yet to witness a grand opening that wasn't posted publicly for a week prior to the hootenanny. We imagine it's possible that Apple is pursuing a new "stealth openings" strategy for reasons too complex for our paltry brains to fathom, but at this juncture we're going to toss that scenario on the Probably Not Pile™. Still, though, while this weekend may not mark Apple's first dual-opening since the McLean/Glendale jam last May, we're still banking on multiple simultaneous openings in the near future. And, of course, since attending two geographically diverse store openings in a single day is the mark of a true Apple fan, we recommend that you get those frequent flyer miles ready.