Our friends at Appalachian Vintner, (located directly behind the new store in Asheville,) are hosting Asheville’s Best Free Wine & Beer Tasting October 31, 2009 11am-3pm & 4pm-8pm.

Come revel in the amazing Kenilworth festivities, and Asheville Vintner will be offering candy to any little (or big) trick or treaters. Get out and support your local businesses!!

Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce

So we have joined the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce. Having conducted business in Asheville before, the Chamber can be an extremely valuable resource. Not to mention the fact that, (and we really had no idea,) the Asheville Area Chamber is the 3 largest chamber of commerce in the state of North Carolina with over 2000 members. The majority of those members are small businesses.
This fact is quite encouraging.

Village Antiques owners David L'eglise, Terry Powell and Zenda Addis, (not pictured)

The lady, (not pictured above,) and two gentlemen who own Village Antiques have been exceptional partners with us in bringing this store to Asheville. As owners of the property that CityMac will call home, they have the same vision as ourselves in how this store should be built out.

If you are in the area, and you have time, stop in to see them and their wonderful staff. They have an excellent selection of antiques, and are very knowledgeable about their pieces.

More online at: www.villageantiquesonline.com

CityMac Apple Specialist and Authorized Apple Service Provider will open a new 4,700 square foot store in Asheville in mid November 2009. The new CityMac location comes quickly on the heels of a large expansion of the anchor store in Traverse City, Michigan. The opening date of the Asheville location will coincide with the one year anniversary of the Michigan location opening with a 6,100 square foot show room and service center.


“From a demographics standpoint, Asheville is very similar to Traverse City,” says Jim Neu, President of CityMac. “When looking for new possible locations, Asheville quickly came up as a similar demographic as well as the geographical distribution of the population. The difference was the size of the market. Asheville is several times larger than the area we currently serve in Michigan, which represents a great deal of additional opportunity for us in this market.”


CityMac stores will have in-store coffee shops in all of their locations. The Asheville location will have “CityMug” coffee shop adjacent to the showroom floor, and will have it’s own entrance so that it can maintain standard coffee shop hours. CityMac’s Apple showroom and service center will open for business from 9AM – 8PM Monday through Saturday, and from 12 noon until 6PM on Sundays. CityMug will open at 7AM Monday through Saturday and at 9AM on Sundays.


“Our coffee shop located in our Asheville store will begin a new business model that is green and completely paperless,” says Neu. “Customers can bring in their own mug, purchase a CityMac/CityMug cup, donate business marketing cups or they can have us keep their favorite mug and use it when they come by. This is a new avenue for us with our coffee shop operations, and we hope to carry it on through future locations.”


CityMac will offer free daily training sessions on many aspects of Apple hardware and software, as well as one-on-one training sessions. All staff members will be trained Apple Product Professionals, and technical staff will be comprised of Apple Certified – Technicians, Support Professionals, Technical Coordinators, System Administrators, and Consultants. CityMac will have the largest showroom in WNC featuring all current Apple desktops, laptops, iPods, and wide selection of Apple software and accessories.

“It is our intention to provide Western North Carolina with the most comprehensive Apple product solutions before and after the sale,” says Neu.

The Apple brand continues to show strength as Apple Inc. reported its most profitable quarter in the company’s history on October 19th. Apple Inc. posted revenue of $9.87 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.67 billion.


CityMac


CityMac Apple Specialist and Apple Authorized Service Center has operated a single store in Northern Michigan for more than 25 years. The family owned and operated business is now expanding in the Southeastern United States. The expansion will begin with the opening of a second store located in Asheville, North Carolina in the fall of 2009. CityMac stores offer consumers and business customers the “Apple retail experience” which is similar to that of Apple corporate store locations. The stores provide complimentary daily training, users group meetings, one-on-one training, a coffee shop, and free Wi-fi access. All of CityMac’s locations maintain a complete Apple Authorized service department offering on-site and in-store repairs and support for all warranty and out-of-warranty Apple products.

27inch iMac, Keyboard, and Magic Mouse

The new iMac features a brilliant 21.5-inch or 27-inch LED-backlit display with a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio—perfect for watching HD video. The 21.5-inch display offers 1920-by-1080 HD resolution, and the 27-inch display goes beyond HD with 2560-by-1440 resolution. Dual-core Intel processors now start at 3.06GHz, available quad-core Intel processors boost performance up to 2x,1 and advanced graphics make the most of every pixel. iMac declutters your desktop with the Apple Wireless Keyboard and the new wireless Magic Mouse: the world’s first Multi-Touch mouse. The 27-inch iMac starts at $1699. The 21.5-inch iMac starts at $1199.2

1 Based on testing conducted by Apple in October 2009 using preproduction 27-inch 2.66GHz Intel Core i5–based iMac units and shipping 24-inch 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo–based iMac units.

2 Prices are as of October 2009, are subject to change, and do not include taxes or shipping.