As many of our loyal clients know, it’s only been in the past year that our company has begun to offer its services in Valencia and Canyon Country. In the past, our prime focus was on the San Fernando Valley, where we offered Mac, PC, and Home Theater consulting in addition to training sessions for both the Mac and the PC. I, like many of the Mac users in Santa Clarita, traditionally visited the Apple store in Northridge for my Mac purchases and accessories. Though the drive is not as bad as some have indicated, between the commute and the store being overwhelmed with the additional and growing traffic from our valley and the Palmdale area, the experience was beginning to be a lackluster one and not one that many might expect from Apple.
Enter the small, family-owned business Valencia Mac. Though I’ve never had the pleasure of shopping with them, their vision of providing an individualized experience for new and existing Mac users is something we share. Of course, with the explosion of growth for Apple, thanks to the iPhone and iPad, it seems appropriate that the Mac has seen a high adoption within schools and businesses. This presented the perfect time for Valencia Mac to grow their business and offerings. This led the small team from Valencia Mac to expand their scope and build a new store with a new look. What should have been a next great chapter for the small business unfortunately turned out to be their last one. Soon after the Valencia Mac grand opening, Apple opened the doors to their first store in Santa Clarita in the Westfield Mall. Placed in the new and beautiful patio section of the mall, the Apple store did what it does best: attract customers both near and far with their traditional excellence. While this proved to be an excellent decision on Apple’s part, it turned out to be a devastating blow to Valencia Mac; one that forced them to close their doors in June.
Despite its devastating effects, wrongly has some of the blame gone on Apple. Same have believed that the reason Apple opened this store was due to the popularity of Valencia Mac and Mac Talk, with the consensus going that Apple might have thought that there was money left on the table that could be theirs. This however couldn’t be further from the truth and while flattering to small companies like Valencia Mac in a twisted way, not accurate at all. As far back as 2006, there have always been discussions of an Apple store appearing somewhere in Santa Clarita which boasts an ever growing population with money to spend. This, in conjunction with their Northridge store having to not only cater to their local population, but to that of Santa Clarita and Palmdale, was the root cause of Apple finally deciding that it was time to open a store in Valencia so that they could better accommodate the local population while taking a load off from the Northridge store.
As a small business that’s faced many similar challenges, our hearts go out to the Valencia Mac family, whose passion was to server the Apple community which has grown dramatically, thanks to mega hit products like the iPhone and iPad. I hope them nothing but luck and success on their future endeavors and cannot wait to see what they come up with next. And to the Apple community that resides in Canyon Country, Valencia, and the San Fernando Valley, our team is looking forward to helping with your Mac, iPhone, and iPad.