The Highland Village Apple Store will have 160 employees, opens at 8 a.m. Friday

The Houston-area's seventh Apple Store is expected to open March 16 in the Highland Village Shopping Center.

The front of the store at 4012 Westheimer. (Dwight Silverman / Houston Chronicle)

The front of the store at 4012 Westheimer.

The store has a glass front, roof and rear, with marble on either side. (Dwight Silverman / Houston Chronicle)

Construction at the site of the new Apple Store. (Dwight Silverman / Houston Chronicle)

The new Apple Store is literally crawling with construction workers, day and night. (Dwight Silverman / Houston Chronicle)

The store is at Drexel and Westheimer. (Dwight Silverman / Houston Chronicle)

The rear of the store. (Dwight Silverman / Houston Chronicle)

These crates contain floor tiles. According to the Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs, the iconic co-founder personally selected this kind of tile for Apple's stores. (Dwight Silverman / Houston Chronicle)

Tile crates and porta-potties onsite. (Dwight Silverman / Houston Chronicle)

When Apple opens its seventh Houston-area store in the Highland Village shopping center on Friday, it will boast the largest sales area of the company?s Texas retail outlets.

The store?s doors will open at 8 a.m. Friday, the same day that Apple?s third-generation iPad will go on sale. An Apple spokeswoman would not say whether all its stores will open at that time on Friday, but an early opening is typical when the company starts selling a new iPad or iPhone model.

I reported earlier this month that the store would open on March 16.

The store will have an unusual design that features a glass front, back and roof, similar to one recently opened in New York City. The Highland Village store is currently draped with black cloth that will be removed before it opens. The store?s ?back-of-house? area will be on a second level over the Sprinkles cupcake shop next door.

The store will have 160 employees and will be the only area store not in a mall, the spokesperson said. It will include the amenities commonly associated with the popular chain, including the Genius Bar, one-on-one training, group classes and EasyPay, which lets customers buy goods via an app on their iPhones and iPads.

The store will be the second in the Houston region with an area called the briefing room, which is designed for presentations to business customers.

The first 1,000 customers in the store on Friday will get a commemorative T-shirt, the spokesperson said. Chances are that most of those will be buyers in the line that is expected to form for the new iPad, which Apple announced last Wednesday.

The other Houston-area Apple stores are in the Galleria, Memorial City Mall, Baybrook Mall, The Woodlands Mall, Willowbrook Mall and First Colony Mall.

Source: http://feeds.chron.com/~r/houstonchronicle/techblogfulltext/~3/hfxYy6BukGg/

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