•John Lyndon, head of Apple Retail,
warns The Fool that they will be excluded from all clothing
work rooms if they do not stop taking garments without
payment (Schultheiss 205).
•John: Anyway, Yoko came up with
the idea of giving all the Apple stuff away (McCabe/Schonfeld
p. 106. For the Record).
•Paul: "Our main business is entertainment,
communication. Apple is mainly concerned with fun, not
frocks. We want to devout all our energies to records,
films, and our electronic adventures. We had to refocus".
•All of them left with some choice
merchandise [from the boutique's free giveaway], except
for Ringo Starr, who lamented to Rolling Stone that he
had been unable to find anything in his size (Granados,
S. Those Were the Days. p. 48).
•Paul: "Originally, the shops were
intended to be something else, but they became like all
the boutiques in London. They just weren't our thingy.
The staff will get three weeks pay but if they wish they'll
be absorbed into the rest of Apple. Everyone will be taken
care of".
•Paul said that Apple tailoring isn't
closing down and they are leaving their investment because
"we have a moral and personal obligation to our partner,
John Crittle, who is now in sole control".
•Apple Boutique Press Release (Paul):
"We decided to close down our Baker street shop yesterday
and instead of putting up a sign saying 'Business Will
Be Resumed as Soon as Possible' and then auction off the
goods, we decided to give them away. The shops were doing
fine and making a nice profit on turnover. So far the
biggest loss is in giving things away. But we did that
deliberately. We came into the shops by the tradesman's
entrance but we're leave by the front door".
•To their credit, The Fool were undeniably
creative, even if they were expensive; at one point going
on a ten-day shopping expedition in Morocco for items
for Apple (Flippo, p. 250).
•Outfits like designer Harold TIllman's
see-through chiffon tuxedo that seemed very hip in the
summer of 1967 looked quite out of place on the cold streets
of London during the winter of 1967-68, and, for the most
part, remained unsold (Granados, M. Those Were the Days.
p. 22).
•To compliment the Apple Boutique,
Apple Retail set up a second operation called Apple Tailoring
(Civil and Theatrical) in a shop at 161 King's Road. Established
on 2 February 1968 and officially opened on 23 May, the
shop was a partnership with John Crittle, the highly respected
designer, who was a director of the enterprise along with
Apple's Neil Aspinall and Apple accountant Stephen Maltz
(Granados, M. Those Were the Days. p. 23).
•The £10,000 in merchandise that
was given away by the boutique was still subject to purchase
tax laws by the Inland Revenue Service.
•The Boutique paid The Fool £100,000 for the store- front
design and displays.
•In seven months the Boutique lost
a reported £200,000 ($2.5 million in '99).
•On July 30 '68 the cashiers at Apple
Boutique began to inform customers that they would not
be charged for the merchandise they select. The Boutique
also gave away merchandise to the public on July 31 before
closing (Schultheiss 215).
