The Apple shop in Baker Street closes down

On December 7, 1967, The Beatles launched their first business venture by opening of the Apple shop, also known as “the Apple Boutique”. Initially, the shop’s exterior featured a vivid, psychedelic mural created by The Fool design collective, which was later painted over in May 1968 due to various complaints.

The Apple shop did not achieve success. With the retail business hemorrhaging money rapidly, the decision was made to close the shop on July 31, 1968. A press release, penned by Paul McCartney, was issued:

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 the things away, but we did that deliberately. We’re giving them away – rather than selling them to barrow boys – because we wanted to give rather than sell.

We came into shops by the tradesman’s entrance but we’re leaving by the front door. Originally, the shops were intended to be something else, but they just 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 cared for. The Kings Road shop, which is known as Apple Tailoring, isn’t going to be part of Apple anymore but it isn’t closing down and we are leaving our investment there because we have a moral and personal obligation to our partner John Crittle, who is now in sole control. All that’s happened is that we’ve closed our shop in which we feel we shouldn’t, in the first place, have been involved.

Our main business is entertainment – communication. Apple is mainly concerned with fun, not with frocks. We want to devote all our energies to records, films and our electronics adventures. We had to re-focus. We had to zoom in on what we really enjoy, and we enjoy being alive, and we enjoy being Beatles.

Press release written by Paul McCartney

The night before the closing, The Beatles, along with their wives and girlfriends, arrived to select items they desired. The following morning, it was announced that all remaining stock would be given away, limited to one item per person.

We decided to close down the shop last Saturday – not because it wasn’t making any money, but because we thought the retail business wasn’t our particular scene. We want to be free to devote more time to recording and films. So we went along, chose all the stuff we wanted – I got a smashing overcoat – and then told our friends. Now everything that is left is for the public.

Paul McCartney

The boutique gave every indication of being an enormous success. The shop was packed throughout the Christmas season, and the merchandise seemed to fly off the shelves almost as fast as we could replenish our stock. The trouble was that so much of it seemed to disappear from the premises without benefit of a cash transaction. Our turned-on, tuned-in staff was not only loath to apprehend shoplifters, for fearing of appearing un-hip, but also felt no scruples about helping themselves to which goods happened to take their fancy. Even The Fool eventually had to be taken severely to task for their constantly expropriation of Apple property. Not surprisingly, within seven months, the boutique was to lose almost £20,000.

Pete Shotton – From “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman, 2008

People were walking in and walking out with stuff without paying. It was a shoplifter’s paradise. But, it did bring so much business into Baker Street. The other traders in the street loved the shop, because it was now a tourist attraction. But then, one day, we got a letter from the landlords, the Duke of Westminster, from his lawyers, saying we had to paint our building white. We had to whiten it out. We battled and, in fact, the rest of the Baker Street traders, the estate agents, restaurants, shops, every kind of business there, raised a petition, saying, ‘No way. We want to keep it.’ This was, after all, a tourist attraction for the world. But, we lost, and we had to whiten it out.

Alistair Taylor – From “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman, 2008

We should never have tried to beat Marks & Spencer’s at the boutique business.

Paul McCartney – From Associated Press – From “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman, 2008

Tired of playing at shops, the Beatles give their Apple gear away free

TH E BEATLES began shutting up shop yesterday. With as extravagant and flamboyant a gesture as even they have ever made. Not for them the melancholy of a closing down sale. They gave everything away free. About £20,000-worth of dresses, shirts and suits. The entire contents of their Apple boutique in Baker-street, London.

The peeling of this particular Apple came quite unannounced. Early shoppers took goods to the counter only to be told: “It’s free.“

Unbelieving, customers gasped: “How do you mean, free?” And the assistants insisted: “A present from the Beatles.“

The word, naturally, spread like wildfire. And in no time they were all pouring in. Office girls playing truant, cabbies leaving taxis parked on yellow lines, commissionaires from a nearby office block… They were allowed one free garment each. And a boy found paying a fourth visit within an hour was promptly thrown out.

The Beatles decided to give up shopkeeping last Friday simply because they were no longer enjoying it.
They were able to close the shop without notice because it is part of Apple Corps Ltd., their own pri-vate company. They are to sell their controlling interest, too, in the Apple Tailoring boutique in King’s Road. Chelsea.

The Baker Street shop will open today for the last time. But only a few oddments remain. And a pile of bright tee shirts no one wanted yesterday. There are some things, apparently, you can’t even give away…

From Daily Mirror – July 31, 1968

Windfalls at Apple

The staff of Apple, a dress shop in Baker Street, St. Marylebone, which is controlled by the Beatles, yesterday gave away 250 garments worth £3 each, about half the stock, to teenagers. The Beatles will shut the shop completely after the rest of the stock has been given away today.

Paul McCartney said in a statement last night signed by all four Beatles that the King’s Road Apple shop would not be closing, as the Beatles felt they had a moral and personal obligation to their partner. John Crittle.

“We have closed our shop in which we felt we were wrong in the first place to have been involved. We want to concentrate our efforts on films, records and electrical adventures. We had to refocus.”

From The Times London – July 31, 1968

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