PeachMac's Apple store opens in Evans

Macintosh enthusiasts in the area can sink their teeth into juicy news.

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They now can meet all their Apple-product needs in Evans.

PeachMac, an Apple retail store and Apple authorized service provider, opened Friday across the street from Club Car at 4158 Washington Road.

"We have a store in Athens, and we've had hundreds of calls from customers in Augusta asking us to come here," owner Darryl Peck said. "We've had a lot of people knock on the door."

The Evans store marks the second location of PeachMac, which is headquartered in Athens, Ga.

When fully stocked, the 3,500-square-foot building will offer nearly 1,300 Apple-related items, Peck said.

Though the store initially will not sell iPhones, it will carry all other Apple products, including the new MacBook laptop computers.

The store is authorized to handle both warranty and out-of-warranty repairs on Apple products, Peck said.

After the nine-member staff is settled in, the store will offer PeachTeach, classes designed to introduce customers to Apple products and teach them how to use certain programs.

The store will be open from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Peck said he and his wife, Anne Lyndon Peck, have been working with Macintosh products for more than 20 years.

Craig Hale, a former assistant manager at CompUSA, will take over as manager at the PeachMac in Evans. CompUSA, which carried Apple products, closed in February.

"When we closed, we left a huge vacuum for Apple," he said. "The Apple department was huge and the following was tremendous."

Numerous small business owners who run their operations on Macintosh computers have approached the store, said Hale.

The number of hits on the Web site and calls to the store continued to increase as opening day drew closer.

"This seems to be an up-and-growing area," Peck said. "We loved this particular location because it's right on the road, not buried deep in some center. We have an awful lot of traffic coming by the front door."

He said he and his wife spent four months searching for the right location.

With the exception of Athens, the closest Apple retail store to the Augusta area is in Atlanta.

"We just hope that we fulfill the needs of all the Apple customers in the Augusta and Aiken region," Peck said.

For information about PeachMac, call the store at (706) 922-9020 or visit www.peachmac.com.