There are currently 10 Apple stores in New York City, but not one of them is located in The Bronx, which is both the poorest and most diverse of the five boroughs.
And according to a new article published by the news blog The Outline on Wednesday, the tech giant’s decision not to open a brick-and-mortar location in The Bronx is not a singular instance, but rather part of a pattern.
Of Apple’s 270 stores, 251 – or 93 per cent – are situated in majority-white zip codes.
Of New York City’s five boroughs, only The Bronx – which is the most diverse but also the poorest – does not have an Apple store location (nine locations are seen on the map)
Of Apple’s 270 stores, 251 – or 93 per cent – are situated in majority-white zip codes. Pictured: An Apple store in Palo Alto, California, on November 3
In New York City, there are seven Apple locations in Manhattan, which is almost 56 per cent white and where the median household income is just under $73,000 a year.
Staten Island, Queens and Brooklyn each have one Apple outpost. The latest location opened its doors in Brooklyn’s trendy and predominantly white section of Williamsburg in 2016.
According to the 2015 American Community Survey, Staten Island has a population of 472,500 and is 75 per cent white with a median household income of $73,000.
By comparison, The Bronx, which has a population of 1.5million, is only 21 per cent white and has a median household income of $34,000, making it the most low-income borough with the highest concentration of minorities.
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr has been trying to bring an Apple store to his neck of the woods, but so far his pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
‘The bottom line is that there’s so many black and Latinos and other minority groups who purchase their products, depend on their products, and depend on services that only the store can provide,’ Díaz Jr told The Outline. ‘When my wife has to get serviced by Apple, she goes all the way to Ridge Hill, which is a 20-minute drive north of the Bronx.’
DailyMail.com reached out to Apple for comment on this story Wednesday and was awaiting a reply.
Last November, nearly every elected official in The Bronx signed a letter urging Apple CEO Tim Cook to open a new location in their borough.
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr has been trying to bring an Apple store to his neck of the woods
‘Few brands are as recognized and admired as Apple, and an ‘Apple Bronx’ location would be another signal to the world that The Bronx is open for business,’ the letter stated. ‘It is time for The Bronx to get its bite of the Apple!’
Diaz Jr argued that bringing an Apple store would be mutually beneficial to the corporation and its tens of thousands of its customers who call New York City’s northernmost borough their home.
Speaking to CNBC at the time, the borough president put it bluntly: ‘We have always been pushed aside in the Bronx. We are black. We are Hispanic. I would say 75 per cent of us have Apple products.’
A year later, Diaz Jr said he has not heard back from Tim Cook.
An argument can be made that residents of The Bronx and other communities that do not have an Apple store can easily purchase the company’s iPhones, iPads and MacBooks online, without having to set foot in a brick-and-mortar location.
But not having easy access to a physical Apple outpost could mean that customers are denied the level of service enjoyed by their counterparts in majority-white zip codes.
Apple is not the only major corporation to seemingly overlook The Bronx: Whole Foods Market, which was recently purchased by Amazon, has a dozen stores in New York City, but all of them are located either in Manhattan or Brooklyn.
Last year, Amazon sparked an outrage when Bloomberg reported that customers living in The Bronx were not eligible for same-day deliveries.
The company initially defended its policy by arguing that its warehouses were too far from The Bronx, but after facing backlash relented and extended the service.