Apple's Retail Plans

[MacRumors]

ThinkSecret reports (http://www.thinksecret.com/news/retailpresentation.html) on an internal presentation from an Apple Store meeting from June 2003.

ThinkSecret's notes from the meeting detail Apple's plan to continue their retail expansion, expand their retail staff, and increase sales to small business customers.

Part of the purpose of this aggresive growth is to increase marketshare.

Apple's opened their retail stores (http://www.apple.com/retail/) in late 2001 with the slogan "5 down. 95 to go." -- referring to marketshare percentage.

[sososowhat]

But market share slipped since...now 3 down, 97 to go.

G5, you're arriving just in time!

[Mudbug]

well, it shoulda been a little less than 3 down, a little more than 97 to go, but who's counting.

[arn]

Originally posted by sososowhat
But market share slipped since...now 3 down, 97 to go.

G5, you're arriving just in time!

I don't think the numbers have changed significantly since they started.

Some said 3%, some said 5%. Obviously, Apple choose the 5% to market.

arn

[iJon]

this is great news. there are many things apple should consider to improve the stores. many of the people know macs and apple with a passion, but really dont know how to relate to the customer or just plain sell. also apple should always make sure they have a video freak, and audio freak, and a design freak to accompany any questions a person may ask because all 3 of those fields contain buyers willing to spend money on high end equipment and high end software. also something i would recommend is to have every salesman to ask for names and phone numbers to customers who have not decided to purchase yet. you would be surprised how many more sales these people can get if they just let the customer know that you will call them if new products are introduced. you call them, tell them, they come down and you look further into the the product and since they are already set to purchase something from you, especially if this is their second time in the store and they were interested in something the first time.

iJon

[MhzDoesMatter]

Went to an Apple store for the first time today (Boca Mall). They really are the best marketing strategy Apple has going right now. With the amount of impulsive foot traffic I saw today, no wonder public awareness of Apple and it's products are growing. Thing is, and I can only speak of the one I've seen, The Boca mall is a very uppity mall with most of the stores being Designer boutiques and the Apple store seems designed to fit right in.

Apple has always been a distinctive platform but are they now trying to become a distinctive brand, like a designer computer? They've always had an relatively exclusive market and in some instances seemed to directly position themselves as distinguishing items. And while they do have products for anyone and in general, target marketing to every one, is Apple really trying to become the Designer brands of Computers?

My sister, who's not a fanatic, but a fan, said today that the reasons regular people (as opposed to people like me and worse in her opinion) buy Apple for the same reason they'd buy a tailored designer suit. They know it's marked up far beyond a store brand, but they also know that the quality is great, the workmanship is incredible, the fit is perfect, and that anyone who matters would know the difference.

I was speechless.

-Hertz

I mean, me? Speechless?

[robbieduncan]

It all sounds good bar one thing. The only "international" stores talked about were in Japan. We want Apple Stores in Europe! Mac market share here is pretty poor, partly because there are not many places offering good, clear Mac oriented sales and advice.

[mvc]

Originally posted by MhzDoesMatter
…they also know that the quality is great, the workmanship is incredible, the fit is perfect, and that anyone who matters would know the difference.

That's truly beautiful! Gives me a nice warm smug glow of superiority, a pleasant counterbalance to that 3% and falling statistic further up the thread. :rolleyes:

[vollspacken]

I hope Apple doesn't overstretch the store chain... there's a bad example of a computer company that did the same thing (radical expansion) a couple of years ago in Germany: ESCOM, and they killed themselfs by doing so (o.k., maybe the Commodore Amiga deal was part of the problem too.., but you get the idea)

don't let the store idea get to big...

vSpacken

[iGav]

They need to open one in London smartish!!

Smack in the middle of Oxford St between Tottenham Court Road and Picadilly Circus, with a big glowing Apple on the front... :D

Makes perfect sense, Oxford St = Europe's busiest street, and it's between Soho and Noho that must have the largest installed Mac user-base of any city in any country...

[centauratlas]

One would think that if your city is big enough to have an NFL team you'd have an Apple Store. Which NFL cities don't have Apple Stores?

* Jacksonville, FL

other's?

[QuiteSure]

To reach small business Apple must have a headless emac for under $800. Until that happens, Apple cannot compete with a $499 Dell, like the one I just bought for my secretary. We had the 17" monitor from her old 6100 and I didn't want to get rid of it for an emac and I didn't want to spend $1200 for a tower. I'll never replace my main box with anything other than a mac, but for my secretary, the Dell was good enough.

Apple can't afford for me to think THAT different.

[legion]

... but not expansion teams :D :D :D (just joking, well, kind of...)


The deal with retail stores, besides worrying about market saturation and targeting customer types is that you have to deal with real estate companies and mall management. There's all kinds of wheeling and dealing that goes on to get pieces of property and then there's no guarantee that you'll get the one property before another (there could be issues with new malls or prior tenants, etc..)

For instance, if you want to move into a Simon Mall (largest private owner of retail property in America) say in Los Angeles, you may have to negotiate opening in one of their malls in ShortHills,NJ and one in Aventura, FL. Then there's no guarantee that you'll even get to move in and open the LA property before the Short Hills property (even though that's the one you really want), however Simon Malls needs to fill out and encourage other companies into their Short Hills complex and are looking to use your brand to hook others. It goes on and on like this and you end up looking at 60 properties to open up only 3 or 4 stores (and maybe forced to deal with market saturation and just hope you can back out of the deal later based on contracted per sq ft amounts not being met in a year)

International stores are harder because of distribution channels and understanding the local markets. Even if Apple is available in Europe, their infrastructure may not be able to meet the demands for a retail store (and by the way, opening a single retail store internationally is much harder than opening five.) Accounting alone can require a much larger overhead than a company will see in return for dealing with each country's policies and amazingly enough, in this day and age, timezones can be a big problem. It goes on and on like that (until you are about to tear your hair out)....

To give you an idea in difficulties, for one company, it took me 3 years to get a single store open in Japan (in the end I ended up negotiating the opening of 3 stores to make it happen), 5 years to get a store in London (though stores in Italy, Paris, and the Netherlands were easy to set up after London in 2 years following) and during that time, 30+ retail stores were being set up in the US per year.

I completely understand Apple's growing pains in the Retail market, though I can see how to consumers it looks like a poor strategy.

[zed]

Originally posted by centauratlas
One would think that if your city is big enough to have an NFL team you'd have an Apple Store. Which NFL cities don't have Apple Stores?

* Jacksonville, FL

other's?

New Orleans. I think they should change the style up a bit for a New Orleans store. They could put it on Royal street in the French Quarter... and give it a more rustic appearance.

btw, that will never happen.

[robbieduncan]

Originally posted by legion

International stores are harder because of distribution channels and understanding the local markets. Even if Apple is available in Europe, their infrastructure may not be able to meet the demands for a retail store (and by the way, opening a single retail store internationally is much harder than opening five.) Accounting alone can require a much larger overhead than a company will see in return for dealing with each country's policies and amazingly enough, in this day and age, timezones can be a big problem. It goes on and on like that (until you are about to tear your hair out)....


Whilst I agree with everything quoted above I would like to point out that Apple already has a major on-line retailing presence in Europe with warehousing and so on in Ireland so opening stores in the UK should not be an issue. They must have accounting and some of the requried logistics in place.

[Sonofhaig]

Originally posted by arn
I don't think the numbers have changed significantly since they started.

Some said 3%, some said 5%. Obviously, Apple choose the 5% to market.

arn

I've seen some PC lovers saying its 2.5%
What ever it is now. We still win in the end.

[c2kvette]

Well, Charlotte has the Carolina Panthers - but no Apple Store.
Although, I have confirmation that one is coming this fall!!

Which brings me to another topic - I want to work there part time, and if the store is to open this fall when will they start hiring???

[Squire]

Originally posted by MhzDoesMatter
My sister, who's not a fanatic, but a fan, said today that the reasons regular people (as opposed to people like me and worse in her opinion) buy Apple for the same reason they'd buy a tailored designer suit. They know it's marked up far beyond a store brand, but they also know that the quality is great, the workmanship is incredible, the fit is perfect, and that anyone who matters would know the difference.

I totally agree. And for the same reason, I think a lot of people (shareholders excluded) would NOT want to see Apple's market share go sky high. I mean, if you have an Armani suit (for lack of a better example) and then, suddenly, everybody starts wearing Armani, your suit doesn't seem like the cat's meow anymore. My point is this: I think a lot of Mac users really love the exclusivity of owning a Mac. Sure, a lot of perks would come with a huge increase in market share, but some of the mystique would be lost.

Squire

[KCK]

Originally posted by centauratlas
One would think that if your city is big enough to have an NFL team you'd have an Apple Store. Which NFL cities don't have Apple Stores?

* Jacksonville, FL

other's?

Oakland CA doesn't have an Apple store. Then again there are 5 stores within a 45 min drive of Oakland. Two of these stores are within a 20 minute drive and we are still waiting for the San Francisco store to open.

[jaykk]

I cant belive they are not going to open a store anytime soon in Pittsburgh, PA.(Basee on the job postings on apple). I cant belive they are not opening a store in this city especially since the Mac os X connection with CMU. I heard Avi graduated from CMU and part of the team who created mach kernal.

[praetorian_x]

If apple is serious about increasing market share, they must compete on price. End of story. Moores law has finally reached its logical conclusion: computing power has become cheap to the point of inexpensive ubiquity. Yes, there will be high-end stuff, but the majority of users will be satisfied using inexpensive 1 ghz class processors with decent system bandwidth.

The iBook shows that apple, when it chooses to do so, can compete in this space well. Lets hope (for the sake of our beloved powermacs and powerbooks), that they can do something similar (without requiring users to buy a monitor) in the desktop space.

(I actually think, once the g5 is released, they will have an opprotunity to create a headless imac that won't compete directly with the powermac, thus making it much more probable.)

Cheers,
prat

[PR Wiley]

I was in the Short Hills Mall this last Saturday buying an iMac for my 71 year-old mother in law who I switched from a PC. The Short Hills Mall is a very upscale place -- complete with valet parking for some stores.

The store was doing a land-office business and sold 5-6 machines in the 30 minutes I was in the store waiting to be waited on. They did not have enough staff to to serve all the interested customers.

My mother-in-law loves her iMac. First reaction was "it's pretty" and that sums up a lot of the Apple marketing strategy. She can now browse the Web and get email and her word processing far more transparently that she had been able to do on her old Windows box . . . and for that she did not care too much about paying a little more.

[balconycollapse]

Howdy! My first post woo! It would be interesting to have access to to the demographics information of apple computer. Wonder if it would surprise me or just be "expected". I think you guys/gals are making a good point on apple positioning themselves as a "benz" or mercedes of computing. I also like the fact that i see Powerbooks and Imacs showing up in all kinds of movies from James Bond to god knows what. Another thing i have noticed is an acceptance of Apple computers in urban/hip hop culture (see making the band with pdiddy on mtv). The rest of america seems to follow the trends that come out of this culture be it vintage jerseys or teched outvehicles. Notice the success Coke (sprite) and Burger King have had with this demographic. I think this is a wonderful thing, gives apple more of a "grassroots" users base (god i hate that term). someone mentioned in another thread awhile back about windows users disdain for gates empire. macheads are dedicated followers and it sure isn't because of the cool to be obscure mystique. I loved that quote about "craftsmanship" :). One thought...i've never been in a mac retail store...hoping KC will get one someday. Do they pressure? Nag? You know what i mean go up to everyperson that walks in and do a sales pitch. I have worked alot in retail and am weary of this technique. I was forced to do it at Pier One Imports and it really soured alot of customers experience. Oh well...enough of my babbling.

[Toppa G's]

There's no store in Green Bay, but then again, it's one of the smallest cities to host an NFL team. And Milwaukee (Wauwatosa's Mayfair Mall has one) is 2-2.5 hours from there.

Visited the North Michigan Aveue flagship store in Chicago...now that is a sweet Apple Store. I think it's a good idea to have a few big stores like that one scattered about, and then have the smaller, in-mall ones on a wider scale.

[cubist]

Originally posted by Squire
... I mean, if you have an Armani suit (for lack of a better example) and then, suddenly, everybody starts wearing Armani, your suit doesn't seem like the cat's meow anymore. My point is this: I think a lot of Mac users really love the exclusivity of owning a Mac. ...

That's not an insoluble problem; you just sub-brand (as Toyota with Lexus, e.g.). If Apple should achieve 30% market share, for example, they could revive the NeXT brand.

[Powerbook G5]

No, Apple stores do not nag or anything. You can basically walk in, go up to your Apple product of choice, and play around with it for as long as you want and ask questions if you want, but they are really nice about just letting you get a feel for the products yourself. Personally, I love Apple stores and I am glad we have one in the Wellington Green Mall. I work at the info desk and we have both a Dell store and an Apple store in our mall and I have had the pleasure of showing people the way to the Apple store and converting people from Dell to Apple many times per week. It always gives me a good feeling to see people walk out with one of those sexy Apple bags in their hand :)

[philoye]

John Gruber of Daring Fireball wrote a great article (http://daringfireball.net/2003/07/market_share.html) on how the oft-quoted statistics about Mac's marketshare are bogus.

[Moxiemike]

Originally posted by centauratlas
One would think that if your city is big enough to have an NFL team you'd have an Apple Store. Which NFL cities don't have Apple Stores?

* Jacksonville, FL

other's?

Although if Jaguar players keep dying and collapsing in practice. :D

How about a REAL (not lame 90's expansion boom team) NFL city like PITTSBURGH? ;)

[barhoptheworld]

The northwest, especially the seattle area, is a really tech savy area. Surprisingly the only mac retail store we have is in bellevue square, a ritzy high fashion boutique kinda place. Bellevue is our own little slice of southern california, people tan year round, overpriced SUVs everywhere, botox injections like none other, and people hate it. Apple needs to open up a retail store downtown, maybe 4th and pike-ish. Not only would they get the attention of the mon-fri 9-5 crowd, they would also get the huge number of tourist that spend time there. Or they could set up shop in redmond, just to be a pain in the ass.

[SiliconAddict]

They need to open up one store per state at minimum. Right now when you look at the map of the retail stores:

http://a772.g.akamai.net/7/772/51/6df10891a45c4b/www.apple.com/retail/images/map050603.gif

You see some obvious (duh!) gaps in coverage. I was working on a laptop the other day here at work doing some upgrades for one of the users I support, god **** MS freaking service packs. 163 upgrades in 3 days. :mad: die die die. , and we got around to talking home computers. I mentioned Macs and one of the first things he mentioned was where can he go to try one. Fortunately enough for us Minnesotanities we have 2 stores to choose from so that wasn’t a problem but for many states its an out of state drive if you want to see the real deal. Hopefully Best Buy, assuming this works out and happens in more then a hand full of stores, will help with this problem however you just DON’T get the same experience going into a Best Buy that you get going into an Apple Store.

[Powerbook G5]

Yeah, fortunately for me, Florida has about 5 stores with rumors of a 6th opening up. I take for granted the ease of walking into an Apple store just 5 minutes away. These stores are great to have around, and to make it easier for more people to walk into one would be ideal for Apple to spread. I can't tell you how many people I have converted by leading them to the Apple store to take a look. They see the ugly Dells in the Dell kiosk at our mall, then they walk into the Apple store and practically hug the iMac. It's a big thing to be able to walk into an Apple store and be able to touch, play with, and experience the products.

[MhzDoesMatter]

Originally posted by cubist
That's not an insoluble problem; you just sub-brand (as Toyota with Lexus, e.g.). If Apple should achieve 30% market share, for example, they could revive the NeXT brand.

Unfortunately, sub-branding wouldn't be a viable business strategy for Apple, as it's based on differentiation through greater/lesser amenities, extras, and luxuries. I'm not sure Apple would be able to pull off an Apple+/Apple- setup.

Look at Windows XP. When I picked up an XP box, there were certain things I expected to be able to do that I learned were only in the pro version. If apple ever OSX Pro, OSX lite, what would the lite version be? What would they take away? The complete user experience that is OSX is what makes better than the alternatives. Do we want them to market a product that's less than what we've come to expect? There's already a Kia computing experience. It's called Windows. (Not necessarily the insult you think.)

In relation to hardware, Apple couldn't survive with even one clone maker, (even a subsidiary.) Because the OS and hardware a so tied together that they both have to relatively high-end for worthwhile performance. If some how, a sub-brand used lesser parts and charged less, poor performance might bearing on the view of the entire platform. If they used similar parts, but less extravagant design and markup, odds are, they'd outsell and undercut the original mac lines. Just not sure how this would fare in execution, though it's a very compelling idea.

Originally posted by balconycollapse
Another thing i have noticed is an acceptance of Apple computers in urban/hip hop culture (see making the band with pdiddy on mtv). The rest of america seems to follow the trends that come out of this culture be it vintage jerseys or teched outvehicles.

Exposure in the Hip-Hop and R&B genres is a really big thing. Aside from pop, no other music culture gets more screen time on MTV for one. Which can mean a bit of screen time for Apple products as well. Like you mentioned, Mac's are featured in the house and recording studio of P. Diddy's Making the Band II. But Mac's really are prevalent in recording studios. Old hat for more experienced musicians and technicians, but new to recording hopefuls and the general public, I wager.

What I think is even better for Apple, is the amount of exposure the iPod is getting. Having already appeared in a highly popular Jennifer Lopez video (popular for artistic merit I'm sure,) the 3G iPod now gotten considerable screen time in the new video by Rapper 50 cent. From back, to face, to headphones, it's there in all it's glory. Actually there are several, being held by 50 and other video members (like Snoop Dogg, another hip hop icon), though partly off screen.

What's so important about this is here's an entire culture that's never really been exposed to Apple's offerings. More importantly, though I really really hate to admit it, it's also a culture with deep ties to designer brands and labels as status symbols. We've taken the most extravagant items from the largest brands and made them common place. Like Coach and Gucci bags (now coach and gucci material is used to line car seats), Movado and Cartier watches. I've always wondered if this culture ever saw Macs as the next hot thing, would we embrace them like they have other designer items? Would my friends and I walk through the mall all with our white do-rags, white T's, white Airforce ones, with iPods blazing and iBooks firmly under hand?

-Hertz

[panphage]

Originally posted by MhzDoesMatter
Would my friends and I walk through the mall all with our white do-rags, white T's, white Airforce ones, with iPods blazing and iBooks firmly under hand?

-Hertz

Not to trivialize your other well-written points, but I just have to tell you that you would be forced into an iPod Djing/Break-dancing battle with my crew--everyone clad head to toe in reflective battle gray, clutching out 12" powerbooks (WITH DVI!!!)

[balconycollapse]

MhzDoesMatter
Thanks for the intelligent response. I have noticed that this forum is one of well formed ideas. Hope i didn't sound like an uneducated oaf that watched MTV all day. I disdain the channel (lately-post cobain in otherwords), but unfortunately they are setting the trends right now in design, video, and music (because of an easily swayable base). An example would be the trend to use vector art in advertising and design . I run a Mac OS X audio community and the funny thing is most people are running os 9 to do pro audio production. This is absurd. Consider that macs are known for audio production. I am guessing the "making the band" is done in pro tools which is about the only audio environment that can truly be all os x right now ( if you have unlimited funds :) But the same goes for layout pros who waited forever to switch over to os x because quark xpress wasn't out. I atribute this to the fact that developers don't have macs as their highest priority. But i guess this brings me to another point. There appears to be an inordinate amount of MAC users that won't switch over to osx. This i think should be apples first target...not windows users. Good lord...get the os9 people to upgrade! Force developers to get with it. A good example is Native Instruments a noted os x audio developer. Recently released an updated version of their hit Kontakt as Kompakt. Streamlined in a "lite" form. Everyone was crossing their fingers that it would be os x but it turns out to be os 9. Furthermore the os x version is 2 months away. This is ridiculous. Which brings me to my final point. What happens when microsoft finally releases "it". By it i am referring to the Windows 64 bit unix version that will graphically go head to head with apple and will require windows users to send their current dells/gateways to the graveyard once and for all because no upgrade can save it. Much the way that my performa/starmax was..simply not going to run osx no matter how much i upgraded it. Will there be a 2 year period of transition for microsoft when apple can jump in and suck away market share? I am thinking this might be the case. I recently downloaded the x11 compatabile version of openoffice and quite frankly that is the future. But...i will quit ranting unfocused like. I leave you with a few words from that touching think different commercial. Have faith macs will be part of pop culture for some time. Especially when pixar is funding any set backs :)

here's to the crazy ones
the misfits
the rebels
the trouble makers
the round pegs in the square holes
the ones who see things differently
they're not fond of rules
and they have no respect for the status quo
you can quote them
disagree with them
glorify or vilify them
'bout the only thing you can't do
is ignore them
because they change things
they push the human race
forward
and while some may see them
as the crazy ones
we see genius
it is the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world
are the ones who do

[balconycollapse]

one last thing (going after the urban culture demographic)...

a recent interview with an production assistant for Dr. Dre and eminem made a statement alluding to the fact that he will be using Reason...a windows too app...but best on mac to create music for these recording artists...apple needs to get their mits into that and make some noise!!! make commercials showing eminem using macs in the studio or nin running osx!!! go right after that urban demographic in the same way that democrats doing the same t hing are overlooked :)...and the apple music store needs to have some content rather then just selling...similar to the way amazon has all those lists of "my 10 ten blah blah blah". hook people with relatable content!!! why won't apple sing it's praises a little more!!! oh well...again ranting...lets here some more thoughts everyone

[renman]

The stores themselves aren't mainstream stores. Obviously, that seems to be the general trend with most things apple, but at the same time they aren't going to reach a bigger market that way. I've been in the Woodfield Mall and Michigan Ave. stores and the stores feel somewhat intimidating. If I hadn't walked in there as a knowledgeable mac user looking to talk to someone I would have been bored. Most people in the store were checking their e-mail and didn't seem interested in the prospect of using a mac. One lady asked me where the internet was on a computer. I said, "Safari is on the bottom, you just have to click. They don't have internet explorer or netscape." She said, "no, I mean the internet!" I suppose any expose is good exposure, but I think the apple store caters to people who already use apples. It is far ahead of it's time, but is overwhelming to the masses.

[tazo]

Originally posted by barhoptheworld
The northwest, especially the seattle area, is a really tech savy area. Surprisingly the only mac retail store we have is in bellevue square, a ritzy high fashion boutique kinda place. Bellevue is our own little slice of southern california, people tan year round, overpriced SUVs everywhere, botox injections like none other, and people hate it. Apple needs to open up a retail store downtown, maybe 4th and pike-ish. Not only would they get the attention of the mon-fri 9-5 crowd, they would also get the huge number of tourist that spend time there. Or they could set up shop in redmond, just to be a pain in the ass.

w00t another guy from the Pacific nw:)

I agree that Bell. Sq. is very nice, ritzy, etc, perfect area for an apple store but an apple store in Pacific Place or Westlake center would be awesome as well. For a city with 1 million plus residents (seattle) it sure seems odd not to have an apple store there.

:( :o

[legion]

To the Seattle members,

I thought you were getting an Apple Store in the University Village outdoor mall?!! (I could have sworn I saw that listed in one of the retail trade mags...) I remember thinking it was a good location for an Apple store because of the UW kids, but that the mall is fairly low traffic (though brimming with too many Starbucks) It seemed like most of the traffic during the day was of the urban/neo-hippie mom type (if that makes any sense) I figured the Apple Store could be somewhat of an anchor for that mall and revitalize it (and I'm sure the property managers would offer a good deal because so many tenants were trying to move out.)

[gwangung]

Originally posted by legion
To the Seattle members,

I thought you were getting an Apple Store in the University Village outdoor mall?!! (I could have sworn I saw that listed in one of the retail trade mags...) I remember thinking it was a good location for an Apple store because of the UW kids, but that the mall is fairly low traffic (though brimming with too many Starbucks) It seemed like most of the traffic during the day was of the urban/neo-hippie mom type (if that makes any sense) I figured the Apple Store could be somewhat of an anchor for that mall and revitalize it (and I'm sure the property managers would offer a good deal because so many tenants were trying to move out.)

Yeah, an Apple Store is coming to the U Village in the fall. And the UVillage is probably tailor made for Apple, as it's been stealing business from the UDistrict, and it caters to upscale consumers with plenty of money. It's a pretty comparable to Bellevue Square nowadays.

[Sayhey]

Originally posted by c2kvette
Well, Charlotte has the Carolina Panthers - but no Apple Store.
Although, I have confirmation that one is coming this fall!!

Which brings me to another topic - I want to work there part time, and if the store is to open this fall when will they start hiring???

They've already been hiring, but I see that at Apple's website they have a opening for a keyholder position.

[Sayhey]

Originally posted by legion
The deal with retail stores, besides worrying about market saturation and targeting customer types is that you have to deal with real estate companies and mall management. There's all kinds of wheeling and dealing that goes on to get pieces of property and then there's no guarantee that you'll get the one property before another (there could be issues with new malls or prior tenants, etc..)

...International stores are harder because of distribution channels and understanding the local markets. Even if Apple is available in Europe, their infrastructure may not be able to meet the demands for a retail store (and by the way, opening a single retail store internationally is much harder than opening five.) Accounting alone can require a much larger overhead than a company will see in return for dealing with each country's policies and amazingly enough, in this day and age, timezones can be a big problem. It goes on and on like that (until you are about to tear your hair out)....

...I completely understand Apple's growing pains in the Retail market, though I can see how to consumers it looks like a poor strategy.

Thanks, Legion
that may be the most informative post I've seen on Apple's retail strategy! I've been trying to figure out their strategy for a while and your perspective helps a lot in figuring it out. The good thing for Apple in the dealing with real estate companies and mall management is that they are a hot product. Seems everyone wants an Apple store these days. That's a far cry from when Apple tried to put a Store in Nashville (in the first year of the stores) and couldn't get any help with waivers of city ordinances. Apple now has leverage.

It does seem obvious that Apple is not trying to get stores into each state, but rather is targeting major metropolitan areas. Sorry, the existence of an NFL team doesn't seem to be the determining factor. Makes a lot of sense to go were the people are. If folks look at the population centers without an Apple store then Pittsburgh (MoxieMike take notice) is on the top of the list. That is of metro areas where stores are not already planned.

Think Secret did a list of upcoming stores that either have job listings for them or have been announced by the store locations themselves. If you interested take a look at:
http://www.thinksecret.com/news/retailroundup.html Other than the Mobile (Spanish Fort, AL) store location I've seen the listings for all the rest myself and they seem pretty reliable.

With the caveat of Legion's deals with real estate companies, the strategy would seem to call out for stores in Pittsburgh, Kansas City, San Antonio, Austin, Jacksonville, Salt Lake City, etc. Apple has made it plain that they will open up to 100 stores in the US, but after that it will be largely dependant on the success in moving market share upwards.

There are tremendous risks as well as rewards for Apple in this retail strategy, just take a look at the company's financial reports and you will see how dangerous this can be.

[markeleven]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by centauratlas
One would think that if your city is big enough to have an NFL team you'd have an Apple Store. Which NFL cities don't have Apple Stores?

* Jacksonville, FL

other's? [/Q
Green Bay would be another:p