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Apple has confirmed on its website that it will be opening its first retail store in Brazil on Saturday, February 15. The store will be located in Rio de Janeiro's famous Barra da Tijuca borough, located at the VillageMall luxury shopping center.

applestore_brazil_invite.png

The news follows a report from last October stating that Apple was planning to open its first store in the South American country between February and March 2014, giving the location a few months to be up and running before the start of the FIFA World Cup being held in Rio during the months of June and July.

The prior report also stated that Apple would be seeking some of its U.S. Apple retail employees to temporarily relocate to Brazil to educate local employees about Apple retail procedures and act as in-store workers. However, it is unclear as to whether Apple actually followed through on the initiative or not. Apple's difficulty in recruiting employees for its Brazilian store was reportedly one of the reasons as to why the company could not open the store in July as originally intended.

Apple began hiring for its first Brazilian retail stores in November 2012, and has been working with Foxconn to move some iPhone and iPad production to the country to avoid hefty import taxes and allow Apple to expand its market share. Last October, a regulatory agency also granted Apple the authorization needed to sell the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c in Brazil, as both phones launched in the country shortly thereafter. It was also reported earlier this week that the company will restart iPhone 4 production in order to sell the device in Brazil, India, and Indonesia.

Thanks, Cássio!

Article Link: Apple to Open First Retail Store in Brazil on February 15
 
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silvetti

macrumors 6502a
Nov 24, 2011
952
376
Poland
They better put private security company with AR15's at the door and around or the stock will be over in a day :D
 

strategicthinke

Suspended
Feb 6, 2014
356
564
Rio de Janeiro
Do you know anything about Brazil?

Dear "silvetti", I wonder if you know anything about Brazil and Rio de Janeiro or if you are just a self-centered first world citizen with a "better-than-you" mindset. You'd be surprised at how much culture, development and wealth we have here...
 

Santabean2000

macrumors 68000
Nov 20, 2007
1,881
2,002
Arrgh. Good for Brazil, but man I wish they'd expand their reach into other countries too, specifically Singapore!

I think you USA folk (esp) don't always appreciate how lucky you are with what's available to you - and not just through Apple.
 

nnn3

macrumors newbie
Feb 6, 2014
11
7
Inferiority complex

To strategicthinke:

I live in Brazil, and I find the general inferiority complex quite annoying. Why does every potential criticism require an angry response? You could have interpreted the comment as saying that demand will be astronomical. Just relax, no one is picking on you or your country, at least not more then people make fun of other countries.
 

aziesemer

macrumors newbie
Feb 6, 2014
4
0
Dear "silvetti", I wonder if you know anything about Brazil and Rio de Janeiro or if you are just a self-centered first world citizen with a "better-than-you" mindset. You'd be surprised at how much culture, development and wealth we have here...

I live in Brazil too and recognise violence is an endemic problem in our country, so, why are you so offended? "Mongrel" complex??

Just to refresh you memory:

http://translate.google.com/transla...-e-roubada-em-viracopos-20121023.html&act=url
 

2457282

Suspended
Dec 6, 2012
3,327
3,015
Obrigado Apple! Just in time for the World Cup. During the month of June this could be the world's top grossing store.
 

silvetti

macrumors 6502a
Nov 24, 2011
952
376
Poland
Dear "silvetti", I wonder if you know anything about Brazil and Rio de Janeiro or if you are just a self-centered first world citizen with a "better-than-you" mindset. You'd be surprised at how much culture, development and wealth we have here...

In what country do you live ?
You are not seriously going to tell me Brasil is considered a safe country, right ?

I have visited Rio de Janeiro and Recife, and granted some things are exaggerated by the media, others are NOT.

I also have several friends living in Rio.

FYI, I really like Brasil since they are the brother of my country, Portugal. I've even had 2 Brazilian girlfriends. So no prejudice here :)

Just stating facts.

Um abraco de um Portugues na Polonia.
 

barkomatic

macrumors 601
Aug 8, 2008
4,518
2,821
Manhattan
Dear "silvetti", I wonder if you know anything about Brazil and Rio de Janeiro or if you are just a self-centered first world citizen with a "better-than-you" mindset. You'd be surprised at how much culture, development and wealth we have here...

Brazil has all these things, but it also has an astronomically high crime rate. Patients and staff at a Rio hospital were robbed recently so I can only imagine how tempting an Apple store will be.
 

iRock1

macrumors 65816
Apr 23, 2011
1,081
144
It doesn't surprise me that Apple chose Brazil as their first South American destination. After all, Brazil has a huge economy and they have the World Cup coming up soon.

However, other countries would make more sense to me, like Chile (very favorable economic, social and political circumstances). Nobody would be afraid of being kidnapped in the entrance of some store. :p

Anyway. I hope this is a good start to finish the awful experience of buying products from resellers in South America. Luckily Apple will expand to other countries in the region during 2014. :D
 

Roniniku

Suspended
Apr 4, 2008
31
8
Japan
Relax there tough guy...

Dear "silvetti", I wonder if you know anything about Brazil and Rio de Janeiro or if you are just a self-centered first world citizen with a "better-than-you" mindset. You'd be surprised at how much culture, development and wealth we have here...

Yes, Brazil does have a lot of culture, development in some areas and a sliver of wealth but it is also absolutely rife with violent crime. Silvetti's comment was on point but was clearly made in jest. Calling him/her self-centred was pretty lame. Are "first world" countries better? In most ways, of course they are. Does brazil have to be bad to make them good, no way...and does them being good make Brazil bad? Nope. Brazil has the ability to make itself just as good as any other country but it starts from the inside. It's great that you love your country, as you should...now do what you can to fix it, in any small way, rather than hurling childish insults.
 

brdeveloper

macrumors 68030
Apr 21, 2010
2,626
313
Brasil
At least the "cariocas" will be able to return their Retina Macbooks because of screen issues in store, without having to send it to Apple by their own expenses as other brazilians have to do.

Anyway, it's a new era for consumer rights in Brazil if Apple keeps the same return policies they apply in developed countries. I live in Porto Alegre, so I'm still unable to enjoy the benefits of having an Apple Store nearby.
 

strategicthinke

Suspended
Feb 6, 2014
356
564
Rio de Janeiro
My apologies

Hey everyone. I believe one should never feel ashamed to admit when he is wrong. I probably was as much (or even more) self-centred in my answer than the person I was trying to reply to. Yes, there are lots of problems to be solved in Brazil and, contrary to what you might be led to believe, I am not that patriotic. Indeed, being in New Hampshire and Vermont was the most peaceful and beautiful experience I've ever had. What I was standing against is the idea that a bunch of American people I've known in the past seem to have regarding Brazil: whenever I told them that we had Shopping Malls, Starbucks Coffee and other "developed" things here in Rio they were shocked and kept telling me how they thought things were here: basically a jungle with guerrillas everywhere. This could not be further from truth (although, yes, there are social conflicts sprouting in many places in our country, but not the typical pseudo-latino picture most people have in mind) and, maybe, I overreacted to this kind of perspective - which ended up being quite offensive in this topic. My apologies for those I've offended and wish you all a good day. (No sarcasm.) Take care.
 

SaulOfTheJungle

macrumors newbie
Jan 25, 2013
8
2
Canada
Dear "silvetti", I wonder if you know anything about Brazil and Rio de Janeiro or if you are just a self-centered first world citizen with a "better-than-you" mindset. You'd be surprised at how much culture, development and wealth we have here...

He was not talking about culture, development and wealth in Brazil.
He was talking about the rampant crime.
 

LeandrodaFL

macrumors 6502a
Apr 6, 2011
973
1
This just happened one hour ago...

http://g1.globo.com/rio-de-janeiro/...a-de-onibus-tem-confronto-na-central-rio.html

Im going to the opening, even tough there is crime in Rio, is defenetly not around villagemall, I know the safe and dangerous areas.

Slighly different subject, Apple had trouble finding qualified people to work on the store? Thats a lie, there are thousands of well qualified brasilians to work on the store. The truth is no brasillian accepted the payment sallary Apple offered, cause what may seem great in America, its nothing in Brasil's high cost of living. Apple was retarded.
 

iRock1

macrumors 65816
Apr 23, 2011
1,081
144
This just happened one hour ago...

http://g1.globo.com/rio-de-janeiro/...a-de-onibus-tem-confronto-na-central-rio.html

Im going to the opening, even tough there is crime in Rio, is defenetly not around villagemall, I know the safe and dangerous areas.

Slighly different subject, Apple had trouble finding qualified people to work on the store? Thats a lie, there are thousands of well qualified brasilians to work on the store. The truth is no brasillian accepted the payment sallary Apple offered, cause what may seem great in America, its nothing in Brasil's high cost of living. Apple was retarded.

Honestly I didn't get a lot from that article in Portuguese, but let's be fair, riots as bad as the one shown in that article happen all the time, even in first world countries.

On the second part of your post, that's an interesting point. I know Apple is famous for its poor conditions when it comes to sellers' salaries. Taking that in count, I wonder how probable a South American expansion would be.
 

fabrica64

macrumors newbie
Oct 17, 2013
17
3
They better put private security company with AR15's at the door and around or the stock will be over in a day :D

Why? Do you know what are you talking about or just reading junk food news?

----------

I live in Brazil too and recognise violence is an endemic problem in our country, so, why are you so offended? "Mongrel" complex??

Just to refresh you memory:

http://translate.google.com/transla...-e-roubada-em-viracopos-20121023.html&act=url

Robbery happens in every country. Violence in Brazil is not an endemic problem, may be it is in some areas of it, but certainly no Apple Store is located there.

Brazilians' "inferiority complex" is exactly this, thinking their country is much worse than the rest of the world, endemic violence, endemic corruption, etc.

It's not like that. Not saying that there are no problems at all, but not as much as many Brazilians think.

I am not a Brazilian but live here from 1996, much has improved and statistics clearly support that, especially on violence, but media is sensationalized and people believe to the ever lasting line "it was better when it was worse"
 

LeandrodaFL

macrumors 6502a
Apr 6, 2011
973
1
Honestly I didn't get a lot from that article in Portuguese.

All you have to do is click the "Translate" button on your browser. Firefox and Chrome have it.

I am not a Brazilian but live here from 1996, much has improved and statistics clearly support that, especially on violence, but media is sensationalized and people believe to the ever lasting line "it was better when it was worse"

That is true, I remember when I was a kid, there were armed robberies right outside my school, everyone in my class lost something someday. Nowadays, it has been 10 years since I got robbed, and I KNOW the streets are safe (where I live/hangout). In my life, I did have a gun pointed to my head 5 times, and once I had to verbally fight the guy to not get kidnapped/rapped/AIDS and who knows what more.

Out of curiosity, Villagemall do have armed security guards (is that spelled right?)outside, but its only handguns. Its the onlly shopping that has armed security, mostly because of the high fashion brands with retail stores there, like Burberry and Versace.
 

silvetti

macrumors 6502a
Nov 24, 2011
952
376
Poland
Why? Do you know what are you talking about or just reading junk food news?

----------


I was in Rio for 5 days. Had a gun pointed at my head.
Only time in my life that happened.

During those same 5 days, was at the beach at night, on new years eve after the firework and a bunch of kids were going about lighting matches and throwing them at people waiting for someone to react...

Two weeks later a Portuguese 17 year old was stabbed by a group of kids who tried to take his backpack and he wouldn't let them.

Going up to the Corcovado by taxi we were stopped by men with guns drawn (probably Police, no uniform) and our taxi driver told us we would have to pay to them to continue our ride up.

Rich people have helicopters to go to work in order to not get kidnapped, the less rich (and by less rich, I still mean rich but not as rich as to have a helicopter) have bullet proof cars and drive different routes to work every day, again to not be kidnapped.

Yeah, this totally seems like a super safe country.

Peace.
 

fabrica64

macrumors newbie
Oct 17, 2013
17
3
I was in Rio for 5 days. Had a gun pointed at my head.
Only time in my life that happened.

During those same 5 days, was at the beach at night, on new years eve after the firework and a bunch of kids were going about lighting matches and throwing them at people waiting for someone to react...

Two weeks later a Portuguese 17 year old was stabbed by a group of kids who tried to take his backpack and he wouldn't let them.

Going up to the Corcovado by taxi we were stopped by men with guns drawn (probably Police, no uniform) and our taxi driver told us we would have to pay to them to continue our ride up.

Rich people have helicopters to go to work in order to not get kidnapped, the less rich (and by less rich, I still mean rich but not as rich as to have a helicopter) have bullet proof cars and drive different routes to work every day, again to not be kidnapped.

Yeah, this totally seems like a super safe country.

Peace.

I live in Sao Paulo and go to Rio once per month, never happened anything, walking morning and night on the beaches, and all my colleagues living there have no bullet proof cars, no helicopter, were never kidnapped, robbed, etc.

Probably you were in a different city/country or you are very very unlucky.

----------

Probably you were in a different city/country or you are very very unlucky.

By the way... I got robbed in Lisbon once :) with handgun. The only time I had such an experience in a portuguese speaking country.
 

brdeveloper

macrumors 68030
Apr 21, 2010
2,626
313
Brasil
I was in Rio for 5 days. Had a gun pointed at my head.
Only time in my life that happened.

During those same 5 days, was at the beach at night, on new years eve after the firework and a bunch of kids were going about lighting matches and throwing them at people waiting for someone to react...

Two weeks later a Portuguese 17 year old was stabbed by a group of kids who tried to take his backpack and he wouldn't let them.

Going up to the Corcovado by taxi we were stopped by men with guns drawn (probably Police, no uniform) and our taxi driver told us we would have to pay to them to continue our ride up.

Rich people have helicopters to go to work in order to not get kidnapped, the less rich (and by less rich, I still mean rich but not as rich as to have a helicopter) have bullet proof cars and drive different routes to work every day, again to not be kidnapped.

Yeah, this totally seems like a super safe country.

Peace.

Although your story can be true (I don't doubt), this is not really usual to happen. Probably foreign people get way more extorted than brazilian citizens. IF I was foreign, probably I'd never get in Rio just for precaution, unless I was a fluent portuguese speaker.

I'm brazilian and I was in Rio for a week in vacations during spring-2010. I rented an inexpensive single room apartment in Copacabana near Ipanema. Walked at night and I felt pretty safe for brazilian standards. I went to Lapa and Botafogo pubs and, again, nothing to feel threatened. As my skin tone is on the white side, beggars usually asked for money in english, but I promptly answered "Não obrigado" or "Não tenho". Sometimes I gave some "reais" (local currency) if it was accessible without opening my wallet.

Of course, being safe in Brazil means not carrying a DSLR or expensive watches/sunglasses. In Rio, you don't feel scruffy with a pair of Havaianas, a basic t-shirt and shorts. However, I understand that in western Europe is way harder to get a gun pointed to you by your entire life. It never happened to me here in Brazil, but I know this is not very uncommon.

In short, I'm sorry for all you faced in this beautiful but not really safe city. I wouldn't recommend Rio for tourists from other countries unless you have a brazilian friend to be with you in the trip. In this case, it is certainly a wonderful experience. Having your money stolen without violence (which is pretty common in Europe) is way more acceptable and something we overcome than being threatened with a gun pointed to your face.
 

silvetti

macrumors 6502a
Nov 24, 2011
952
376
Poland
I live in Sao Paulo and go to Rio once per month, never happened anything, walking morning and night on the beaches, and all my colleagues living there have no bullet proof cars, no helicopter, were never kidnapped, robbed, etc.

Probably you were in a different city/country or you are very very unlucky.

For sure, I must have dreamed it...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-17750790
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/4898554.stm
http://metro.co.uk/2013/10/31/crime-rockets-in-rio-de-janeiro-ahead-of-brazil-world-cup-4169330/


FYI
Portugal was considered the 14th safest country in the World: http://www.eutimes.net/2009/09/top-15-safest-countries-in-the-world-are-european/ :)

And I still want to say, as I said before, I like Brasil a lot.
Just don't throw sand on people's eyes saying it's a safe country.

If you live there you have a different perspective.
I live in Europe so for me, Brasil and favelas with gangs with Ak47's is not what I consider a safe country.
 
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