Apple Retail Store News Roundup

[MacRumors]

Over the past few days, a number of items regarding Apple's retail stores have popped up, and we've collected some of them here for visibility and discussion.

- USA Today reported last week about Apple's plans for its retail stores, revealing that Apple is planning to remodel 100 of its existing stores this year, in addition to the 25 new stores under development. Renovated stores will offer 50% more Genius Bar space and twice as much room for displaying products.

- The New York Post reported in a piece on New York City's Fifth Avenue shopping district that Apple's flagship store on the street was promoted by the building's owner as recording a staggering $440 million per year in sales. As Daring Fireball's John Gruber points out, the number is approximately one-third that of Palm's 2008 revenue for the entire company.

- ifoAppleStore points to the online portfolio of architect Ben Wood, which features a dramatic design for what is reported to be a new Apple retail store for Beijing, China. ifoAppleStore's sources report that construction is already underway at an unspecified location on Qianmen Street with a grand opening scheduled for later this year.





- Apple will be holding a grand opening this Saturday for a new retail store in Roseville, California, a major shopping hub in the Sacramento area. The new store will be located in the Westfield Galleria at Roseville, which is in the midst of a major expansion project.

Article Link: Apple Retail Store News Roundup

[gibbz]

The Chinese store design looks amazing.

[alec]

Renovated stores will offer 50% more Genius Bar space and twice as much room for displaying products.

So are they going to cut down on floor space or back room space? The biggest problem for me has been how cramped a lot of the Apple stores are.. it's not worth the hassle to go to a lot of Apple stores on Saturday/Sunday due to the volume of traffic!

[SFStateStudent]

I'm checking out the Santa Rosa Store opening......

[DipDog3]

Remodel over 100 stores?

That is going to cost a few bucks!

[VanMac]

Expanding the space in some of the stores is a great move. Many of the Apple stores can get pretty cramped. Says alot for the traffic they generate though....

Anywho, good news, keep on building!

[Ivan P]

Add a Perth store while you're at it...come on Apple!

[Pugpuppydude]

Haha I love the diss here on Palm!

[gibbz]

Originally Posted by DipDog3

Remodel over 100 stores?

That is going to cost a few bucks!

Nothing that $29 billion in cash reserves can't handle

[Cameront9]

Originally Posted by DipDog3

Remodel over 100 stores?

That is going to cost a few bucks!

Well, Apple is sitting on tons of cash.

The remodel is necessary in order to keep the store designs fresh.

Now where's my Waco Apple Store?

[MidiMonk]

Originally Posted by DipDog3

Remodel over 100 stores?

That is going to cost a few bucks!

Well Apple has made a fortune off us with overpriced Ikea computing.Glad to see them waste $$$ in such hard times

The cheapening of their components(No FW on most macbooks, adding the cost of FW800 to FW400 adapters just as examples) will add to their profits in the end.I sometimes wonder why I stayed a fan for so long

[iGary]

Some stores are still using the old maple floor and Corian kidney tables.

Most stores get renovated to the "Version 2.0" with stainless steel, limestone floors and the Genius Bar toward the back.

[ast03]

an apple store in scottsdale, az would b sweet, which is a lot closer then south phoenix. besides people in scottsdale would make it worth while, they gotz money to spend.

[sammich]

5th Avenue...50k per hour...10 MBs, 10 MBPs, 5 MPs, and stacks of iPods, all flying out every hour. How big is the storage area??

Originally Posted by MidiMonk

Well Apple has made a fortune off us with overpriced Ikea computing.Glad to see them waste $$$ in such hard times

The cheapening of their components(No FW on most macbooks, adding the cost of FW800 to FW400 adapters just as examples) will add to their profits in the end.I sometimes wonder why I stayed a fan for so long

Someone has a chip on their shoulder...

But seriously, having just about the most successful retail chain in the world, they can't just sit back and enjoy the money flowing. Waste money? The only money wasted is anything not invested, the investment here is to keep up the foot traffic. First, if sales are slowing down a bit, it's better to do renovations now when it would affect the least people, and second, money spent will flow into the businesses who Apple contracted to do the work.

[funkdis]

Definitely needs more genius space. Here in Tokyo genius bar is always full, have to book at least a day or 2 sometimes in advance.

Apple could just make things easy to use or improve the quality so less items break then no need for a bigger genius bar.

[Virtuo]

Between the datacenters, store renovations, and upcoming stores, Apple's doing some serious spending -- which it can certainly afford. I'm glad to see that they're investing a large portion to improve their customer service, regardless of the fact that they have the best in the tech industry.

Oh, and APPL stock is back at around 143. I should have picked some up when it was under 100 a couple months ago. :-)

[DELLsFan]

Originally Posted by alec

So are they going to cut down on floor space or back room space? The biggest problem for me has been how cramped a lot of the Apple stores are.. it's not worth the hassle to go to a lot of Apple stores on Saturday/Sunday due to the volume of traffic!

Cramped stores, cramped trains, cramped buses ... perfect fit in China! Go go, Apple!

[NinjaHERO]

It will be interesting to see how all this additional space shows up in the same square footage. This must be some very efficient designing.

[seabiscuit]

I like the new designs and the fact that AAPL is investing in existing stores for more Genius space. I wish AAPL would bring a retail store to Lexington, Kentucky. Growing college town with access to I-75 and I-64 seems like a natural fit.

[gibbz]

Originally Posted by MidiMonk

Glad to see them waste $$$ in such hard times

This is actually why Apple has been quite successful over the years.

As Steve Jobs once said: "The way to deal with a recession isn't to hunker down until the storm has passed, it's to innovate your way out of it."

The fact that Apple invests during hard times allows them to be that much further ahead of the competition once the hard times end.

[drakeshipway]

Originally Posted by gibbz

This is actually why Apple has been quite successful over the years.

As Steve Jobs once said: "The way to deal with a recession isn't to hunker down until the storm has passed, it's to innovate your way out of it."

The fact that Apple invests during hard times allows them to be that much further ahead of the competition once the hard times end.

Great point!
-
I'd love me some updated Sherway Gardens Apple store!

[shiseiryu1]

Is that article correct in mentioning that $400mil is 1/3 of Palm's 2008 revenue? I would be surprised if Palm made $1.2 million in 2008..much less $1.2 billion. Where have they been making their money? They haven't made a product worth buying in almost a decade. I guess they're getting heavy royalties for the "Treo" name...as I see that half the phones in their store are M$ based.

I'm happy that the Pre seems to be a good phone...although it's long overdue. Palm should have "Pre"empted Apple by making their phone before the iPhone. Shame that Palm didn't decide to innovate earlier (although I don't know if an iPhone wannabe qualifies as "innovation").

[Chris Blount]

Apple already has a store in Sacramento. Seems unfair for a city to have 2 or more stores when many cities have none.

[MH01]

Originally Posted by gibbz

This is actually why Apple has been quite successful over the years.

As Steve Jobs once said: "The way to deal with a recession isn't to hunker down until the storm has passed, it's to innovate your way out of it."

The fact that Apple invests during hard times allows them to be that much further ahead of the competition once the hard times end.

This innovation better go beyond the Iphone. If next week is all about Iphone and 3.0, I call BS on the Statement, if you want to see innovation look at E3, Microsofts Natal project looks the goods.

Come on Apple, catching up on missing features in the Iphone is not innovating out of the recession. Lets see some SL loving, and make it good.

[bedifferent]

Originally Posted by gibbz

Nothing that $29 billion in cash reserves can't handle

Forget revamping stores, how about spending some of that reserve for developing a desktop lineup that actually uses a desktop processor (nothing between the iMac and Mac Pro).

Also, I have read that the plans for the second store in China were rejected. Apparently they are re-working the design (which may not include the glass entry-way).