Apple Plans to Reopen Stores in Austria and Australia in 1 to 2 Weeks

[MacRumors]

Apple plans to reopen retail stores in Australia in the next one to two weeks, Apple CEO Tim Cook said today in an interview with Bloomberg ahead of today's Q2 2020 earnings call. Apple has a single store in Austria and over 20 retail locations in Australia.

Cook said that "just a few" stores will reopen in the United States starting in May. Before reopening stores, Apple will "look at the data" and make decisions "city by city, county by county" when considering whether to reopen stores.

Earlier this week, Apple retail chief Deirdre O'Brien told employees that she expects "many more" stores to open starting in the month of May. All of Apple's stores outside of Greater China have been shut down since March 14, with the exception of a single store in South Korea, which reopened in April.

Cook said that Apple's Cupertino campuses will not be reopening until at least early June. Santa Clara County, where the campuses are located, has extended its shelter-in-place order until the end of May.

When Apple's corporate offices do reopen, Apple plans to bring employees in on a staggered basis with temperature checks, social distancing, and masks.

Article Link: Apple Plans to Reopen Stores in Austria and Australia in 1 to 2 Weeks

 

[Moi Ici]

Gosh, I really really hope they reopen their store here in Ireland soon............oh wait! I forgot, THERE ISN‘T ONE!!!!!

 

[WestonHarvey1]

Are they doing it in alphabetical order or something?

 

[LFC2020]

Just in time for the release of the 14 inch mini led MacBook Pro ?

 

[LimitR]

Austria! Well... g’day, mate!

 

[ericgtr12]

Austria! Well... g’day, mate!

Austria... accent sounds more like "I'll be back"

 

[tyranne201]

Just in time for the release of the 14 inch mini led MacBook Pro ?

who goes to an Apple Store just to buy a MacBook nowadays?
[automerge]1588283285[/automerge]
I would not enter an Apple Store until there is a vaccine for this thing. Imagine all those devices' screens contaminated? The US is reporting about 2,000 deaths/day. It's quite irresponsible for Apple to reopen stores now, since majority of people actually go to an Apple Store to TEST products that goes into several people's hands.

 

[PotatoLeekSoup]

I got a nice "No Kangaroos" magnet when I visited Vienna. Handy reminder.

 

[LFC2020]

who goes to an Apple Store just to buy a MacBook nowadays?

I’ll purchase my MacBook from Microsoft or the Samsung store then ?

 

[newyorksole]

Looks like alphabetical order to me Lol.

Gonna be interesting to see how many customers still go to the stores.

 

[Brandhouse]

Apple plans to reopen retail stores in Australia in the next one to two weeks

Good, I might be able to take back my XR which has an annoying popping noise coming from the bottom. It's presumptious though to think that stores will be open in two weeks. There's no firm talk yet that Australia is moving back to normal, we're not opeining back up yet like the US.

 

[gbc204]

Are they doing it in alphabetical order or something?

It's like someone said "Australia" and another person heard "Austria" and they checked and saw they only have one store there and thought "yeah, why not Austria too..."

 

[UnusedLoginID]

Gosh, I really really hope they reopen their store here in Ireland soon............oh wait! I forgot, THERE ISN‘T ONE!!!!!

I’m pretty sure it has to do with the fact that Apple’s headquartered for tax purposes is Ireland and that having a direct sales location may void that tax shelter. Otherwise I really don’t see any reason why there’s no Apple Store yet at least in Dublin.

 

[simonmet]

The US is reporting about 2,000 deaths/day. It's quite irresponsible for Apple to reopen stores now, since majority of people actually go to an Apple Store to TEST products that goes into several people's hands.

I don’t know how they’ll manage this, but Australia at least is far from the US experience. New cases are currently running at an average of about 10-15 per day nationwide (under 10 some days) with almost all being known contacts; and total deaths are still under (but approaching) 100.

We have a much smaller population of course, but the infection and death rates per head of population are also far less. We might’ve been lucky to get the virus in late Summer/Autumn, but a national lockdown also helped. It was trending in a worrying fashion before the lockdown measures.

I think they’ll reopen first in Perth and Adelaide that’ve had no new cases for a week or more. They still have all the Macs set up on the tables at my local store in Bondi, Sydney, but that might be one of the last to reopen considering it’s near one of the clusters in Sydney.

2,000 deaths a day is a shocking figure and I can’t understand the push from some people like Elon Musk to reopen in the US at this time. I agree that is totally irresponsible.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

Gosh, I really really hope they reopen their store here in Ireland soon............oh wait! I forgot, THERE ISN‘T ONE!!!!!

Ireland is Apple's secondary China. You're factory slaves, not customers

 

[entropys]

Austria! Well... g’day, mate!

True story, a mate of mine was doing a post doc over at Berkeley and visa issues delayed his wife heading across the pond. He went to this party where this Cali bombshell tried to chat him up:
“Oooh, I just luuuve your accent. How come you speak English so well?”
”My family always spoke English at the dinner table”, said Nig.

 

[Juan007]

Woo hoo, back to business! Great quarter Tim, let's get back to making money.

 

[ThomasPicard]

In Austria all stores are allowed to open by tomorrow - so Apple is giving it a 1-2 weeks "saftey margin"..
Great News to have our Apple Store back..

 

[Moi Ici]

I’m pretty sure it has to do with the fact that Apple’s headquartered for tax purposes is Ireland and that having a direct sales location may void that tax shelter. Otherwise I really don’t see any reason why there’s no Apple Store yet at least in Dublin.

I think you’re right. It thoroughly sucks though. There is an Apple like store here that is also an official reseller but they are small (and I’ve moved back to Ireland from USA so am used to the Apple store experience) and this ain’t it.

 

[whooleytoo]

I’m pretty sure it has to do with the fact that Apple’s headquartered for tax purposes is Ireland and that having a direct sales location may void that tax shelter. Otherwise I really don’t see any reason why there’s no Apple Store yet at least in Dublin.

You might be right, though I don't really understand why having a sales location here would affect Apple's tax, any more than any other type of operation (they have/had thousands working here in online sales, support, logistics, localisation, PCB & unit assembly, QA, hardware & software development).

Apple doesn't really have any special status here, they just were "pioneers" in exploiting loopholes in our tax code that let profits be transferred between companies without tax being paid.

Those loopholes are being ended and phased out, so if that is genuinely the reason for no Apple Stores in Ireland, I guess we'll get some in the near future!

 

[Pearple]

What? I thought this is the same country?!

 

[adrianlondon]

I would not enter an Apple Store until there is a vaccine for this thing. Imagine all those devices' screens contaminated?

My plan is simply not to lick them all like I usually do.

 

[throAU]

Are they doing it in alphabetical order or something?

no. Here in Australia we are back down to under 950 active cases for a place the size of the whole of the USA.

 

[Jon Rowlison]

Are they doing it in alphabetical order or something?

I was wondering the same... but then I couldn't figure out why they didn't open the stores in Albania.

 

[CarlJ]

I got a nice "No Kangaroos" magnet when I visited Vienna. Handy reminder.

One has Strauss' Vienna Waltz, and the other has Waltzing Matilda.