Apple Store Near Detroit Permanently Closing Today Ahead of All-New Downtown Location

[tubular]

Apple stores aren’t profitable.

They're about the most profitable stores per square foot in the world.

 

[KENESS]

Apple stores aren’t profitable. People would just buy the equipment online or at a carrier store anyways. Apple wouldn’t lose any sales if the store didn’t exist. There’s rent, the electric bill, and overhead with staffing, etc.

Now if the Apple rep was given an incentive to sell additional products, then perhaps they’d be profitable. Enticing customers to purchase expensive accessories for their Mac or iPhone, or AppleCare would make sense. Some people might disagree with this practice, but these are highly profitable sales that are easily skipped when someone buys online.

Are you kidding? If this is sarcasm you forgot to indicate. Apple is among those most profitable retail in the entire industry.

#11 per this list by the Nation Retail Federation.

NRF Top 100 Retailers 2025 List | NRF

The NRF Top 100 Retailers list ranks the industry’s largest companies according to sales.

nrf.com

Almost all the entries above Apple on that list are warehouse stores. On a per square foot basis, Apple is consistently #1 and has been for years.

 

[IIGS User]

I mean, looking at this mall online it looks like it has a fairly respectable stable of stores.

I didn’t see a wig shop or a window tint place for cars.

When your mall has a wig shop, it’s dying

 

[Plutonius]

I prefer the Apple Online store.

 

[pakupakuman]

Retail space is really taking a hit. You as a retailer don't want to be stuck in a mall with stores going dark. One may think that standalone places may not have as much foot traffic as a mall, but a good location standalone can survive.

 

[Boeingfan]

I guess that I am one of the few that likes going to the mall or a retail store. I just like the idea of being able to purchase and take home my new item instantly. But the biggest drawback for me to Apple or other retailers going strictly to an online storefront is that I live in an area where theft is kinda high. Having to schedule a delivery time when I am home is a big pain. As Apple and most retailers will not leave packages outside where I live because of the number of theft claims.

I don't mind ordering online, but I would rather Apple ship it to one of their stores so that I can pick it up on way home. I have an Apple Store two blocks from where I work so it is very convenient.

I’m with you.

 

[Boeingfan]

What is the difference between ‘new’ and ‘all-new’?

 

[jlc1978]

Retail is going the way of the dinosaurs honestly, I could see Apple shifting everything to online

Apple’s retail philosophy is a bit different from the boxes. It’s about touch and feel, seeing the products and playing with them; not just pushing whatever has the biggest spiff out the door.

 

[miq]

Been looted one too many times?

 

[jimscard]

I mean, looking at this mall online it looks like it has a fairly respectable stable of stores.

I didn’t see a wig shop or a window tint place for cars.

When your mall has a wig shop, it’s dying

It was sold in receivership, which means that the owners went broke, owed more than they had, etc. Means that not only is maintenance not getting done, but other key parts of merchant services, such as advertising to bring people to the mall, events, security, etc. are likely not being done either. Also usually means collective sales at the tenant stores are down, since a large part of mall revenue is a percentage of sales at each tenant.

Also probably means that the list of stores on the mall website isn't being maintained either.

 

[jimscard]

Retail space is really taking a hit. You as a retailer don't want to be stuck in a mall with stores going dark. One may think that standalone places may not have as much foot traffic as a mall, but a good location standalone can survive.

Malls also have a higher price tag, along with additional costs in the form of paying a percentage of sales to the mall operator, which is supposed to pay for things like common area maintenance, advertising & events that bring people to the mall etc. A standalone location uses that money instead for their own promotions.

 

[gregmac19]

I mean, looking at this mall online it looks like it has a fairly respectable stable of stores.

I didn’t see a wig shop or a window tint place for cars.

When your mall has a wig shop, it’s dying

Carson’s closed their Partridge Creek store in 2018, and Nordstrom closed their store in 2019. Thus, the problem with the mall is that they have big, vacant (i.e., un-leased) spaces. Thus, I suspect the current mall owner is aggressively raising the rental rates on the remaining tenants to make up for the loss of income from the big stores. And I think the price they offered Apple was too much, and Apple told them to get lost.

 

[Boeingfan]

People would just buy the equipment online or at a carrier store anyways.

That's a very general statement, and one I disagree with purely because it makes an assumption that everyone would follow these options. Fatal mistake.

Buying something face to face means you pay for and receive the product you require then and there. This mitigates waiting for delivery, risk the delivery is stolen, risk the item will be broken in transit, or the incorrect product is received which then needs to be sent back and a new one dispatched.

In relation to '...or at a carrier store anyways', the need to go to a carrier store to buy an apple product is redundant when Apple have their own product and can connect it to your carrier. Surely this makes the carrier store more redundant than the Apple store, particularly given the current flavour is to phase out SIM cards entirely.

 

[Darien Red Sox]

Around me we have two Apple Stores. One is a standalone in a high end retail area, the other moved out of one mall a few years ago to a new mall two towns over. The new mall targets a younger generation of people then most malls, and is also very high end.

 

[svish]

With footfall probably being low, Apple will have no reason to continue the store there. Anyway waiting to see the new store opening up later this year.

 

[unregbaron]

I suspect we'll see more of these closures as more and more malls go bankrupt. The one in our area is trying to reinvent itself as an entertainment complex instead of a shopping center. But that's not going so well. A big part of the problem is the astronomical amount of money the mall wants for a lease. Apple has deep pockets. But I've seen a lot of small retailers open a shop and close within a year. They can't afford to stay in business there.

Also Apple will be offered huge discounts if not zero rent to have a store in a mall.

 

[russell_314]

Is that company even making computers? I think they are gone now

No, they went out of business a long time ago. Gateway is like Zenith, RCA, Magnavox etc. Someone bought the trademark so occasionally you’ll see cheap products sold at Walmart with the brand printed on them. The idea is they hope older people will buy the product thinking it’s the brand name they used to know.

 

[bgillander]

Robocop has to slow-walk even further for the Genius Bar now.

View attachment 2538079

I haven’t seen Robocop in a couple of decades, but I seem to recall it being set in downtown Detroit, not the suburbs north of Detroit, so once the new store in downtown Detroit is completed, he’ll actually have a feasible slow-walk.

In the meantime, I think the Apple Store at the Somerset Collection in Troy is actually a shorter, though still crazy-long (about 18 miles vs 23), distance for his walk from downtown. He just has to remember to turn at exit 69 onto W Big Beaver Road. Just kidding… if you are walking, you don’t want to be on the I75, even if you are Robocop.

 

[bgillander]

Is that company even making computers? I think they are gone now

Gateway bought eMachines, but then were themselves bought by Acer. Acer had abandoned the brand, I believe, but started making notebooks under the Gateway name again a few years ago, but it sounds like they are exclusively made for WalMart.

The original Gateway 2000 was actually a very solid brand of PCs made in the USA and the one I bought in 1993 still worked the last time I had a reason to boot it up in the 2010s.

 

[chelsel]

Remember when Gateway had a computer store but you could only test drive the computers, you had to order a computer to get one. Didn’t last long though, it’s a vitamins shop now.

You just reminded me of Microsoft stores! Do those still exist?

 

[chelsel]

Apple stores aren’t profitable. People would just buy the equipment online or at a carrier store anyways. Apple wouldn’t lose any sales if the store didn’t exist. There’s rent, the electric bill, and overhead with staffing, etc.

Now if the Apple rep was given an incentive to sell additional products, then perhaps they’d be profitable. Enticing customers to purchase expensive accessories for their Mac or iPhone, or AppleCare would make sense. Some people might disagree with this practice, but these are highly profitable sales that are easily skipped when someone buys online.

Only a complete noob or someone on a corporate account buys accessories at the Apple store.

 

[Dark_Omen]

Are you kidding? If this is sarcasm you forgot to indicate. Apple is among those most profitable retail in the entire industry.

#11 per this list by the Nation Retail Federation.

NRF Top 100 Retailers 2025 List | NRF

The NRF Top 100 Retailers list ranks the industry’s largest companies according to sales.

nrf.com

Almost all the entries above Apple on that list are warehouse stores. On a per square foot basis, Apple is consistently #1 and has been for years.

If Apple didn’t have any stores, they wouldn’t miss out revenue. You can buy Apple Products at Walmart, Target, AT&T, Verizon, Best Buy, etc. To say these stores actually generate revenue for Apple is laughable. Does money change hands within them? Sure. Does it increase sales for Apple? I doubt it. Not when there’s 5 or more different avenues to buy Apple Products. Get rid of the Apple stores and people will just choose one of the other 5 avenues to buy their Mac.

 

[frownface]

Fortunately, Apple said all affected employees at the Partridge Creek store will have the opportunity to continue working for the company.

Apple previously confirmed that its all-new store in Downtown Detroit will open later this year, so the company's total number of stores in Michigan will not change over the long term. Apple Somerset will continue to serve customers in Detroit's northern suburbs.

That sounds good on paper, but won't that depend on when the next store is going to open? If say the downtown store won't be operational till later this year, that could be months without a job for some of these people and that just may not be an option?

Decades ago when i worked in retail; the shop I worked at closed down because they were going to open a new one across the road 6 months later. I had the option to temporarily relocate to another store 25 mins away, but in the end I chose to get a different job elsewhere.

 

[baconcat_8964]

Many classic style Apple Store needs renovations to classic upgrade or vintage D, or just keep running until they shut down.

 

[aperfectcircle]

No, they went out of business a long time ago. Gateway is like Zenith, RCA, Magnavox etc. Someone bought the trademark so occasionally you’ll see cheap products sold at Walmart with the brand printed on them. The idea is they hope older people will buy the product thinking it’s the brand name they used to know.

Sadly does not have built in 1,000W speakers with exaggerated bass.