Filed under: Apple Corporate, Retail
Apple to open 40 to 50 new Apple Stores next year
At a media preview event yesterday designed to create buzz for Apple's newest store opening in Manhattan, Ron Johnston, Apple's senior vice president of retail announced that Apple would be opening 40-50 more Apple retail stores in the coming year.One focus will be on opening larger stores overall. While this is great news for anybody who has been frustrated by the zoo that is any Apple store on any given day recently (careful what you wish for when you wish for your platform of choice to finally get the market share it needs to ensure continued development), the bulk of these stores will be overseas in cities like Paris, London, and Shanghai.
So if you live in Paris, London, or Shanghai, congratulations! You, too, will have a store you can try to shop in when all you want is a new set of earphones for your iPhone and you can't get anywhere near the display.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Patrick said 10:33AM on 11-13-2009
Many a business that has been on the upswing of popularity and profitability has killed themselves by doing this very things......opening a lot of retail stores that ultimately added too much expense to their bottom line. This is not a wise move.
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punkassjim said 10:52AM on 11-13-2009
This is not an upswing of popularity and profitability. They've been raking in 2x-5x more dollars-per-square-foot than any other super-successful retail chain for nearly every year they've been in the retail business.
BTW, Lauren, it's Ron Johnson.
puhsitch said 7:10PM on 11-13-2009
Have any of those businesses been similar to Apple? And how exactly does one define "a lot"?
Ben Carroll said 10:55AM on 11-13-2009
I hope they open one up here in St. George, ut. We so need one.
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Ravi said 10:58AM on 11-13-2009
That store in the image seems like a church. Now I realize why I usually get out as soon as I can once my business is done.
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Fernando said 11:08AM on 11-13-2009
It is a church that's where you should go to worship all that is holy and pure! :p
David said 11:00AM on 11-13-2009
I hope they open one in the Quad Cities (an urban area of 360,000 people). The closest Apple store is in Chicago or Des Moines Iowa, which are about 3 hours away. Even one in Central Illinois like in Peoria would work too.
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ulrikdamm said 12:30PM on 11-13-2009
I just hope that they'll finally make an Apple Store in Denmark. We need one!
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Peter Ent said 1:23PM on 11-13-2009
My in-laws live in Boise, Idaho. The *nearest* Apple Store is in Salt Lake City (according to the Apple Store locator): over 5 hours away!!
In contrast, I have 3 near me in South Florida, not more than 30 minutes away.
Come on, Boise's a great city and has, I would hope, lots of Mac users. And if not, what a great way to introduce the product.
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Joanna D said 11:27AM on 11-13-2009
There is no need for any more stores in London or New York. They're saturated already.
There's a massive hole in the mid-east of the UK though, they desperately need to put a store in either Edinburgh or Newcastle.
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Steveo said 2:51PM on 11-13-2009
They are opening a store - Eldon Square Newcastle Spring 09! :D
ars_workerbee said 3:03PM on 11-13-2009
If its a saturated market, why when Fifth Avenue opened, did sales there surpass SoHo, and SoHo kept going up? And then with W14 opened... sales there were through the roof, and SoHo and 5th didn't take a hit at all?
Sorry, but you are not smarter than the people they pay to figure out where to put stores.
Steveo said 7:12PM on 11-13-2009
Obviously I meant Spring 2010!
Twist said 11:33AM on 11-13-2009
Wish they would open another one here in the Oklahoma City area. The one we have now can get really crowded. Took me 20 minutes just to buy an iPod Shuffle a few months ago and that was at like 2 PM on a Thursday. I really think they should open a second store on the southside of the city. Sooner Fashion Mall in Norman would be a perfect location for one.
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Pieter said 11:33AM on 11-13-2009
@Patrick, you gotta remember that these guys operate 100% debt free.
If they are opening so many stores, the assumption is they're making tons of cash!
If only everyone operated debt free...
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GonzoFMDL said 12:21PM on 11-13-2009
Wait...who is "Ron Johnston?" :-) It's Johnson.
https://www.apple.com/pr/bios/ronjohnson.html
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IronHorse420eh said 12:47PM on 11-13-2009
So when exactly are more apple stores coming to canada. Right now i have to drive 2 hours to reach one. I would bust out my wallet a lot more frequently if i could reach the store i wish to spend my money at.
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Patrick said 12:55PM on 11-13-2009
Okay, but watch that in 5 years they will announce the closing of lots of stores. I'm not smashing Apple, I'm talking business. Real estate and employees are expensive.... and many a business that is doing well, debt free, excited, market loves them, and currently their products are popular start expanding retail outlets only to find themselves a few years later stuck with chunks of brick and sheetrock that are a drain on the bottom-line.
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ars_workerbee said 3:04PM on 11-13-2009
You, sir, have no idea what you're talking about.
"and many a business that is doing well, debt free, excited, market loves them, and currently their products are popular start expanding retail outlets only to find themselves a few years later stuck with chunks of brick and sheetrock that are a drain on the bottom-line."
No other retail business has had the growth, sales, and products that the Apple Store has. It is impossible to compare them to anyone else, or to think that the past performance of other companies and stores means anything about the future of Apple.
HandyMac said 1:09PM on 11-13-2009
I recently learned that the city where I live, Santa Fe, N.M., has the highest per-capita number of Macs anywhere in the world. The nearest Apple Store is in Albuquerque, 60 miles south -- and ten times the size -- but I hear that most of the customers in that store come from Santa Fe. Doubtful they'll move the store, though.
Okay, but watch that in 5 years they will announce the closing of lots of stores.
Yeah, even though Apple seems to be bucking the trend so far, the whole house of cards has gotta come down some day, and I can't see any way Apple will be able to avoid the worldwide crash. Planning 40-50 more stores at a time like this seems a mite rash.
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