Apple is closing 20 stores to expand their square footage. The stores have become too busy and too crowded for their own good.
Apple stores include the world’s most productive retail space. Each store location averages about $50 million in sales/year. Apple stores attract 10 million people/week at its 400+ retail locations. Apple store attained sales of $6.4billion last quarter, while stores saw about 370million visitors in 2012 (These numbers are from this source).
In a time where some question the viability of ‘brick-and-mortar’ retailing, Apple stores show that some retail stores are, indeed, still viable business models for some retailers. Apple CEO Tim Cook says he believes that Apple stores were a contributing factor to the quick adoption of the iPad, saying “I don’t think we would have been nearly as successful with the iPad, as an example, if it weren’t for our stores.” This, he explained, was because people’s image of tablet computers before the iPad was one of “heavy things no one wanted.”
Addressing the Apple store concept, Cook says: “I’m not even sure ‘store’ is the right word anymore – they’re much broader than that,” he said. “They are the face of Apple for almost all customers.”
Canada can expect at least two Apple Store flagship locations in the next couple of years. We’re keeping or ear to the ground to find their exact locations.
