Apple Store (retail) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Apple Retail Store is a chain of retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc., dealing in computers and consumer electronics. The stores sell Macintosh

Macintosh

The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...

personal computer

Personal computer

A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...

s, software

Computer software

Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....

, iPod

IPod

iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...

s, iPad

IPad

The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...

s, iPhone

IPhone

The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...

s, third-party accessories, and other consumer electronics such as Apple TV. Many stores feature a Theatre for presentations and workshops and a Studio for training with Apple products; all stores offer a Genius Bar

Genius Bar

The Genius Bar is a tech support station located inside every Apple Retail Store, the purpose of which is to offer help and support for Apple products. Ron Johnson, the Senior Vice President for Retail, has often referred to the Genius Bar as the "heart and soul of our stores". Employees are...

for technical support and repairs, as well as free workshops available to the public. Under the leadership of Ron Johnson, the former Senior Vice President of Retail Operations, the Apple Stores have been responsible for "[turning] the boring computer sales floor into a sleek playroom filled with gadgets". , Apple had opened 358 stores worldwide.

Description

Many stores are located inside shopping malls, but Apple has since built several stand-alone "flagship" stores in high-profile locations. Flagship stores have opened in Palo Alto, Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, San Francisco, Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

, Osaka

Osaka

is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, Perth

Perth, Western Australia

Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

, Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, Frankfurt

Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

, Zurich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

, Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, Honolulu, Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

, and Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

. The largest Apple Store in the world is in Covent Garden

Covent Garden

Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...

in London

London

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

; the largest in North America is in Boston

Boston

.

Each store is designed to suit the needs of the location and regulatory authorities. Apple has received numerous architectural awards for its store designs, particularly its midtown Manhattan location on Fifth Avenue, whose glass cube was designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson

Bohlin Cywinski Jackson

Bohlin Cywinski Jackson is a United States-based architectural practice that was founded in 1965 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania by Peter Bohlin and Richard Powell. Bohlin's firm then merged with Bernard Cywinski's Philadelphia-based architectural practice in 1979...

.

Several Apple Stores feature glass staircases, which for multi-level stores was originally intended to attract customers to visit the upper floors, and some even feature a glass bridge. The New York Times wrote that these features were part of then-CEO Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs

Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...

' extensive attention to detail. The first glass staircase received a design patent in 2002 from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office with Jobs' name first, followed by several others, while the staircase design itself received a design patent, and the complex glass and hardware system received a separate technical patent. Apple worked with architect Bohlin Cywinski Jackson

Bohlin Cywinski Jackson

and engineer Eckersley O’Callaghan Structural Design in designing the staircase.

The Apple Store in Regent Street

Regent Street

Regent Street is one of the major shopping streets in London's West End, well known to tourists and Londoners alike, and famous for its Christmas illuminations...

, London

London

, was the first to open in Europe in November 2004, and is the most profitable shop in London with the highest sales per square foot, taking £60,000,000 pa, or £2,000 per square foot. The Regent Street store was surpassed in size by the nearby Apple Store in Covent Garden

Covent Garden

, which is currently the biggest Apple store in the world.

Ron Johnson, Senior Vice President of Retail Operations until November 1, 2011, was responsible for site selection, in-store service, and store layout, however he had had no control over the inventory in the stores. Instead, inventory is done company wide by then-COO and now CEO Tim Cook

Tim Cook

Timothy D. "Tim" Cook is the chief executive officer of Apple Inc., having joined the company in March 1998. He was named the CEO of Apple after Steve Jobs announced his resignation on August 24, 2011.- Early life :...

who has a background in supply-chain management.

History

Steve Jobs

, the co-founder of Apple, returned as interim CEO in 1997. According to Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson is a writer and biographer. He is the President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C. He has been the Chairman and CEO of CNN and the Managing Editor of TIME...

, Jobs began a concerted campaign to help sales by improving the retail presentation of Macintosh computers. Even with new products launched under Job's watch like the iMac

IMac G3

The iMac G3 was the first model of the iMac line of personal computers made by Apple Inc. , and the originator of the Legacy-free PC market category. Like the first Macs, the iMac G3 is an all-in-one personal computer, encompassing both the monitor and the system unit in a single enclosure...

and the PowerBook G3

PowerBook G3

The PowerBook G3 is a line of laptop Macintosh computers made by Apple Computer between 1997 and 2000. It was the first laptop to use the PowerPC G3 series of microprocessors...

and an online store, Apple still relied heavily on big box computer and electronics stores for most of their sales. There, customers continued to deal with poorly trained and ill-maintained Mac sections which did not foster customer loyalty to Apple and nor did they help differentiate the Mac user-experience from Windows.

Jobs' first priority was ending almost every big box retailer's ties to the Apple, except for CompUSA

CompUSA

CompUSA is a retailer and reseller of consumer electronics, technology products and computer services. Its headquarters are in Miami, Florida.Until its reorganization, CompUSA, Inc. was a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. Commercial Corp S.A.B...

who retained its Apple contract by agreeing to adopt Apple's "store within a store" concept. This required that approximately 15% of each CompUSA store would be set aside for Mac hardware and software (including non-Apple products) and would play host to a part-time Apple salesperson. However the "store within a store" approach was not successful in part because the Apple section was in the lowest-traffic area of CompUSA stores. Jobs and his executives saw that they didn't have enough control over the presentation of Apple products so they decided on creating an Apple retail store.

Apple has since re-established ties with major big box retailers like Best Buy

Best Buy

Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...

, as these chains have considerably more geographical reach than the existing network of Apple Stores. The relationship with Best Buy calls for the company to send Apple Solutions Consultants (ASCs) to train Best Buy employees to be familiar with Apple's product lineup and how Macs work.

The successful experience that Apple had with its retail stores has been applied to Disney

The Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...

stores, since Jobs was elected to that company's board of directors in 2006.

Concept

In 1999, Jobs personally recruited Millard Drexler

Millard Drexler

Millard "Mickey" S. Drexler is the current chairman and CEO of J.Crew Group and formerly the CEO of Gap Inc. He has been a director at Apple Inc. since 1999....

to serve on Apple's board of directors, Drexler was the CEO of Gap Inc. whose explosive growth had ben attributed to retailing environments and marketing rather than its products or competitive prices. In 2000, Jobs hired Ron Johnson from Target

Target Corporation

Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...

, where he had been vice president of merchandising responsible for launching the Michael Graves line of consumer products that raised Target's image beyond that of just an upscale K-Mart. Johnson then built a mock-up of an Apple store inside a warehouse near the company's headquarters in Cupertino.

The Apple Store design has resulted from the contributions of firms such as Bohlin Cywinski Jackson

Bohlin Cywinski Jackson

, Eckersley O’Callaghan, Eight Inc.

Eight Inc.

Eight Inc. is a collaborative design and innovation studio with offices in New York, San Francisco, Honolulu, Tokyo, Singapore and London. Founded in 1989 by Tim Kobe, Eight Inc...

, Gensler

Gensler

Gensler is an American design and architecture firm headquartered in San Francisco, California. The firm was founded in 1965 by Art Gensler, Drue Gensler, and James Follett, and originally focused on corporate interiors...

, and ISP Design, Inc., together with Apple's in-house design team. Eight Inc. had first been responsible for the unsuccessfuly CompUSA foray which was due to limited space and budget, but with the Apple retail store they had the freedom to come up with an approach that broadly resembled Gap Inc. stores.

Expansion and changes

On May 15, 2001, Jobs led a group of journalists from a hotel in Tysons Corner

Tysons Corner, Virginia

Tysons Corner is an unincorporated census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Part of the Washington Metropolitan Area located in Northern Virginia, Tysons Corner lies between the community of McLean and the town of Vienna along the Capital Beltway . The population was...

, Virginia, to Apple's first store in the second level of Tysons Corner Center

Tysons Corner Center

Tysons Corner Center, located in the Tysons Corner unincorporated area in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States , opened to the public in 1968, becoming one of the first fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping centers in the Washington Metropolitan Area...

for a commemorative press event. The first two Apple Stores opened on May 19 in Tysons Corner

Tysons Corner, Virginia

and later the same day in Glendale

Glendale, California

Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...

, California at Glendale Galleria

Glendale Galleria

The Glendale Galleria is a large three-story regional shopping mall located in downtown Glendale, California and is the second largest mall in Los Angeles County.- History :...

. The first Apple Store with the current layout and hardware (wood tables and stone flooring) opened in Pasadena

Pasadena, California

Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...

, California. Apple opened its 200th store on October 26, 2007 in Gilbert

Gilbert, Arizona

-Demographics:As of July 1, 2009, Maricopa Association of Governments, Census 2000. United States Census Bureau. there were 217,521 people, 74,147 housing units, and 3.01 persons per household....

, Arizona, 2,251 days after opening its Tysons Corner store.

Several publications and analysts predicted the failure of Apple Stores, based on sales made per square foot which was a standard metric in computer retail at the time. It was thought that because of the stores' diminutive size and non-aggressive sales team, Apple would succeed in presenting the Mac but fail in making a significant number of sales, despite the huge turnout for the Virginia store (7,700 in the first day purchases). However, Apple proved its critics wrong and by 2007 it ranked among the top retailers in the world. According to Fortune Magazine; "and not just the architecture. Saks

Saks Fifth Avenue

Saks Fifth Avenue is a luxury American specialty store owned and operated by Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises , a subsidiary of Saks Incorporated. It competes in the high-end specialty store market in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, i.e. 'the 3 B's' Bergdorf, Barneys, Bloomingdale's and Lord & Taylor...

, whose flagship store is down the street, generates sales of $362 per square foot a year. Best Buy

Best Buy

stores turn $930 - tops for electronics retailers - while Tiffany & Co.

Tiffany & Co.

Tiffany & Co. is an American jewelry and silverware company. As part of its branding, the company is strongly associated with its Tiffany Blue , which is a registered trademark.- History :...

takes in $2,666. Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...

liked Tiffany's for breakfast, but at $4,032 per square foot, Apple is eating everyone's lunch".

Originally, Apple Stores contained a dedicated point of sale

Point of sale

Point of sale or checkout is the location where a transaction occurs...

station. However, in 2006, Apple began introducing a new store layout and design with surgical-grade stainless steel walls and backlit signage. The new store design replaced the dedicated point of sale station with the handheld EasyPay system. A dedicated point of sale station still exists in most of these stores to facilitate transactions not paid for by credit card

Credit card

A credit card is a small plastic card issued to users as a system of payment. It allows its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services...

. The Regent Street store has more point of sale terminals than any other store. Only flagship stores and a few older locations have a dedicated point of sale; all other stores have a POS behind the Genius Bar. Apple has recently changed their EasyPay systems to operate on iPod Touch

IPod Touch

The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...

instead of the previous Windows-based system. The iPods feature a custom housing, the Infinite Peripherals Linēa-Pro barcode scanner and card reader, to allow the same transactions on the iPod.

On May 22, 2011, Apple replaced their acrylic displays that had information about the product with interactive iPad 2

IPad 2

The iPad 2 is the second and current generation of the iPad, a tablet computer designed, developed and marketed by Apple. It serves primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, presentations and web content, and is available in black or white...

displays, which add more information about the product like information about the specifications, comparisons and extended warranties. This transition from paper to intuitive touch displays was dubbed "Apple Store 2.0" by online blogs such as Engadget

Engadget

Engadget is a multilingual technology blog network with daily coverage of gadgets and consumer electronics. Though on appearance Engadget functions much like a blog and may be defined as such, much of its editorial content takes the form of an online magazine...

and Gizmodo

Gizmodo

Gizmodo is a technology weblog about consumer electronics. It is part of the Gawker Media network run by Nick Denton and is known for its up-to-date coverage of the technology industry, along with topics as broad as design; architecture; space and science....

Genius Bar

All Apple Stores feature a Genius Bar, where customers can receive technical advice or set up service and repair for their products. The Genius Bar provides software support for Mac OS X

Mac OS X

Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

and hardware service on products that are not classified vintage or obsolete. However, in most cases the Geniuses will at least attempt to assist customers with older hardware. Originally, visitors to the Genius Bar were offered free Evian

Evian

Evian is a French brand of mineral water coming from several sources near Évian-les-Bains, on the south shore of Lake Geneva.Today, Evian is owned by Danone Group, a French multinational company...

water. Apple dropped this amenity in February 2002.

To address increasing numbers of iPod

IPod

customers at the Genius Bar, some new stores also feature an iPod Bar. First seen at the Ginza

Ginza

is a district of Chūō, Tokyo, located south of Yaesu and Kyōbashi, west of Tsukiji, east of Yūrakuchō and Uchisaiwaichō, and north of Shinbashi.It is known as an upscale area of Tokyo with numerous department stores, boutiques, restaurants and coffeehouses. Ginza is recognized as one of the most...

store in Tokyo

Tokyo

, then at the New York

New York City

locations, the iPod Bar has become a common feature at newly built stores.

Most new stores feature a station called The Studio, a Genius Bar-like setting where customers can meet with a "Creative" and receive help with projects ranging from organizing a photo album to music composition to film editing. Some of the older stores are being considered to carry a Studio in a future remodel, in some cases replacing the older theaters.

Store openings

Store openings have become special events among avid Mac users. Opening day attracts thousands of customers who line up early in the morning or even the night before. Most openings are accompanied by giveaways of prizes such as t-shirts and "lucky bags

Fukubukuro

is a Japanese New Year's Day custom where merchants make grab bags filled with unknown random contents and sell them for a substantial discount, usually 50% or more off the list price of the items contained within...

" at flagship store openings.

Locations

The first two Apple Stores opened in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

in 2001 (see history above). In 2003, Apple expanded its operations into Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, opening the first store outside of the United States. This was followed by the opening of stores in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

and Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. In 2010 a major effort to expand sales in China was announced along with opening of a store in Shanghai. The first Apple Store in Hong Kong

Hong Kong

, being the 100th overseas store outside the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

opened on September 24, 2011, occupying Podium 1 and 2 of ifc mall.

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="width:700px;"
|-
! Country
! First openings
! Open stores
! Ref.
! Planned stores
! Ref.
|-
|

Sweden
|
| style="text-align:right;" | 0
| style="text-align:center;" |
| style="text-align:right;" | 1
| style="text-align:center;" |
|-
{| class="sortbottom"
! style="text-align:right;" colspan="2" | Totals
! style="text-align:right;" | 359
! style="text-align:center;" |
! style="text-align:right;" | 46
! style="text-align:center;" |
|}

Apple Company Store

The Apple Company Store is found on the Apple Campus

Apple Campus

The Apple Campus is the headquarters of Apple Inc., a consumer electronics and PC corporation, located in Cupertino, California. The facility is referred to as a campus because its design resembles the campus of a university, with the buildings arranged around green spaces...

in One Infinite Loop. This store is the original Apple Employee store, and is open to the public. The store does not sell any of Apple's computer or iPod lineups, and it does not provide on-site support or repairs. However, it is the only place where Apple T-Shirts, hats, and other such merchandise can be purchased. Apple products are on display here, and various software and accessories can be purchased as well.

Knockoffs

In July 2011, an American expatriate blogger who lives in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming

Kunming

' is the capital and largest city of Yunnan Province in Southwest China. It was known as Yunnan-Fou until the 1920s. A prefecture-level city, it is the political, economic, communications and cultural centre of Yunnan, and is the seat of the provincial government...

reported on her discovery of what she called "the best ripoff store we had ever seen"—a fake Apple Store, complete with the glass exterior, wood display tables, winding staircase and large promotional posters found in legitimate Apple Stores, and with employees wearing lanyards and the same T-shirts as actual Apple Store employees. The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....

reported that the store had "gotten widespread international attention for the remarkable lengths to which its proprietors seem to have gone to mimic the look and feel of a real Apple Store." Chinese law prohibits retailers from copying the look and feel of competitors' stores, but enforcement is lax.

According to the WSJ, unauthorized Apple resellers are found throughout China; the blogger's original post noted that two such stores were located within walking distance of the first knockoff, one of them with a misspelled sign reading "Apple Stoer". An employee of the first knockoff confirmed that the store was not one of the 13 authorized Apple resellers in Kunming. In a follow-up report, Reuters

Reuters

Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...

indicated that local authorities in Kunming had closed two fake Apple stores in that city due to lack of official business permits, but allowed three other such stores to stay open, including the one that had attracted international attention. The operators of that store had applied for a reseller license from Apple. At the time of the report, only four legitimate Apple Stores had opened in China, with two in Beijing and two in Shanghai.

External links

Apple (United States) - Apple Retail Store
ifo Apple Store: News and information about store openings
Virtual tour of Fifth Avenue Apple Store (Google Maps Street View)
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson Website

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.