Apple’s Stores Built “…To Roll Out The iPhone”
03.09.07 - 02:27pm
Apple just finished opening a second store in Southwest Florida, is currently hiring for their new Australian store, and was just named by Fortune Magazine to be the “number one retailer in America.”
It is a well earned, hard fought for, and much criticized accomplishment as back in 2001 unfavorable opinions streemed in regarding the new Apple Stores being opened. David Goldstein,a retail consultant said, “I give [Apple] two years before they’re turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake.” BusinessWeek wrote,”Sorry Steve, Here’s Why Apple Stores Won’t Work,” and TheStreet chimed in with “It’s desperation time in Cupertino, Calif.”
Steve Jobs however, had a different idea in his mind. He saw that no one was out promoting Apple products in the “computer stores”, most of the employees in those stores knew little or nothing about Apple, much less looked and spoke of it as a new and innovative.
Thus, it was decided that Apple would open their own stores and train their own people - people who would be as excited about Apple’s products and as knowledgeable as Steve Jobs himself was.
To accomplish this they looked and found the best retail executive around at the time - Mickey Drexler, who was running Gap. They also found the best merchandising chief and hired Ron Johnson who had been extremely successful at Target.
With these two brain powers working on the project they first “tested” the store - then did a complete overhaul of the store after realizing they had designed the store by product category, like the company was designed, not by how the customer might want to purchase items. “So we redesigned it,” Jobs said. “And it cost us, I don’t know, six, nine months. But it was the right decision by a million miles.”
Now the Apple’s stores are known the world over, and are even “tourist attractions”, such as the New York Store, as well as holding legendary music events, such as Apples “Live From London” Series held at the London Regent Street Store.
They are also looked at as an example of how a retail store should be by other companies such as Saturn, whose general manager Jill Lajkziak told the Detroit News last spring, that their showrooms would have a “more contemporary, more interactive look and feel–like an Apple Store.”
Apple also sells more than any other retail store per square foot at $4032 blowing others like Best Buy, selling $930 per square foot, or even the luxury store Tiffany’s selling $2666 per square foot, out of the water.
Currently Steve Jobs is banking on his stores as being the perfect launch pad for the iPhone saying, “Our stores were conceived and built for this moment in time - to roll out iPhone.”
Apple has plans to open 35-40 stores in 2007, with more than 10 of those planned overseas.
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