Apple retail

Apple Battersea opens to cheering London crowds

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London's iconic Battersea Power Station has been transformed from a coal-fired energy generator into a high-end shopping mall -- now with an Apple store!
London's iconic Battersea Power Station has been transformed from a coal-fired energy generator into a high-end shopping mall — now with an Apple store!
Photo: Rodney Minter-Brown/Unsplash License

The latest Apple retail store opened its doors Thursday in London’s iconic Battersea Power Station. Shoppers lined up to see the new location, and the Macs and iPhones may have been overwhelmed by the architecture.

Camera shutters were clicking. Check out some of the many images shared of the gorgeous new store, Apple’s 40th in the United Kingdom.

Why working Apple retail just got better

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Apple store
There’s good news for Apple Store employees.
Photo: Apple

Apple retail store employees are getting more time off. Both sick days and vacation days. This is part of improving the benefits for those who works in the Mac-maker’s brick-and-mortar locations.

The changes come as lots of employers find themselves competing for quality applicants in a tight job market.

Apple preps plan to let retail staffers work from home

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Apple store
Periodically working from home could become a permanent part of Apple retail employees’ job.
Photo: Apple

Apple is reportedly going to test a program that will have its Apple Store retail employees work from home some of the time. And no, that won‘t involve customers shopping in employees’ living rooms.

Apple asks retail employees to help with online customer support

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Like everyone else, Apple retail employees are being asked to work online.
Apple retail employees are being asked to become online employees to make using Apple.com better for customers.
Photo: Apple

Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s retail boss, sent a video to retail employees this weekend asking them to sign up to help customers remotely. She also said they should expect store closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to continue “for some period of time.”

Separately, Apple told employees that it doesn’t expect to have everyone back in its corporate headquarters before the end of 2020.

Apple stores could open as soon as mid-April

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Closed in Tulsa.
Photo: Brad Gibson / Cult of Mac

Apple told its retail employees that it will likely start reopening Apple Stores sometime during the first half of April, according to memo sent to various store employees on Tuesday.

Apple shuttered 467 of its stores outside of China as a precaution as COVID-19 rapidly advanced around the world.

Apple Stores unlikely to reopen March 28; now closed ‘until further notice’

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Apple-Stores-closed
It's not yet clear when they will reopen.
Screenshot: Cult of Mac

Apple Stores outside of Greater China now look unlikely to reopen on March 28 after Apple on Tuesday updated its notices to read “closed until further notice.”

A banner displayed at the top of the company’s website makes it clear to visitors that its retail locations are out of action for now. Apple insists, however, that it remains “committed to providing exceptional service to our customers.”

Beijing Apple stores reopen with temperature scans and free masks

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coronavirus
Apple stores in China are taking coronavirus concerns very seriously.
Photo: Eunice Yoon/ CNBC

Apple retail stores in Beijing are taking customers’ temperatures and requiring them to wear surgical masks as the area tries to normalize amidst the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Five Apple stores in Beijing reopened their doors with limited hours today after being closed since last month. CNBC senior correspondent Eunice Yoon posted a video from one of the newly reopened stores and the inside is shockingly empty.

Take a look at the entrance process:

Quit or canned? Why is Angela Ahrendts leaving Apple? [Opinion]

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Ahrendts
Did Angela Ahrendts jump or was she pushed?
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

When Apple fires an executive, the company is rarely straightforward about the situation. Apple never puts out a press release stating plainly that the executive was canned. So Tuesday’s unexpected announcement that Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s head of retail, is leaving in April led many to suspect she was fired.

That’s because the announcement came as a surprise and seems rushed. She’s certainly not retiring or quitting to join another company. The press release phrase “new personal and professional pursuits” sounds like code for “canned.”

Apple Store creator tells how disagreeing with Steve Jobs perfected retail

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Ron Johnson when he was with Apple
Ron Johnson, with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs at the grand opening of an Apple Store.
Photo: Richard Agullar

Steve Jobs’ hands-on approach to just about every project at Apple is part of his legend.

Ron Johnson, Apple’s first head of retail, offers fascinating detail about Jobs and the work leading up to the first Apple Store during a recent episode of the Gimlet podcast Without Fail hosted by Andy Blumberg.

Jobs was demanding and described by many as often difficult to work with. But Johnson says working with Jobs was a “gift.”

Apple plans store in Downtown Los Angeles’ historic Tower Theater

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The Tower Theater will be the home of the first LA Apple Store in the Downtown district.
The 91-year-old Tower Theater will be the home of the first LA Apple Store in the Downtown district.
Photo: Steve Minor/Flickr

There are multiple Apple Stores in the Los Angeles Area, but not one in the Downtown district. That’s apparently just about to change.

The iPhone maker has plans to put an Apple Store in the historic Tower Theater on S. Broadway.

New Seattle Apple Store focuses on education rather than products

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Seattle Apple Store has a giant screen
A giant screen for Today at Apple classes is the focus of the Seattle Apple Store.
Photo: Steve Ringman/The Seattle Times

You can still buy MacBooks and iPads at new Apple Store in Seattle, but that’s not the main emphasis. Instead, this retail location is built around a giant screen that’s used for educational events.

Of course, these educational events are all product related, like how to take better pictures with an iPhone. Or run a small business with an iPad.

Apple community raises over $13 million for disaster recovery

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Tim Cook
Apple made a huge contribution to Hand in Hand.
Photo: Apple

North America has been getting its ass kicked by natural disasters the last two months and Apple users have stepped up big help in the recovery efforts.

More than $13 million in donations have poured in from the Apple community to help relief efforts related to hurricanes in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. And according to a new blog post from Apple, the donations are still pouring in.

Angela Ahrendts named one of world’s most powerful women

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Angela Ahrendts.
Angela Ahrendts at the iPhone X keynote.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s boss of retail is finally getting some recognition for her large role at the world’s most powerful tech company.

In its latest rankings of the most powerful women in business, Fortune has placed Angela Ahrendts in the top 20 of influencers, raising her up one spot from last year and putting her ahead of executives at companies like Google, JP Morgan Chase, Microsoft, and Boeing.

Russia finds Apple guilty of iPhone price-fixing

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money
Apple may face stiff fines in Russia.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

A federal agency in Russia has ruled that Apple is guilty of fixing the price of the iPhone with third-party resellers and could face huge fines.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service revealed today that its investigation into Apple found that the company’s local subsidiary illegally coordinated the cost of iPhones and prevented sellers from offering discounts.

Check out the crazy attention to detail at Apple’s new San Francisco store

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Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

SAN FRANCISCO — Look carefully at the cracks in the sidewalk around Apple’s new flagship store in San Francisco. They all line up with architectural elements of the store.

Some are continuous with the metal panels on the exterior walls. Some line up with the windows, and the huge glass panels that make up the 42-foot high front door. Some of the cracks are continuous with the stone floor tiles inside the store.

In turn, the joints in the floor line up with panels on the wall, which line up with the lighting panels on the ceiling.

In fact, most of the lines in the store — the edges of the glass balconies, cutouts in the middle of the tables, the edges of shelves and drawers — all line up with other elements of the store.

Some of these lines run continously from the sidewalk in front of the store all the way through to the tree-lined plaza in the back. It’s a bit crazy, when you examine it, and very, very difficult to pull off.

Look at how Apple’s new flagship store is coming along

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apple-store-san-francisco
Yet another Apple Store is coming to SF.
Photo: Steve Rhodes/Flickr CC

The new Apple Store coming soon to San Francisco appears to be making decent progress. Leo Cheng snapped a nice photo from Solano Labs across the street from the new location and tweeted it at us. The store still looks like a hot mess, but the workers are apparently working on the glass doors for the entrance in this picture. Take a look.

How Apple keeps crappy cases off its shelves

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ipad-case-apple
Apple won't just let any iPhone or iPad case in its retail stores.
Photo: Apple

Apple put up a new page on its website detailing the qualifications that third-party iPhone and iPad accessory makers must meet before the company will start selling those products in retail stores or online in the Apple Store. It’s not exactly the easiest process to meet Apple’s high quality standards. In fact, Apple now touts that these cases are “tested to the limit” before they make it on store shelves.

Peek inside the just-opened Apple Store Upper East Side

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Once a bank, the building at 940 Madison Ave. in New York's Upper East Side is now a swank Apple boutique.
Once a bank, the building at 940 Madison Ave. in New York's Upper East Side is now a swank Apple boutique.
Photo: Shinya Suzuki/Flickr CC

A New York building that once housed a bank has been transformed into a pristine Apple boutique. The Apple Store Upper East Side opened Saturday morning, giving a swarm of shoppers a chance to try on an Apple Watch in the former bank vault.

There’s no question that when you walk into this store, it’s to buy something high-end and fashionable. Take a look at the Instagram photos taken during today’s grand opening.

Watch The Apple Store Take Over The Planet In This Cool Animated Map

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Screen Shot 2014-03-30 at 5.51.49 PM

Considering their nearly ubiquitous status in retail cuture, it’s easy to forget that the Apple Store is a relatively new creation. Although Apple brought in over $7 billion in revenue last quarter across 400 physical locations, the first one was opened in just 2001… but ever since then, the Apple Store has spread like wildfire across the planet.

Here’s a great reminder of how far Apple has come, courtesy of Business Insider. Watch this animated map showing Apple Stores’ openings internationally. Check out how far the greatest retail success story since Wal-Mart has come!

Source: Business Insider

Ask An Apple Genius: The Top 3 Questions At The Genius Bar

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askageniusanything

This is the very first column for Cult of Mac written by an actual Apple retail store genius. Our genius must remain anonymous, but other than “Who are you, anyway?” ask anything you want about what goes on behind that slick store facade.  

Answers will be published first in Cult of Mac’s Magazine on Newsstand. Send your questions to news@cultofmac.com with “genius” in the subject line.

To start this off, we asked the Genius, “What are the top 3 questions you get asked at work at the Apple Store?”

Here they are:

1. When is the new iPhone/iPad/Mac coming out?

We’re not allowed to divulge anything about upcoming products, or address rumors. If we even talk about rumors with customers we could lose our jobs. When a customer asks if I know when a new product is coming out, my response is simply, “We don’t know when it’s coming out. We find out when everyone else does, when it’s announced.”

But don’t you really know?

No. We all read the same rumors as you do, but Apple’s not going to tell employees at the Apple Store when stuff is coming out because how many of us would leak it? We would instantly tell our friends and ruin Apple’s marketing plans, so they won’t tell us until the day Apple announces it publicly.

2. Do I have to make an appointment? Can’t I just come in?

Company policy is that yes, we can accept walk-in appointments. But truly, can we? Not always. Some days we have a full day of open reservations for customers to fill in as scheduling allows. Other days you might have to come back a couple hours later for an open reservation.

The Genius Bar is a lot like a car dealership service center. You can’t just drive up to Toyota and ask for your Camry to be serviced without an appointment. Most of the time you need an appointment for those things because there’s a limited number of technicians.

Bottom line, the easiest way to get into the Apple Store Genius Bar is to make an appointment. Go onto the website or use the Apple Store app and you can get seen right away instead of waiting for hours if you just come by.

3. Am I really getting a NEW iPhone when I pay $49 for Apple to replace a broken iPhone covered by AppleCare+? 

My line is that, yes, it is a new iPhone, but Apple terms and conditions state that “Apple may use parts or products that are new or equivalent to new in reliability and performance,” meaning the iPhone you’re getting is really “reconditioned,” not straight from the factory like it is when you buy a brand new iPhone.

We’re told to say that they aren’t “refurbished” because they’ve been totally gutted down to the frame. Apple’s stance is that they really are brand new devices, in the sense that they get a new enclosure, display, and innards, but there are a lot of parts that have been recycled from old iPhones, like the metal frame and some other parts.

We know they’re just rebuilding them. I’ve seen some that had a screw missing, others with a bad display, but it’s only been a small percentage. I’ve seen reconditioned iPhones that lasted twice as long as a new iPhone, so they’re not necessarily worse.