Image © Chris Chan
Apple Retail Stores’ same-store revenues – a key retail metric comparing sales of stores open for at least a year – fell 17.4% in the December quarter from a year earlier, according to a report at Barrons. That should come as no huge surprise, given the economic contagion sweeping the globe.
What’s interesting about the report, originally issued by Needham hardware analyst Charlie Wolf, is that Apple also turned in an extremely impressive sales-per-square-foot performance of $4700 for the year, highest among electronic retailers by far. Foot traffic at Apple’s brick and mortar emporiums was only down 1.8%. , indicating the computer giant’s products retain a certain cache for beleaguered consumers, who remain interested to touch and play with the bright and shiny things in Apple Stores, even if they can’t afford to buy them at previous rates.