BOSTON (Reuters) – Apple Inc (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) unveiled its largestU.S. store on Wednesday, a glass-facade building sheathed insteel that a senior company official said reflects Apple’splans to expand retail ventures at home and abroad.
Sandwiched between aging brick buildings, the minimalist20,000-square-foot store stands out on Boston’s historicBoylston Street, featuring a ground floor with more than 100Mac laptops and computers, a second level for iPod musicplayers and iPhones, and a third entirely for service.
Apple’s second-largest store globally after London’s RegentStreet offers a vivid glimpse into the latest retail thinkingat the Cupertino, California-based company as it prepares toexpand internationally with a new store in Beijing this summer.
"Concierges" stand at attention in orange shirts bearingthe slogan "I know people" — part of changes made in recentweeks to more thoroughly identify roles played by employeeswith the color of their shirts worn in Apple stores.
A sales force of "specialists" wear aqua blue andtechnicians are each dubbed "genius" as they work the thirdfloor wearing dark blue — all projecting a trademark retailimage that has helped drive sales growth.
"These stores have served them very, very well and reallyraised the bar in terms of technology customer service," saidMichael Gartenberg, an analyst at Jupiter Research, atechnology consulting firm.
In its latest financial quarter to March 29, Apple’s storesales leapt 74 percent in dollar terms to nearly $1.5 billion.
Average revenue per store in the quarter reached $7.1million, up 48 percent from $4.8 million a year earlier.Meanwhile, operating profits at the stores more than doubled,to $334 million in the quarter.
INTERNATIONAL PUSH
Ron Johnson, the senior vice president who leads Apple’sretail strategy, told Reuters on the sidelines of a newsbriefing that international retail presence would be animportant driver of future sales.
"Today, Apple is about 50 percent international revenue andabout 50 percent in the U.S.," he said, standing next to alarge Apple icon hanging in the storefront that glows at night."We increasingly want to get our retail presence out in theother countries."
Apple’s latest filings with the U.S. Securities andExchange Commission show they operated 208 stores at the end ofthe second quarter to March 29, compared to 177 a year earlier.Of these, nine were considered "high profile" in high-trafficneighborhoods with extensive amenities and products.
(Additional reporting by Scott Hillis in San Francisco;Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
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