I’m constantly asked about Apple’s retail store hiring process and for tips on how to prepare and present oneself. I’ve finally compiled an entire page of information obtained from many sources over the past months.

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The winning bidder ($107.51) of the Barton Creek (Tex.) grand opening T-shirt (see below) is a collector, bent on gathering one, unworn, in-the-tube/box T-shirt from every Apple store. Unfortunately, he says someone else apparently has the same plan, which has bumped up the cost of T-shirt on eBay lately!

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Sony will open a SonyStyle store in the Stanford Shopping Center, just 1/2-mile from Apple’s big-time retail store, and within 200 feet of a future mini-store in the same shopping center. It’s the fifth such store for Sony, but most are much bigger than the Stanford 5,000 square-foot store.

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At the very beginning of Steve Jobs’ keynote at today’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, he gave an update on the retail store operation, noting (to applause) there are now 80 retail stores. He told the software developers there are 20 million visitors a year, "looking at our collective products," and added that if [...]

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We have a record-breaker! An eBay bidder just won a brand-new Barton Creek (Tex.) grand opening T-shirt for $107.51, which just beat the previous U.S. eBay record of $105.53 for a Ginza (Tokyo) T-shirt. I’m attempting to make contact with the bidder to obtain some information. Note that the T-shirt is the Ginza-style T-shirt– black [...]

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A Somerset (NJ) grand opening T-shirt fetched $83 in a separate eBay auction, which is w-a-y above average.

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It’s a good time to be an Apple retail store applicant! There are lots of jobs available, including 11 assistant manager positions for new stores, and 9 manager positions for old and new stores.

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I’ve added several new administrative retail jobs to the list, which have recently been posted on Apple’s "Jobs" Web site. I’ve also prepared a diagram of the various admin positions to better visualize who does what.

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Here’s the news we’ve been waiting for– The two-story retail store in Osaka (Japan) will hold its grand opening on Sunday, August 29th at 10 a.m. The store is housed inside a 5-story office building occupied by insurance companies and banks. It’s virtually across the street from the famous Daimaru department store on [...]

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An Australian Web site explains Apple’s solutions consultant program in that country, including that David Jones stores have now signed up to permanently have ASCs in some of its stores, and other retailers are also signing on.

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I can’t claim to have photos of the Osaka retail store’s spiral glass staircase, but I have located some interesting other examples of staircases, including Nokia’s headquarters in Finland and the Sarawak (Malaysia) state library.

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Yikes! A Somerset (Mich.) retail store grand opening T-shirt (link expired) just sold for $83 on eBay. It appears to be the second-highest price ever paid on eBay, behind a Ginza (Tokyo) T-shirt for $105.53.

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Thanks to Fabio of the Italian Macity Web site for a story on the future Regent Street (London) store, which used some material from this Web site.

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The traditional black-painted plywood has appeared in front of the former Victoria’s Secret store space at the Stonestown (N. Calif.) mall, indicating that renovation is underway for an Apple store.

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Participants of Apple’s ProCare service program are eligible to receive 10% off selected software titles when shopping at Apple’s retail stores. The program lasts until July 3rd, and includes some high-end titles such as DVD Studio Pro, Final Cut Pro HD and several Adobe upgrades.

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An afternoon personal trip to the San Francisco retail store did not confirm reports that Apple is disappointed that visitor traffic hasn’t translated into more revenues. The Internet café was always filled (news browsing, e-mail and on-line games), almost all the demo computers were being test-driven by guests, and the theater had a healthy crowd [...]

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Just 84 steps away from the San Francisco retail store, the basement-level CompUSA Macintosh sales floor is bright, well-organized, and populated with customers asking about laptops. The store features an upstairs laptop Internet café, and also has lots of iPods and accessories, raising the question– why aren’t these people up the street at Apple’s own [...]

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Inside the BART rapid transit tunnel next to the San Francisco Apple store, I lost count of the number iPod posters on the wall of the Powell Street station– it was well over 50.

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You may recall the seedy-looking vacant lot next to the San Francisco retail store, which was covered with black material for the grand opening. Now the plywood is covered with a pattern of iPod posters.

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Contacts at the retail stores say the WWDC conference keynote speech will not be broadcast to the stores, so you’ll just have to keep your eye on Apple’s Web site to learn what new products or service are introduced this coming Monday.

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