A week after several CompUSA executive assignments were shuffled and four store closures were announced, the electronics retailer made a stunning move: they will close 126 of their remaining 229 stores, or over one-half the chain. The privately-held company said the closures were “aimed at improving the company’s structure, streamlining operations and reducing expenses.” A [...]

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Apple is still evaluating the results of a sales trial with electronics retailer Best Buy, and is considering a pilot with Circuit City to sell Apple products, according to chief operating officer Tim Cook, speaking at a technology symposium. Cook answered questions previously submitted by the audience for about an hour, but barely touched on [...]

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The Houston Galleria (Tex.) store will be closed completely from March 5th to 9th while workers construct a mini-store within the space, prior to a major renovation. Typically the theaters and any wood flooring are removed, the Genius Bar is moved to the rear of the store, and iPod or Studio Bars are installed. The [...]

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They may be “closing all the factories down,” but they’re opening up an Apple store next to Allentown (Penn.) at the Lehigh Valley Mall. The region of almost 800,000 residents will host the fifth Apple store in the state, and expand Apple’s products beyond just the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia regions. The mall just underwent a [...]

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Apple will fill in coverage of the country’s mid-section with a store at the Oxmoor Center in Louisville (Ken.), the first store in the state. The mall is on loop I-264 just east of downtown, and will help fill in the black-out triangle between the existing stores in Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Nashville. Louisville is the [...]

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The Coconut Point (Fla.) store opened today, and photos show the V2.0 interior design that does not include a dedicated point-of-sale counter. Check farrelley’s photos on flickr.

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A picture is emerging from an IFO on-line survey of Apple’s retail stores, reflecting the typical customer service axiom that one mistreated customer shouts louder than 10 satisfied customers. Based on an average of store rankings for seven performance measures, along with submitted comments from responders, the St. John’s Town Center and Regent Street stores [...]

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Apple continues to fill in coverage of its retail stores in the United Kingdom, this time picking a big shopping centre in a small town near a busy motorway. Apple will locate inside Midsummer Place in the town of Milton Keynes. The mall is a 430,000 square-foot expansion to the existing gigantic thecentre:mk mall that [...]

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New store window were installed Thursday night at the Apple stores, but they are not for the upcoming Apple TV product. Instead, the new left-side window promotes the multi-colored iPod shuffle, with four pedestals topped by giant models of the music players.

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The critical role of Apple’s retail stores in selling iPhones was emphasized by Apple executives during a meeting with a Prudential Equity Group analyst. As reported by AppleInsider, analyst Jesse Tortora wrote to clients after the meeting that, “Management expects the majority of the iPhone sales to occur in Apple stores, given that consumers will [...]

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As construction for the future Sydney (Australia) store ramps up, Cameron has created a flickr group Web page to gather photos and other information about the work. Help track the construction and share your intel with others by joining flickr and posting photos.

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Demolition has begun at the site of the future Boylston Street (Boston, Mass.) store, with a yellow backhoe tearing away at the back of the two-story, red-brick building starting about 7 a.m. Parts of the building quickly collapsed as the excavator clawed into the structure, and then the debris was hauled away. Check the once-a-minute [...]

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The public has ranked two Apple stores among the historic architectural icons of the United States, including Carnegie Hall, the Air Force Academy Chapel and Rockerfeller Center. In a poll of over 2,000 adults on behalf of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), pollster Harris Interactive had the respondents rank 78 structures randomly chosen from [...]

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Demolition crews will arrive at 815 Boylston Street in Boston (Mass.) Apple store on Tuesday morning and begin the year-long process of constructing a three-story flagship store there. And in an unprecedented collaboration, ifoAppleStore has joined architectural Web site Architosh to provide on-going coverage of the construction, including an on-site Webcam. At the same time, [...]

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The Coconut Point (Fla.) retail store will open this Saturday, February 24th at 10 a.m. The store is in the city of Estero, a suburb of Cape Coral and Fort Myers, on the lower west coast of the state. The opening was originally scheduled for last November, but for an unknown reason was delayed until [...]

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Just days after the city of Sydney (Australia) issued a building permit to Apple for a retail store on George Street in that city, Apple is recruiting staff for the store. The store (#238) is now listed among other on Apple’s Web site, and a Web page describes the available positions. The store could open [...]

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Observant visitors to Apple stores have noticed the delivery of Sony Bravia flat-screen, LCD televisions in preparation for the arrival of the Apple TV product later this month. Now planograms have been prepared for the stores indicating that three computers will be removed on a right-side wall display counter to make space for the 32-inch [...]

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Thanks to Geekanoids for the photos and report on the Bentall Centre (UK) store grand opening. The store features the V2.0 interior design, and photos show the Fujitsu version of the handheld transaction computer and the “Go Beyond Vista” promotion display cards. In several photos you can see how the interior design closely resembles a [...]

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An architect’s rendering of an office-residential-retail development in Melbourne (Australia) shows a prominent Apple store on the corner, but the project’s manager now says the drawings were speculative, and that the company has had no contact with Apple on the project. Henry Siwka of APN Property Group Ltd. said in an e-mail that the project [...]

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I’ve updated the results of the on-going Apple store survey, including comments that people have posted. I’m still analyzing the results of 143 responses, and don’t have any real conclusions yet. But feel to view the results and draw your own conclusions.

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