In a rare glimpse into the future of Apple’s retail store initiative, the company said it will revise its fee-based customer training service and that it has scheduled 100 stores for a remodel this year. In a USA Today story, Sr. V-P Retail Ron Johnson also confirmed for the first time new stores in Paris, New York City, Italy and Germany this year. Johnson said the $99-a-year One to One training service previously available to anyone will be limited after June 2nd to only those who purchase Mac computers on-line or at an Apple store. Current subscribers will be allowed to renew, he said. Training sessions previously limited to one hour can be extended to three hours, Johnson said, but there may be up to three participants in the sessions. He explained, ”We originally set up One to One to get people to switch to the Mac. Now we want to expand it to make it even more relevant to people who have bought their Mac.” The stores host about 600,000 personal training sessions each quarter, company officials have previously said.
Johnson told the newspaper that Apple will open 25 stores during 2009, the same figure previously mentioned by Apple CEO Peter Oppenheimer during conference calls with financial analysts. That number prompted a USA Today editor to headline the newspaper’s story, “Economy isn’t slowing Apple’s building plans.” Johnson himself seemed to indicate no slowdown in new stores, saying, “We know that a lot of people are cutting back, but we’re doing the opposite. We’re investing in the downturn.”
However, Apple’s retail expansion is clearly slowing down–this year’s 25 announced stores are just one-half the total opened last year, and the lowest figure since 2004.
Johnson said the store remodels will include larger table to accommodate twice the number of display computers, and Genius Bars that are 50 percent larger to provide better in-store service. Similar store remodels have been underway for several years, mostly converting older stores to the current interior design, but also tweaking store space utilization as mentioned by Johnson.
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oh dear, I feel like Apple is sadly making a mistake with one to one and limiting it to new customers. Its a shame, I feel Apple retail is starting to become ordinary.
There is a group of us who have been attending classes at the Mall of America Apple store in Bloomington, Minnesota for years. They have had beautiful, comfortable theater-style seating which is now going to be taken away because of the remodeling. Needless to say we are not happy with the plans. I guess we can’t fight “city hall.” The end of an era.