Apple’s Big Retail Makeover

After a very big and splashy rollout for Apple’s redesigned locations in San Francisco and London, another 95 Apple Stores nationwide will get the “community square” upgrade.

“The store is now the biggest product we produce, and we have five new features [iPads, iPhones, Watches, Macbooks and Apple TVs]. Accessories are avenues, and the huge digital screen in each store is the forum,” Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s retail chief, said.

Central to the community-oriented redesign effort is a repurposing of the store itself, which will remain a commerce hub for Apple fans but also have an opportunity to grow into Apple education centers. For example, Apple Stores will house coding classes for children in Apple’s programming language, Swift, starting next year. The stores have also adopted “Teacher Tuesdays” to help teach educators how to better use Apple tech in the classroom to unlock learning.

Stores will also now employ single-purpose “creative pros” who can help users maximize their usage of Apple’s ever-evolving and upgrading technology. The purpose of those pros is expansion of the geniuses who once worked the Genius Bar, though, these days, the bar has been replaced by a grove.

And Apple’s view of its stores is changing. They are no longer known as “Apple Stores” and are instead named by location. And Ahrendts’ position has evolved as well. She’s now the senior vice president of Apple retail, compared to the previous title of “senior vice president of retail and online stores.”

“Companies have a huge obligation right now, and the bigger the company, the bigger the obligation,” Ahrendts said. “We are thinking about what the community needs.”