The changes are an acceleration of a retail strategy the iPhone maker has adopted in the last few years, focusing more on upgrades than opening new locations, the report said.
Now, Apple’s new and upgraded stores will feature three key changes, according to the report. First, there’s a refurbished “Avenue,” or the sections at the edge of the stores which house accessories and Apple services.
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Apple plans to add two new Avenue sections, one for online pickups and another for its Today at Apple demonstration sessions, per the report.
“Right now, many stores have a dedicated pickup table and a large seating area for the Today at Apple workshops,” the report said. “Those functions will move to the sides of stores within 10-foot sections known internally as bays.”
Many stores now feature giant video walls at the back, used to show marketing videos or for Today at Apple sessions, according to the report. Apple plans to replace these walls at several stores with dedicated Genius Bars.
While Apple has never removed the term “Genius Bar” from its lexicon, the company in 2016 stopped designing them to resemble a bar in favor of the “Genius Grove” concept. The revamped stores will employ a design resembling the Genius Bars of yesteryear, only with “an all-wood look,” the report said.
Apple is instituting stricter rules for workers at morning meetings before stores open. Employees are expected to remain standing, keep from drinking beverages or using devices, and remain fully engaged. Once stores open—five minutes ahead the advertised time—the entire staff, no matter their role, is expected to applaud as the first customers enter, according to the report.
In other Apple news, PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster wrote in a Tuesday (Sept. 8) column about the challenges the company and new CEO John Ternus face in selling products featuring other companies’ artificial intelligence offerings.
“AI is becoming a consumer utility, and consumer utilities live on smartphones, earbuds and kitchen counters,” the report said. “Apple has the best distribution in consumer technology to a user base that outspends Google’s. Distribution without a product of your own means you’re a tollbooth for others to pass through. And toll collectors get regulated or disintermediated.”
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