Apple: 40 new retail stores in 2008
updated 09:15 am EST, Mon December 10, 2007
40 new retail stores in 08
Some 40 new Apple retail stores will open in 2008, a company executive says. Speaking at a press event for the 14th Street store in New York City, senior retail VP Ron Johnson has said that Apple will expand with an international focus in the new year. The first Brazilian store is in fact opening this month in the Shopping Iguatemi mall in Sao Paulo, and the city will get a second store within 2008, located inside Shopping Marketplace. Apple is meanwhile rumored to be negotiating for space in the Torre Mayor office complex in Mexico City, a structure that includes 33,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space.
Three new stores are planned for the United Kingdom: one is in the Westfield London mall, opening late next year, while another is set for London's Convent Garden area. The last will be founded in a northern city, but which one it might be has not been leaked or announced.
Apple already operates some 204 stores worldwide, though the vast majority of these are in the United States. Internationally, there are 13 in the UK, seven in Japan, four in Canada and just one in Italy.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2006
Prices in Brazil
I thought it would be more important for Apple to look over the pricing strategy for Brazil first of all. Last time I checked, the cheapest MacBook goes for more than 2000 US dollars in São Paulo - in a country where the minimum income is less than 200 dollars per month!? A reasonably good income would be around 900-1000 dollars, although there are people who earn much more than that, of course, as the gap between the rich and the poor is huge, but although Apple may not direct their products to the poor, I didn't know they were exclusively for the super rich, either. In Brazil, that is how it is. It is a pity, I think, as it is a growing economy and the fifth largest country in the world. I know there has been some high import taxes on computers, but not as high that it justifies such prices and I think Cupertino would do well in looking more closely at what their partners in Brazil are up to. If they are satisfied with having such an exclusive profile, then OK. But honestly, I didn't think that was what they meant with the slogan "A computer for the rest of us" "Us" being the super rich?