Monday, December 10,2007 @ 9:15am
Apple: 40 new retail stores in 2008
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.