See I’m beginning to wonder if it’s a symptom of a bigger problem.
I don’t often go to the suburban stores because I don’t drive and it’s a bitch to get to most of them on Public Transport, but I did go to Doncaster a few weeks ago. I wasn’t going for any particular reason apart from looking a the new ipad pro 9.7", and I’m not in the market for anything at the moment. Anyway It was Friday night about 7pm or so.
The store was pretty dead… a few tyre kickers like me just taking a look. I got asked if I needed help at least 5 or 6 times. Looking around there weren’t many people buying stuff.
I’m wondering how well the Australian Retail stores are doing. With the high cost of Apple Products due to the dollar, they simply can’t be selling as well as they might otherwise be. They employ a lot of staff so running the place isn’t cheap.
I’m wondering if the reason we haven’t seen a Melbourne CBD store yet when several great opportunities have passed Apple by (Emporium, St Collins Lane) isn’t because they’re waiting for the right place, but they simply don’t see the need to open a city Store when the other stores aren’t screaming beacons of success.
I could try and work this out later, but how many stores does Australia have per head of population compared to the US/UK etc. We might well already have more than we need.
Going out to Eastland later today, another part of it just opened, will see if there’s any Apple like spaces going begging. There was one next to H&M which I was really crossing my fingers for (as Eastland is very easy to get to on the train) but I’m thinking we won’t see one there for the same reason.
I still think a CBD store would be more successful than a suburban store, but we might have to lose one of the Surburban ones to get it.
Do Apple Stores ever close???