Apple will be opening a new store at the Chatswood Chase shopping centre in Sydney. But, as per EFTM, the opening of the store will coincide with the closure of the Apple Store at the Westfield mall in Hornsby.
Your Tech Life captured the opening of the Hornsby store back in 2011. That hype will be in stark contrast with the closure of the store. Apple has eased back on the hype surrounding store opening since the early 2000s.
All staff at the Hornsby store will be offered employment at the Chatswood store.
Apple seems to undergoing a refresh of store designs and locations. We recently saw a similar exercise by Apple in Perth, where they closed one store and reopened another nearby.
As retail strategies go, it’s a good approach. Rather than closing a store for renovations, Apple is choosing new, nearby locations to create a new store that includes newly developed services such as pickup zones for online orders and learning spaces for in-store education services.
That gives local customers continuity and enables Apple to keep experienced employees by offering them jobs in the new store, keeping Apple onside with local retail worker unions.
Anthony is the founder of Australian Apple News. He is a long-time Apple user and former editor of Australian Macworld. He has contributed to many technology magazines and newspapers as well as appearing regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.