At approximately 1:37 AM on March 14, 2020, my iPhone lit up with an Apple Newsroom post announcing that all Apple Stores outside of Greater China were closed. Even in my groggy, sleep-deprived mind, it was immediately clear that whatever was unfolding would leave deep creases in the recognizable Apple Store experience for years to come.
That was almost three years ago, and while I don’t want to imply COVID is totally behind us, the stores at least feel like they’ve finally resettled into a familiar operating cadence. Enough time has now passed to gain some perspective on which emergency measures slipped away and which were sticky ideas with real staying power. Let’s take a closer look.
Four months into the pandemic, Apple resurrected shopping appointments, a classic store service that was discontinued years ago. Reserving a session to Shop with a Specialist guaranteed one-on-one attention during your visit. This was a great way to reintroduce in-store shopping while store capacity was extremely limited. While you can still book appointments today, the service feels like Apple’s best kept secret. That’s a shame, because never did I feel more valued as a customer than during my shopping appointments. The experience felt like one I should be paying for.
I doubt shopping appointments can significantly scale given how busy most stores are every single day, but it’s a loyalty-building service I recommend everyone try at least once.
The early days of the pandemic were also marked by an evolving set of health and safety measures that added a new layer of complexity to store operations. Stores spilled out into streets and mall corridors with canopies, carts, stanchions, stickers on the floor, and explanatory easels. These have mostly disappeared, but I’m continually surprised to see cleaning products and hand sanitizer stations still sticking around. It’s unusual for Apple to cede any ground to third-party fixtures, especially since the designs aren’t completely standardized across every location.
Speaking of explanatory easels, there are a lot more filling stores today for services like Apple Pickup and Genius Bar appointments. Recently, the uptick seemed to inspire a new easel design, which is now completely vertical and double-sided.
Express Storefronts and Apple Pickup continue to impact the physical design of stores more than perhaps any other change. While those makeshift white Express kiosks disappeared as soon as it was feasible, they were replaced by pickup tables, which I’m convinced are also a temporary solution to a challenge only 509 remodeling projects can ultimately solve. This was an idea so sticky it demanded immediate action.
Curbside Pickup, meanwhile, has disappeared essentially unnoticed, and I doubt it can return in a meaningful way. For a while it was common to see Pickup signs and reserved spaces in mall parking lots and garages, but this always felt like it must be a logistical nightmare internally and a massive safety risk for the store employees who were tasked with shuttling expensive products through malls and parking lots in predictable patterns all day long.
Side note: In some markets, Apple briefly offered Delivery with Setup, a personalized experience in partnership with Ron Johnson’s startup Enjoy. That service was cut short when Enjoy filed for bankruptcy last year.
It’s impossible to know how long changes were planned, but closing every store in March 2020 also really seemed to do wonders for the Apple Store Online. The improvements didn’t stop when stores reopened either, with a redesigned store website arriving in August 2021. 18 months later, the “Store” tab of Apple.com has become the navigational backbone of the entire site.
The stickiest pandemic measures all share one theme: They primarily improve the services available to customers at Apple Stores. This year, I think we’ll see a greater focus on the product experience.
West Seoul
Apple has begun hiring for a new store in South Korea. Job postings recently published list the store location as “West Seoul.” Two stores opened in South Korea last year, one in 2021, and one in 2018. Apple is also still hiring for at least one South Seoul location, making South Korea one of the most active areas of growth for Apple Retail.
San Francisco Fountain
In addition to Deirdre O’Brien’s special 50th anniversary shoutout on Instagram, Ruth Asawa’s celebrated San Francisco Fountain was profiled by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Total SF podcast. The episode details Asawa’s legacy, the fountain’s creation, and how it ended up in the plaza at Apple Union Square. You can listen here on Apple Podcasts.
Featured image
Apple Michigan Avenue
Photo via @grumpy_monster_.