“During a Goldman Sachs Technology Investment Symposium in Phoenix, chief financial officer Fred Anderson talked about the company’s financials, including about the retail stores. Much of the 26-minute talk repeated information that’s been previously released,” ifoAppleStore.com reports.
“Asked where the company would be ‘maxing out’ on the number of retail stores, Anderson repeated that the company has 76 stores today, would be opening the 77th ‘flagship’ stores in San Francisco this weekend, and would be opening the second international store in Osaka before the end of the year. He said the company is targeting ‘somewhere around 80 stores’ by back-to-school September,” ifoAppleStore.com reports.
“As for expansion beyond that, Anderson said the stores are already creating ‘significant’ growth for the company. He repeated that the company has developed a financial model based upon the sales experience of the existing stores. This model, based on regression analysis, can reliably predict the sales of a potential location in a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), based on the known Macintosh user base within 10-15 miles of the location,” ifoAppleStore.com reports.
“‘We don’t plan to open any stores that we don’t believe we have a chance to break even within the first year of operation,’ Anderson said. Unlike other companies, he added, Apple does not intend to have 300 stores–only profitable stores, and the enhancement of the company’s brand and other Apple resellers,” ifoAppleStore.com reports.
Much, much more here.