“The popularity of iPhones, iPods and iMac computers are making the flagship Apple store in Regent Street the most profitable per square foot in London, analysts said today,” Lucy Tobin reports for The Evening Standard.
“Takings have soared to £60million a year, or £2,000 per square foot – more than double the estimated sum made by Harrods,” Tobin reports. “Neil Saunders, a spokesman for retail analysis agency Verdict, which estimated the figure, said: ‘To make £60million a year from a shop of Apple’s size is absolutely phenomenal.. Apple’s Regent Street store has extremely strong footfall, since it has become a tourist attraction in its own right, and as it stocks its own products, it controls the price, helping it to boost profit. Shoppers pay a premium for the Apple brand, and there is never discounting, so customers don’t waver over buying elsewhere.'”
“Analysts estimate that Harrods is making £751 per square foot, while Topshop in Oxford Circus takes about £1,000 per square foot. Rival electrical retailers average about £722 per square foot,” Tobin reports. “When the Apple store opened in 2004 it was the firm’s first European branch. But the business has expanded to 21 in Britain, including branches in Brent Cross, Westfield and Bluewater.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: From our iCal’s “They’ll Never Live It Down” calendar: “I give them two years before they’re turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake.” – David Goldstein, Channel Marketing Corp. President, remarking on Apple’s launch of retail stores, May 21, 2001
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dominic” for the heads up.]
I never tire of that Goldstein quote. Classic.
That MDN iCal file is a nasty bitch. Maybe he was secretly talking about the upcoming Microsoft Store.
Goldstein, like so many other fools, never saw a tripling of market share for Apple within the realm of possibility. Most of my colleagues in the IT industry laughed at Apple’s ambitions and retail efforts back then, just like they laughed off Apple as a player. More than half of those people I know now own Macs.
It has been proven, time and again, that companies that long have been thought to be infallible (i.e. M$, Dell, GM) can fall – and fall hard. Companies are not going to stop buying SQL Server anytime soon, so (lord help us) for now M$ isn’t going to go away soon. But Apple will continue to grow and nibble away at market share. More retail stores will open despite the economy, and prices may be dropped further as the final salvo against any BS advertising M$ has to throw at Apple.
It’s time those who write for the industry come to grips with reality – Apple is not only here to stay, it’s a force to be reckoned with. Goldstein, Enderle, Dvorak and the rest should just shut up already.
“Shoppers pay a premium for the Apple brand …”
No, they don’t.
British commentators are going to go through the same Apple education that North American analysts are starting to graduate from.
It’s the hardware and software, stupid.
It’s not the “brand”.
“The popularity of iPhones, iPods and iMac computers …”? Does Apple not sell MacBooks and other Macs their? Maybe this clueless one thinks all Mac are called iMacs? Did this guy go in and look around?
Whenever we’re in London my wife always asks if I’m going to spend a few hours in the “mothership”. It’s one of my favourite places in London
Last year when I visited London my wife had difficulty getting a picture of me in front of the Regents Street store because so many damn people were walking in and out of the store.
Actually Choir Boy, it’s the hardware-software design that makes it a premium brand.
Ahhh, the clarity of hindsight.
The quotes in that article reinforce my belief that the “experts” aren’t any more knowledgeable than the average shopper, maybe less so. That’s why I do my own research and set my own EPS and price targets.
Its amazing how simple it is really, to be more accurate than Wall Strett.