“The Apple Store might be losing its place as the king of the American mall, at least according to a mall operator whose properties — including many of the country’s top shopping destinations — house 46 of Apple’s 268 U.S. stores,” Sapna Maheshwari reports for BuzzFeed News. “‘We experienced sales increases throughout the country,’ General Growth Properties CEO Sandeep Mathrani said on an earnings call today. ‘Nearly every major retail category was up, with the exception of electronics, primarily due to Apple.'”
“GGP said that sales at its tenants with stores smaller than 10,000 square feet — a metric that strips out department stores — grew by 3% to $588 per square foot over the last year,” Maheshwari reports. “Excluding Apple, sales for that group grew by 4.5%, Mathrani said on the call.”
“GGP earlier noted a slight gap between Apple’s growth and the rest of its portfolio last August, when Mathrani said tenant sales excluding anchors rose 3.4% to $20.5 billion in the previous 12 months, and 3.9% without Apple,” Maheshwari reports. “Mathrani said at the time its sales were strong “even being affected by slower Apple growth” and “negative growth in tourist markets.””
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: So, how high were Apple Retail Stores to begin with? Growth rates without that information are meaningless. It’s like saying iPhone sales growth has slowed. Yes, it has: From all-time record sales to slightly higher all-time record sales, thanks.
If Sandeep thinks this is a winning negotiating tactic, he’s likely to be sadly mistaken.
Apple Retail Stores are ranked as the best performing U.S. retailer per square foot by far. Period.
SEE ALSO:
Apple averages more sales per square foot than any other U.S. retailer – May 16, 2014
Apple jumps in e-commerce rankings, now second largest online retailer – May 6, 2014