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REV: MAY 20, 2010

LUC WATHIEU

Apple Stores
Ron Johnson (HBS ’84), Apple Computer’s Senior Vice-President of Retail, never missed a chance to show a customer through the nearest Apple Store. A former Vice-President of Merchandising at
Target (a leading department store chain), Johnson joined Apple in January 2000 with the mission to oversee the creation of the company’s own stores. The first store opened in May 2001—and just seven months later, 27 identical stores had been opened across the United States.
During his store visits, Johnson tried computer applications, listened to a store employee make a presentation in front of the 10-foot screen at the rear of the store in “the theater,” and respectfully introduced his guests to the local “genius,” the official title of a very knowledgeable employee who stood behind a “bar” (complete with stools and water bottles) and helped solve consumer problems.
Every detail of the store experience had been carefully designed, and as much as Johnson enjoyed each tour, he was also checking that all the store’s elements were perfectly under control. “The store experience has to be the same every day, every hour, in every store. We care passionately about that,” he often said.
The stores were expanding to new territories, mostly in high traffic shopping malls, with the explicit purpose of “enriching people’s lives” and converting new customers to Apple products. To complete that mission successfully, Johnson’s focus was on choosing the right locations, selecting and training knowledgeable and dedicated employees, and defining the most effective utilization of the innovative store elements such as the theater and the genius bar. On each of these three fronts,
Johnson felt fortunate that he was endowed with unique gifts: a store concept that shopping mall owners found very attractive; a large base of loyal Apple users who