The Apple Store is a chain of retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc., dealing in computers and consumer electronics. As of November 2009, Apple has opened 280 stores; 219 in 41 US states, 24 in the United Kingdom (20 in England, two in Scotland, one in Northern Ireland and one in Wales), 14 in Canada, 7 in Japan, 6 in Australia, 3 in Switzerland, 2 each in Germany, Italy and France and 1 in China.

Design and history

The stores, designed by San Francisco based design firm Eight Inc., sell Apple Macintosh personal computers and software, iPods, iPhones, third-party accessories, and other consumer electronics such as the Apple TV. Many stores feature a theatre for presentations and workshops, the Studio for training with Apple products, and all stores offer a Genius Bar for technical support and repairs, as well as free workshops available to the public.

On May 15, 2001 Steve Jobs led a group of journalists from a hotel in Tysons Corner, Virginia to Apple's first store in the second level of Tysons Corner Center for a commemorative press event. The first two Apple Stores opened on May 19 in Tysons Corner and later the same day in Glendale, California at Glendale Galleria. The first Apple Store with the current layout and hardware (wood tables and stone flooring) opened in Pasadena, California and was the third store to open. Apple opened its 200th store on October 26, 2007 in Gilbert, Arizona, 2,251 days after opening its Tysons Corner store. Many stores are located inside shopping malls, but Apple has since built several stand-alone "flagship" stores in high-profile locations. Flagship stores have opened in Charleston, New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Tokyo, Osaka, London, Sydney, Montreal, Munich, Zurich, Paris, Beijing, Glasgow, Honululu and Boston. The Boston store at is the largest Apple Store in the United States.. The Regent Street store in London, United Kingdom at 235 Regent Street is the largest Apple Store in the world.

Each store is designed to suit the needs of the location and regulatory authorities. Apple has received numerous architectural awards for its store designs, particularly its midtown Manhattan location.
Originally, Apple Stores contained a dedicated point of sale station, however in 2006, Apple began introducing a new store layout and design with metallic walls and backlit signage. The new store design replaced the dedicated point of sale station with the handheld EasyPay system. However, a dedicated point of sale station still exists in most of these stores to facilitate transactions not paid for by credit card.. The Regent Street store has more point of sale terminals than any other store in the world with 28 terminals.

Staff

thumb|Apple Store on [[Magnificent Mile in Chicago]]

In order to effectively assist customer's needs, every Apple Store has a variety of staff trained for specific tasks.

• Concierge - Performs assorted customer service tasks, such as: hosting the entrance to the store, greeting customers, maintaining and running the Genius and iPod Bar and answering the store's phones. A concierge is recognizable by their orange shirt.

• Specialist - Answers questions about Apple products and third party accessories. Specialists conduct product sales as well as explain the store's promotions and services, such as AppleCare, MobileMe and One to One. Specialists carry a hand-held checkout device called an EasyPay, which is used to process customer payments.

• Genius - Diagnoses issues with Apple products, as well as performing repairs or providing replacement services. Customers make an appointment to see a Genius at the Genius Bar if they're having problems with a Mac, iPod, iPhone or Apple accessory.

• Creative - Provides training sessions on a variety of topics for One to One customers. Creatives teach customers about their Mac as well as various Apple software, such as iLife and iWork. Many Creatives are also certified to teach about Apple's pro applications, such as Aperture and Final Cut Express.

• Theatre Presenters - This role is only seen in larger stores such as the SoHo store in New York City or the Regent Street store in London. Theatre presenters carry out workshops and demonstrations about Apple hardware and software, either to large or small groups of people.

Genius Bar

All Apple Stores feature a Genius Bar, where customers can receive technical advice or set up service and repair for their products. The Genius Bar provides software support for Mac OS X and hardware service on products that are not classified . However, in most cases the Geniuses will at least attempt to assist customers with older hardware. Originally, visitors to the Genius Bar were offered free Evian water. Apple dropped this amenity in February 2002.

To address increasing numbers of iPod customers at the Genius Bar, some new stores also feature an iPod Bar. First seen at the Ginza store in Tokyo, then at the New York locations, the iPod Bar has become a common feature at newly built stores.
Most new stores feature a station called The Studio, a Genius Bar-like setting where customers can meet with a "Creative" and receive help with projects ranging from organizing a photo album to music composition to film editing. Some of the older stores are being considered to carry a Studio in a future remodel, in some cases replacing the older theaters.

Store openings

Store openings have become special events among avid Mac users. Opening day attracts thousands of customers who line up early in the morning or even the night before. The first thousand customers receive a free T-shirt bearing the store's name. Most high-profile stores have more shirts and additional prizes: 1,500 free T-shirts were given away at the Buchanan Street opening in Glasgow; 2,000 free T-shirts at the West 14th Street store in New York City; and 2,500 free "Bondi Blue" shirts at the Sydney, Australia store opening. Other attractions include discounts and the so-called "lucky bags" at flagship store openings.

Image:First apple.jpg|A line at the opening of the first American Apple Store, in Tysons Corner Center.
Image:Apple Store Boylston Street Opening Day Crowd.jpg|A massive crowd gathered on the sidewalk of Boylston Street, Boston, MA for the opening of the new store on May 15, 2008.
Image:Boylston Street Opening Day T-Shirt.jpg|A man holding up his commemorative T-shirt given out at the Boylston Street Apple Store opening day.

Locations

thumb|Apple Store in [[Downtown Montreal|Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada.]]
The first two Apple Stores opened in the United States in 2001 (see history above). In 2003, Apple expanded its operations into Japan, opening the first store outside of the United States. This was followed by the opening of stores in the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Australia, China, Switzerland, Germany and France..

Future locations

Apple is proactively expanding its global retail effort.
There are rumors of a store opening in Mexico City depending on the construction of an eight story annex for Torre Mayor, where Apple's Mexican headquarters are also located. If so, it would become the first Apple Store in Mexico . Mixup is currently the Apple Premium Reseller in Mexico, operating numerous stores under the name of .
In India, stores under the name of iStore have been opened by Reliance Retail.