Apple To Reopen Some US Stores – Report

Apple’s retail presence in American shopping malls could soon be re-established according to a news report.

According to Bloomberg, which cited people with knowledge of the matter, Apple plans to start reopening US retail stores that had been closed due a resurgence in Coronavirus cases in the United States.

The report stated that Apple will actually open a small number of stores as soon as the end of August – with most stores operating on an appointment-only basis for the immediate future.

Open, close, open

Apple has adopted a rolling strategy for the opening of its retail stores.

The iPhone maker had closed all of its 42 stores in China in February this year, when the full horror of the Coronavirus pandemic was still limited to the Chinese mainland.

It then reopened its Chinese stores in March, as Covid-19 infections fell in China.

But as Coronavirus infections spread out from China to the rest of the world, Apple closed all its 510 retail stores worldwide, with a few exceptions.

The firm had slated the first half of April to begin reopening some of its stores in a post Coronavirus world, and indeed began a phased re-opening (with restrictions) of its stores, including its retail outlets in the United States.

But the persistence and lingering impact of the Coronavirus in certain countries, particularly in the United States, forced Apple to again close its US stores in early July.

Apple, it should be remembered, has a total of 271 stores in the United States, and a total 510 stores around the world.

The United States has had over 23 million people infected with Covid-19, and tragically 181,126 people have lost their lives in that country, as of 25 August 2020.