Saturday, June 18, 2011

Report: Apple Store Secret Sauce: Control + Attention to Detail

Report: Apple Store Secret Sauce: Control + Attention to Detail, article.
Of course, Apple’s own retail operations are anything but low-margin. Apple commands US$4,406 in annual retail sales per square foot, and that excludes online sales. Compare that to Tiffany’s$3,070, Coach’s $1,776, and Best Buy’s $880, and you can see that Apple’s retail performance exists in a league of its own. Apple’s profit margins are 26.9% for its retail operations, according to Needham & Co., compared to 1% for Best Buy.

That's astonishing! $4,400 per square foot of store! This company continues to astound me.

Don't get me wrong: I don't love Apple, and I don't even admire it or its profitability.
Firstly: I love many of their products, but you can't love a company, at least not a big one, for almost by definition they are soul-less, a machine.
Secondly: the more I look into it, the more it seems to me that making lots of money is totally incidental to... well, to anything really. Incidental to intelligence, to "goodness", to quality... Even skill and sheer work, which would be my best bets as causes of big-money-making, seems sometimes to be bypassed by some people/companies.  So that by itself is not admirable, nor really important, actually. I'm just saying this kind of extremity is astonishing, that's all. It's just so unique a company, no matter if one "likes it" or not. (Another thing is I don't really see why some people seem to dislike Apple so much. Seems to me that's like disliking a... cloud or a rock or a frontloader. It's just there, doing what it is doing by its nature.)

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