Edible Apple

Apple yesterday dropped the curtains on its latest Apple Store on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where Apple retail guru Ron Johnson dropped a lot of interesting tidbits about the current state of Apple stores and in what direction Apple is planning on going with them.

Sales wise, Apple Retail Stores have grown in conjunction with Apple’s strong financial growth as a company.  To put things in perspective, Johnson noted that Apple’s total sales in 2001 came in at $5.4 billion.  In 2009, Apple retail stores alone have generated over $6.6 billion in sales.

What makes Apple’s line of retail stores the envy of every other company isn’t just the fact that Apple’s revenue from said stores are through the roof, but that Apple is able to generate those sales efficiently by having the highest revenue per square foot among all retailers, including Tiffanys.

As for employees, Gizmodo, who was at the new store’s unveiling, noted that Apple has “over 100,000 applicants on file for jobs at the Apple Store worldwide.”  Meanwhile, over 10,000 people applied for jobs at the new Apple Store on the Upper West Side, yet only 200 actually received one.

More interesting, though, is that Ron Johnson stated that Apple’s approach with regards to its retail stores is changing.  Instead of small and cozy stores in upscale malls, Apple is angling its next generation of retail stores as more iconic shopping centers, larger in size and very similar to some of the larger and architecturally impressive locations such as the Cube on 5th avenue and the recently opened store in Paris.

Apple realized they were going too small with their stores, so now all of their stores will be at least “three tables wide.” In other words, they’re going to be bigger. They’re also going to be opening more stores next year, more like 50. More of them will be “significant stores,” iconic ones like the Fifth Ave. store with the Apple Cube. And they’ll be going more international, adding stores all over Europe, like the UK, Paris and two in Shanghai getting those “significant stores.”