Toronto Eaton Centre (Ongoing Renewal) | ?m | ?s | Cadillac Fairview | Zeidler

I walked around and a Samsung store employee literally made fun of the Apple Watch on my wrist: "How's the battery on your iToy?" he asked pointing to my wrist. Really? Way to treat a potential future customer.
A successful retailer should not have employees being condescending towards users of competing products. That is not how to gain new customers.

Samsung is that arrogant and arrogance would lead to its downfall.

Apple may be larger, but Apple Store employees are not as condescending towards users of competing products.
 
I'm sorry, what? Most Apple Stores aren't profitable? Where do you get that from? Apple no longer breaks it out, but they used to be contributing a billion or so a year in profit....

I mean I worked with the company for years. Most of the flagships end up spending a fortune on construction, leasing, employees etc. Stores like Eaton Centre on such a small floor space no doubt are paying for the larger stores. Apple isn't making their money from many flagship stores, it's all about having a presence. Online and the smaller stores in malls are the money makers.
 
You
I mean I worked with the company for years. Most of the flagships end up spending a fortune on construction, leasing, employees etc. Stores like Eaton Centre on such a small floor space no doubt are paying for the larger stores. Apple isn't making their money from many flagship stores, it's all about having a presence. Online and the smaller stores in malls are the money makers.
If you're singling out only flagship stores instead of all stores as you originally stated as not profitable, I'll disagree there too. I worked for Apple for years as well, and helped out in a couple of the US flagships. As much as they spent on construction, staff, and all that jazz, they still made a profit. Construction costs are spread out over years, not up front.
 
I mean I worked with the company for years. Most of the flagships end up spending a fortune on construction, leasing, employees etc. Stores like Eaton Centre on such a small floor space no doubt are paying for the larger stores. Apple isn't making their money from many flagship stores, it's all about having a presence. Online and the smaller stores in malls are the money makers.

Aside from being the highest-PROFIT-per-square-foot in retail today (https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/retails-most-profitable-square-footage-636947493.html), with the death of the huge department stores, Apple has now become a prominent anchor (https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-gets-sweet-deals-from-mall-operators-1426007804). As a result, Apple can demand lower a p.s.f. than neighbouring stores, as they add to the foot traffic and profits of a mall by an average of 10%.

Can people please stop talking out their —sses about Apple? It's becoming pretty obvious there are people here with biases against them; so maybe take the trolling to Reddit…
 
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Stores like Eaton Centre on such a small floor space no doubt are paying for the larger stores. Apple isn't making their money from many flagship stores, it's all about having a presence. Online and the smaller stores in malls are the money makers.

You raise a good point. Even after the Apple store at Yonge and Bloor opens, I don’t think it will be enough effectively alleviate the congestion at Eaton Centre location, which will naturally have a much higher profit per square foot. It makes sense mathematically.

And Apple said it themselves. Town Squares (flagships) are more than just selling products, they’re about associating the brand with the community. They are still highly profitable, just not insanely profitable like Eatons or other mall locations.

Apple doesn’t need to invest in a large or fancy Eaton Centre location, even though I wish they would.
 
I'd like to see Apple in one of the larger retail units in the Union Station mall too. While it would serve a somewhat different market, both it and the Bloor store would take some pressure off the Eaton Centre location, possibly lowering it from mob levels to just crowds.

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Funny you said that. Sony also manufactures smartphones too and Sony's high-end smartphones approach or exceed the iPhone (depending on the metric).

I’ve always been a fond Sony and their design philosophy across many of their products. That being said, their North American presence has been struggling in recent years, not helped by the closure of stores and performance of their Xperia line certain markets. They are no Apple.
As for the Samsung store(s), they’re very extravagant showrooms and even larger customer support hubs. But I honestly don’t see them operating at high profit margins, the costs being at Yorkdale and Eatons alone...
 
I’ve always been a fond Sony and their design philosophy across many of their products. That being said, their North American presence has been struggling in recent years, not helped by the closure of stores and performance of their Xperia line certain markets. They are no Apple.
As for the Samsung store(s), they’re very extravagant showrooms and even larger customer support hubs. But I honestly don’t see them operating at high profit margins, the costs being at Yorkdale and Eatons alone...

At the risk of being OT - as a user of *some* Sony products the problem isn't the hardware per se (the Xperia line is unimpressive in that regard) but software and UI - they can't do either, and it doesn't matter whether it is cameras or voice recorders - dealing with Sony software that interfaces with anything else is always a hellish experience. Things would stop working halfway through, with no indication of what's going wrong - that is if it installs at all. This combined with the penchant for locked in formats makes for bad user experience even when the technical and hardware design is good (Samsung industrial design just looks crass in comparison).

As to Sony Stores - while they're still around their in-store salespeople are some of the most lackadaisical ones I have seen in *any* tech setting. Don't know their company, hardly know their products, and some don't even care about making the sale.

AoD
 
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I'd like to see Apple in one of the larger retail units in the Union Station mall too. While it would serve a somewhat different market, both it and the Bloor store would take some pressure off the Eaton Centre location, possibly lowering it from mob levels to just crowds.
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Yonge & Eglinton and Queen West are also potentials longer-term.
 
January 21

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