Apple to shutter a retail store in China for the first time ever
By Mark Gurman Bloomberg Apple Inc is closing a retail store in China for the first time marking a notable retreat in a field where the iPhone maker is striving to revive sales The company announced on Monday that it will shut its Parkland Mall store in the Zhongshan District of Dalian City on Aug citing a changing landscape at the shopping complex It has about stores in the Greater China region making up over of its footprint of more than outlets globally Related Articles UK regulator seeks special status for Apple and Google that could mandate changes for Big Tech H- B visa Trump administration signals major change for controversial foreign-worker venture Meta hires two key Apple AI experts after poaching their boss Apple loses top AI models executive to Mark Zuckerberg s hiring spree How Xiaomi succeeded where Apple failed We re invariably focused on providing an exceptional experience for all of our customers both online and at more than Apple Store locations across Greater China the Cupertino California-based company stated in a report Given the departure of several retailers at the Parkland Mall we have made the decision to close our store there China is grappling with deflationary pressures as consumption wanes and global tariffs hurt exports a major engine of the world s No business activity Retail sales advance has fallen short of forecasts and home prices dropped at a faster pace in June The closing store is one of two locations in Dalian City The other a store at the Olympia shopping complex remains open Employees at the site that s closing will be given opportunities to work elsewhere the company declared The two locations are roughly minutes apart More broadly Apple has been looking to stage a comeback in China Sales in the country fell to billion in the second quarter which ended March Analysts had predicted billion Apple is opening a new store at Uniwalk Qianhai in Shenzhen on Aug It s also planning additional locations in Beijing and Shanghai over the next year Bloomberg News has released It opened a store in the Anhui province in January The company is also expanding soon with new stores in Detroit the United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia and India A location in Osaka opened on July and a major new flagship store debuted in Miami in January The company also opened its first store in Malaysia last year While Apple is still adding new stores overall retail expansion has slowed since the pandemic hit Apple has instead focused on opening up its online retail store in new places such as India and Saudi Arabia and updating or moving older physical locations The company also appears to be becoming more selective in renewing its leases announcing plans to shutter a store in Bristol in the UK on same day as its closure in China Other upcoming closures include the Partridge Creek store in Michigan and the Hornsby location near Sydney Apple isn t the only major brand to back out of China s Parkland Mall Earlier this year the majority shareholder of the complex took full operational control and retailers like Coach Sandro and Hugo Boss haven t renewed their leases in fresh years More stories like this are available on bloomberg com Bloomberg L P
