Apple senior vice president of retail Ron Johnson recently told the Chicago Sun-Times that Apple’s retail store on North Michigan Avenue is the “highest-trafficked Apple retail store worldwide.” Johnson said the Chicago store alone averages 30,000 visitors per week.
Mac users and other consumers aren’t the only ones clamoring to get in the door at Apple’s retail stores, either. Johnson noted that the company has 17,000 applicants for 1,000 retail jobs, which caused him to quip, “It’s harder to get a job at an Apple store than it is to get admitted to Stanford University.”
Apple now has retail stores open in 27 of 50 US states, located around population centers throughout the nation. Apple recently branched its retail operation overseas by opening its first international store in Japan, located in Tokyo’s popular Ginza shopping district.
Apple’s North Michigan Ave. store in Chicago is one of several showcase stores that operate on a different scale than most of their retail locations; other major stores include the SoHo location in New York and The Grove location in Los Angeles. For a complete list of retail locations near you, make sure to visit Apple’s retail store Web site.