Apple CEO Tim Cook has already said that not just a store, but “something more” will open in Washington.
Apple is preparing to open a brand new store format that will combine retail with educational function, creative workshops and special events. The unique retail space will be located in one of the Carnegie libraries in Washington, D.C., built in the early twentieth century. This is one of the most historically significant buildings in the city, writes The Washington Post.
The two-year reconstruction of the library for the launch of a new store, which has already been called the most complex and ambitious project in retail for Apple, cost the company more than $ 30 million. The official opening is scheduled for May 11, 2019. For renting the building, which has remained unused in recent years, Apple will pay $700,000 a year for ten years.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has already said that not just a store, but “something more” will open in Washington. The company even decided not to include it in the global Apple Store network, but to give the conceptual retail space a new name, which is still kept secret. The assortment of the store in the restored library will also differ from the standard Apple store. The illuminated central hall, which customers will enter after passing through the marble entrances, will not resemble a standard store - devices and advertised services will be removed to side rooms, and the main space will be devoted to training, consultations and educational programs for everyone.
The retail space at the Carnegie Library will be one of 13 Apple locations around the world to use the "town square" concept. For creative people, the company organizes many classes inside the store in order to fully present their products for taking photos, editing videos and recording music.
Experts link the company's plans to open brand new stores with educational features to the launch of a number of new products, which were announced at the last Apple presentation in Cupertino. Over the past year, the company sold 218 million iPhones, and Apple's sales in the first quarter of 2019 fell by 17%. Thus, today the future of the company is connected, among other things, with new services - television, games, bank cards, as well as the opening of stores in a new format.
