Apple Stores

Apple Store: One Stockton Street, San Francisco

About one year ago, Fortune described Apple as the best retailer in America. Has anything changed since then? No...

SPLS bids for CXP #1

On 19th February 2008, Staples made an unsolicited bid for Corporate Express - a bid which was swiftly rejected by Corporate Express' management. Rumours have persisted about the possible hook-up between these two companies for several months, so it is no surprise that despite this initial rebuff, analysts are now merely talking about the price that Staples will eventually have to pay if it is to succeed.

Best Buy in Europe?

Best Buy is the world's largest retailer of consumer electronics, with projected revenues for fiscal 2008 expected to come just a little short of USD40bn. Best Buy generates most of its revenues in the US, but it also operates stores in Canada and China. Back in September 2006, Best Buy and Europe's The Carphone Warehouse announced two joint venture initiatives: a stand alone mobile retail business in the US, operating mostly as a shop-in-shop format under the Best Buy Mobile brand; and a home computing customer service business [initially in the UK] under the Geek Squad brand. Then, in September 2007, Best Buy announced that it had taken an almost 3 per cent stake in The Carphone Warehouse, prompting some observers to predict an eventual merger. Having signalled its intentions to look across the pond, and with DSGi floundering a little, now would seem a good time for Best Buy to make a bold move into Europe. But that doesn't quite tally with their recent SEC filing which says that their long-announced back-door entry into Europe via Turkey won't now happen until Fiscal 2010. Is some larger strategy playing out that will surprise us all in the coming months?

Dell's Retail Push

During the fourth quarter of 2007, Dell announced deals with five substantial retailers of desk tops and note books. On 22nd October it was Staples. On 27th November, it was Carrefour. On 6th December, it was Best Buy. On 13th December, it was DSGi. And on 21st December, Dell announced a deal with Tesco. Deals were announced earlier in 2007 with a number of other retailers, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. Over the years, Dell has blown hot and cold with the channel, and anyone who can reach back to the mid-1990s will know that commitment to the channel has not been one of Dell's fortes in the past. Now, though, with HP securing and retaining the No.1 slot globally for the past year or so, Dell realises that retail channels are a necessary route to market if it is to gain market share in the fast-growth consumer segment.

Handset Flagships: London

It seems to have become fashionable for the world's leading mobile handset manufacturers to launch a Flagship Store in London. Back in November 2004, and way before the launch of the iPhone, Apple opened its first UK store in London, and its first store outside of the US. In November 2006, Sony Ericsson launched a Flagship Store in Kensington High Street, London [although this is operated and managed by The Carphone Warehouse]. One year later, in November 2007, Samsung launched a Flagship Store in Tottenham Court Road [owned and operated by Shasonic]. And now, in February 2008, Nokia has launched a Flagship Store just across the road from Apple in London's Regent Street. So we're missing one major handset manufacturer - Motorola. In July 2006, Motorola launched its first Global Flagship Store, in Shanghai. Then in October 2006, it launched its second Global Flagship Store, in Moscow. Since then, we've seen and heard nothing about Flagship Stores from Motorola. Anyone out there know why?

Apple Conflict

In August 2007, Apple opened it's tenth store in the UK, and its first in Scotland. The store in Buchanan Street, Glasgow has clearly been a success.  So much so, that the local independent store in Glasgow, run by Scotsys, part of the Adventi Group, was closed just six months later.