Apple Store Launches New Outlet in NYC

Is Secretive Approach Key to Apple's Success?

By Ivana Kvesic, Christian Post Reporter Friday, December 09, 2011

A new Apple store was launched at New York City’s Grand Central Station on Friday.

The store will be the company’s fifth Manhattan location and will be one of the company’s largest shops.

The store was revealed on Friday morning after months of secrecy, an approach characteristic of Apple’s successful but unique, business practices.

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Glass walls surround the alluring Grand Central Station shop, enabling customers to view the historic concourse at the train station.

Prior to its announcement this past July, questions swirled as to if Apple was indeed going to open the store in Grand Central Station.

Now with its opening, consumers plan to flock to the new shop. Some eager consumers even slept in the station overnight to ensure that they would be the first in line to walk into the massive new store.

“It’s going to be fabulous,” Cathy Landy of Connecticut told the NY Daily News.

With the new New York City unveiling, it appears as though the ultra-renowned tech company will now be focusing their efforts on launching a new store in southern California along Santa Monica’s famous Third Street Promenade.

However, the company has been silent on its plans – even going to extremes to ensure secrecy, an approach that seems to be working.

This year, Apple’s third quarter results show an all-time high record for revenue and earnings. Revenue was up 82 percent, with profits up 125 percent. The results for the company’s fourth quarter marked a record high for Mac and iPad sales.

Some believe that Apple’s secretive approach in business entices and excites consumers, something that other technological rivals, such as Microsoft, have not managed to do.

In a Harvard Business Review post, former vice president of retail at Apple, Ron Johnson, explained why people flock to Apple stores to purchase products at full price, when they can often go to Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target stores to purchase the same products, sometimes at different rates.

Johnson, who is now the CEO of JCPenny, said that when Apple opened its first retail store the company sought to create an "experience" for its consumers and was not merely focused on selling products.

“Compare that with other retailers, where the emphasis is on cross-selling and upselling, and basically, encouraging customer to buy more, even if they don’t want or need it,” he wrote.

“That doesn’t enrich their lives, and it doesn’t deepen the retailer’s relationship with them. It just makes their wallets lighter,” he added.

Instead, Johnson and his peers, including the late Steve Jobs, opted to use a more effective approach to sales when they launched their first Apple retail store in 2001, an approach that has managed to create a technological empire that continues its expansion to this day.