Apple plans to reopen some Apple Store locations in the first half of April

Posted:
in General Discussion edited March 2020
Apple expects to reopen its brick-and-mortar retail outlets in the first half of April, retail and people chief Deirdre O'Brien told staffers on Tuesday.

Apple may begin reopening retail locations in April, though it won't reopen them all at once.
Apple may begin reopening retail locations in April, though it won't reopen them all at once.


Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Apple shuttered all of its Apple Store locations outside of China. Though originally slated to reopen March 27, Apple updated that timeline to "until further notice."

Now, it appears that notice is being given. According to an internal memo sent Apple Store employees and seen by VentureBeat, the Cupertino tech giant is expecting to reopen its Apple locations in early April.

In the U.S. specifically, Apple appears to be planning on reopening retail locations on a staggered basis instead of all at once.

The new retail plans come on the same day that President Donald Trump said he hopes to reopen the country's business operations by Easter, which takes place on April 12 this year, The Wall Street Journal reported.

While Apple also began urging its Apple Park to work from home in early March, it eventually implemented flexible and remote work arrangements to all of its offices outside of Greater China.

In the internal memo, O'Brien said that Apple will extend its work-from-home policies until April 5 at the earliest, and will re-evaluate those arrangements on a weekly basis depending on a staffer's location. Along with heading Apple's retail operations, O'Brien is also the company's chief of people, so it's likely that the guidance refers to office employees as well.

Of course, the San Francisco Bay Area, where Apple Park is located, and the entire state of California are still under government shelter-in-place and stay-at-home mandates. Aside from essential IT and infrastructure personnel, those mandates will override Apple's own policies in affected areas.

That timeline is much quicker than many public health experts are recommending. And while the COVID-19 pandemic is an extremely fluid situation, it's likely that the outbreak will be ongoing through April. Because of that, Apple is likely to maintain its deep cleaning and anti-spread measures at its retail locations.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 47
    bulk001bulk001 Posts: 764member
    It takes Apple to stand up to the insanity! Thank you Tim Cook. Obviously if you are in a high risk group or area then you need to isolate yourself but the rest can get back to a slightly less restrictive life. 
    edited March 2020 lkruppsdw2001watto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 47
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    bulk001 said:
    It takes Apple to stand up to the insanity! Thank you Tim Cook. Obviously if you are in a high risk group or area then you need to isolate yourself but the rest can get back to a slightly less restrictive life. 
    That’s nonsense! You might as well play Russian Roulette.
    fastasleepmontrosemacsOferjony0tokyojimumuthuk_vanalingamhorvatic
  • Reply 3 of 47
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,408member
    bulk001 said:
    It takes Apple to stand up to the insanity! Thank you Tim Cook. Obviously if you are in a high risk group or area then you need to isolate yourself but the rest can get back to a slightly less restrictive life. 
    The “Insanity” is aimed at saving potentially millions of lives, genius. 
    montrosemacsOferjony0hammeroftruthDogpersonchemengin1horvatic
  • Reply 4 of 47
    I'm sure you're invincible. From today's LA Times (where I reside): It’s not just older people who are getting sick. Of those who have tested positive in Los Angeles County, for example, 80% are people ages 18 to 65, and 42% are in the 18-40 age group. As confirmed cases surpass 660, Los Angeles County on Tuesday confirmed four more deaths linked to the coronavirus, including the first of a person under the age of 18. 
    So, who again is insane? Totally worth it to lose your life (or infect me, or my wife, or teenage daughters) for the freedom to wander into a store to purchase an Apple Pencil or Watch. /s
    Oferjony0hammeroftruthmuthuk_vanalingamDogperson
  • Reply 5 of 47
    bulk001 said:
    It takes Apple to stand up to the insanity! Thank you Tim Cook. Obviously if you are in a high risk group or area then you need to isolate yourself but the rest can get back to a slightly less restrictive life. 
    How was spring break?
    technoOferjony0fastasleepDogpersonchemengin1macseekerhorvatic
  • Reply 6 of 47
    technotechno Posts: 737member
    bulk001 said:
    It takes Apple to stand up to the insanity! Thank you Tim Cook. Obviously if you are in a high risk group or area then you need to isolate yourself but the rest can get back to a slightly less restrictive life. 
    Hey Bulk001! The Spanish Flu just called and invited you to her dinner party next Saturday.
    Oferjony0fastasleepchemengin1macseekerhorvatic
  • Reply 7 of 47
    M68000M68000 Posts: 719member
    It seems a bit too early to make announcements like this, just my opinion.  There was just an article today in USA Today that said the CDC reported the virus stayed active on surfaces in cruise ships for up to 17 days.  If that is true,  such a thing is really significant in understanding how tough this can be to deal with.
    edited March 2020 Oferjony0tokyojimu
  • Reply 8 of 47
    dewmedewme Posts: 5,328member
    Re: the "insanity" claims and counterclaims...

    Please refer to the statement above "Of course, the San Francisco Bay Area, where Apple Park is located, and the entire state of California are still under government shelter-in-place and stay-at-home mandates. Aside from essential IT and infrastructure personnel, those mandates will override Apple's own policies in affected areas."

    Apple has and always will follow the guidance and authority of local/state/national officials. They will do the right thing for their employees, customers, and the people in the communities in which they operate. There is nothing wrong with Apple starting to put smart plans in place to return its stores to operation - in some form and at some capacity. We do not yet know what any of this will look like at this point in time. However, nobody can afford to sit around between now and some arbitrary point in the future before deciding what the next steps might be. Setting calendar checkpoints is perfectly acceptable, but only as long as they are willing to reevaluate the next steps based on the data at those points in time. Not only that, planners better have a hierarchy of conditionally qualified plans queued up to react to the actual conditions at the checkpoints, not just some unconditional or heavy-handed plan. The actual situation two weeks from now may be radically different, good or bad, but most likely the latter. The elapsed time that it took in China to get over the peak, albeit with authoritarian levels of enforcement, is probably a decent clue. It certainly wasn't 15 days.

    What's happening today on a scientific and social level is very similar in character, but thankfully not in scale, to the 2018 Flu Pandemic. The following site is very instructional: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK22148/  . I think we have progressed significantly as a global society since 1918 and are fortunate to now have a predominantly independent media versus the total puppet/propaganda media that was widely in-place during WW1 (except in Spain who got blamed for the virus because they didn't have the propaganda machinery in place like everyone else did). But the scenarios playing out today in real time are eerily similar to 1918 in terms of trying to deal with health, moral, social, national, local, and economic concerns and trying to impose will over scientific data and observations. One cold hard reality of 1918 that should cause significant concern is that the mortality rate of the second wave of the virus was much, much worse than the first wave. No matter what happens today, we have to be careful not to stay in the quick-fix mindset or pretend that it's over before we have a proven vaccine in place.



    Oferfastasleepmuthuk_vanalingam
  • Reply 9 of 47
    bulk001bulk001 Posts: 764member
    To all the haters and or / paranoid, if you don’t want to go out, don’t. Especially if there is a high incident rate near you or you fall into a vulnerable population. Evidently though Apple sees that it is unnecessary to close all stores indefinitely and they have been one of the leaders in closing and so trust that they know what they are doing in looking to start opening some stores too. To those who have to work for a living a sensible approach to letting them do so is welcome news to me. @monteo - you, your wife and your teenage daughters don’t have to go to the Apple store (in fact, what are they doing outdoors at all if that is your attitude? Why not take responsibility for yourself and others can make their own decisions?). @techno, this is not the Spanish flu so less hyperventilating and more grip on reality? @themonk I actually work for a living, not taking unnecessary risk at spring break but also not hiding out in fear when sensible precautions can be taken (as evidenced by the fact that Apple is willing to open some stores) and @fastasleep well your name pretty much says it all, right? But thanks for calling me a genius! 
    edited March 2020
  • Reply 10 of 47
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    bulk001 said:
    It takes Apple to stand up to the insanity! Thank you Tim Cook. Obviously if you are in a high risk group or area then you need to isolate yourself but the rest can get back to a slightly less restrictive life. 
    bulk001 said:
    To all the haters and or / paranoid, if you don’t want to go out, don’t. Especially if there is a high incident rate near you or you fall into a vulnerable population. Evidently though Apple sees that it is unnecessary to close all stores indefinitely and they have been one of the leaders in closing and so trust that they know what they are doing in looking to start opening some stores too. To those who have to work for a living a sensible approach to letting them do so is welcome news to me. @monteo - you, your wife and your teenage daughters don’t have to go to the Apple store (in fact, what are they doing outdoors at all if that is your attitude? Why not take responsibility for yourself and others can make their own decisions?). @techno, this is not the Spanish flu so less hyperventilating and more grip on reality? @themonk I actually work for a living, not taking unnecessary risk at spring break but also not hiding out in fear when sensible precautions can be taken (as evidenced by the fact that Apple is willing to open some stores) and @fastasleep well your name pretty much says it all, right? But thanks for calling me a genius! 
    Interesting how being closed is insanity, but Apple somehow isn't part of the insanity. This sounds like misplaced adoration for Apple (or is Tim Cook?)? So they are somehow riding a line of being of closing and opening within some sane timeframe that you've deemed acceptable despite there being a very large unknown as to what "first half of April" will be, how many stores this reopening will contain, which stores, which countries, or to what extent stores will be open (e.g.: hours, types of services).

    In a general sense, you haven't bothered to state anything about types of retailer, types of businesses, or what changes would need to take place for businesses to reopen safely, only that if a business isn't open in" the first half of April" it's insane. You really haven't thought any of this through, but I hope you can answer at least some of my queries to help guide you back to some medium of sanity… at least for your own sake.
    edited March 2020 Oferfastasleepmuthuk_vanalingamchemengin1
  • Reply 11 of 47
    OferOfer Posts: 237unconfirmed, member
    It’s way too early, and downright irresponsible, of Apple to start talking about reopening retail locations. Human life is more important than company profits.
    jony0the monkchemengin1
  • Reply 12 of 47
    bulk001bulk001 Posts: 764member
    @Soli If I typed it slower would it help your comprehension? (For instance what part of “the first half of April” is so hard for you to understand? If you don’t get this then maybe other more subtle differences are going to be beyond your grasp and not worth discussing with you?) I applaud Apple for taking a sensible approach to re-opening stores that is not driven by fear, pressure from the media or the doomsday insanity of some about this. 
    edited March 2020
  • Reply 13 of 47
    bulk001 said:
    To all the haters and or / paranoid, if you don’t want to go out, don’t. Especially if there is a high incident rate near you or you fall into a vulnerable population. Evidently though Apple sees that it is unnecessary to close all stores indefinitely and they have been one of the leaders in closing and so trust that they know what they are doing in looking to start opening some stores too. To those who have to work for a living a sensible approach to letting them do so is welcome news to me. @monteo - you, your wife and your teenage daughters don’t have to go to the Apple store. @techno, this is not the Spanish flu so less hyperventilating and more grip on reality? @themonk I actually work for a living, not taking unnecessary risk at spring break but also not hiding out in fear when sensible precautions can be taken (as evidenced by the fact that Apple is willing to open some stores) and @fastasleep well your name pretty much says it all, right? But thanks for calling me a genius! 

    Let's define sensible. Young AND old folks are going to need serious medical help (respirators, etc) to survive. If the medical system gets overwhelmed, like happened in Italy (over 6,100 dead and 64,000 confirmed cases in Italy as of yesterday, or a die-off of over 9.5%), then we could be approaching a major die-off, and not just of older folks. In the US, with a population of 330 M and assuming everyone gets the virus, even a 1% die-off is 3.3 million dead. In a world with 7.7 billion people, assuming everyone gets it, 1% would be 77 million dead. But that's understating the problem: If the world's medical systems gets overwhelmed, we’ll see more like a 3-5% die-off. Think about that. 1 out of every 20 people on the planet could theoretically die of this virus.

    To put this in context, from wikipedia: “World War II was the deadliest military conflict in history. An estimated total of 70–85 million people perished, which was about 3% of the 1940 world population (est. 2.3 billion).“

    Now, because of the woeful lack of testing, we in the US only see the number of confirmed cases, which is a fraction of the true infection rate. So folks shouldn't look at the dying now and equate them with the unknown number of sick now. However, there's more to determining the die-off rate than just determining the number of sick now. The proper comparison is with the number of sick 2 or more weeks ago. Only when we get enough tests to get a proper snapshot of not just now but two weeks back will we be able to calculate the potential die-off. 

    And even then, we’ll find the percentage is going to be heavily dependent on the amount of adequate medical care that is available. And unfortunately, the vast majority of Earth's people don't have access to anything close to adequate medical care. Ergo, we are just at the beginning of something truly and horrifyingly tragic. Therefore, each of us is morally bound to do our bit to keep the transmission rate down, if for no other reason than when, not if, it comes for us, we will have increased the chance that there's adequate medical help available for ourselves or our loved ones.

    Like it or not, ignore it or not, we're all in this together.

    edited March 2020 fastasleepgregoriusmchemengin1
  • Reply 14 of 47
    M68000 said:
    It seems a bit too early to make announcements like this, just my opinion.  There was just an article today in USA Today that said the CDC reported the virus stayed active on surfaces in cruise ships for up to 17 days.  If that is true,  such a thing is really significant in understanding how tough this can be to deal with.
    Probably why there was no announcement. The article is based on rumor and not anything Apple has said. 
  • Reply 15 of 47
    bulk001bulk001 Posts: 764member
    @sacto joe I appreciate the thoughtful post. And while we are all in this together on one side we have some who even when they know they are sick running around and potentially infecting others and in the other we have people who are acting like we are all going to die. There is room for a balance between these extremes. If you are vulnerable stay isolated. If you are sick stay isolated. Practice basic hygiene. Keep a little more distance. Don’t go to nursing homes, don’t hug your grand kids. Etc. I am glad Apple is looking to open stores as soon as sometime in the first half of April. You don’t like it? Just don’t go to an Apple store! Stay home. But please don’t decide what is best for me. 
    edited March 2020
  • Reply 16 of 47
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    bulk001 said:
    @Soli If I typed it slower would it help your comprehension? (For instance what part of “the first half of April” is so hard for you to understand? If you don’t get this then maybe other more subtle differences are going to be beyond your grasp and not worth discussing with you?) I applaud Apple for taking a sensible approach to re-opening stores that is not driven by fear, pressure from the media or the doomsday insanity of some about this. 
    Again, you then believe Apple would be insane if they only opened one store on April 15th since that would still be "the first half of April” but you would call it insane if they simply waited until the 16th to open up all stores. To reiterate, you failed to note anything specific would need to be done within all these floating variables but Apple, in your eyes, is sane regardless of what they do regardless if it's all stores on April 1st under normal hours and operations to a single store on April 15th simply for online sales and to pick up products that were left for repair before the shutdown and only for an 8 hour window each day. You really don't see how your comments come across as insane as you applaud Apple despite having no info on what or how they will do a goddamn thing. Frankly you sound like people who are swallowing Trump's load without thinking twice.

    PS: If Apple actually makes a statement—unlike this article which isn't isn't an official statement with solid dates— that "things are worse than we expected so we won't be opening up stores again until the second half of April," will you then be calling Apple and Tim Cook insane? How about mid-April, since that could be from the 11th to the 20th?
    edited March 2020 dewmefastasleepmuthuk_vanalingamchemengin1
  • Reply 17 of 47
    bulk001bulk001 Posts: 764member
    @soli Again, I am not going to attempt to have a rational conversation with someone who does not understand basic concepts like “first half of April”. You seem to not understand that either. 
  • Reply 18 of 47
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    bulk001 said:
    @soli Again, I am not going to attempt to have a rational conversation with someone who does not understand basic concepts like “first half of April”. You seem to not understand that either. 
    Yikes! Someone's lashing out after he was caught with his pants down making god cry.
    chemengin1
  • Reply 19 of 47
    bulk001bulk001 Posts: 764member
    Soli said:
    bulk001 said:
    @soli Again, I am not going to attempt to have a rational conversation with someone who does not understand basic concepts like “first half of April”. You seem to not understand that either. 
    Yikes! Someone's lashing out after he was caught with his pants down making god cry.
    ^^^ I rest my case! 
  • Reply 20 of 47
    M68000M68000 Posts: 719member
    M68000 said:
    It seems a bit too early to make announcements like this, just my opinion.  There was just an article today in USA Today that said the CDC reported the virus stayed active on surfaces in cruise ships for up to 17 days.  If that is true,  such a thing is really significant in understanding how tough this can be to deal with.
    Probably why there was no announcement. The article is based on rumor and not anything Apple has said. 
    Actually if you read the FIRST sentence of this article you may learn otherwise. -  I quote from this article - Apple expects to reopen its brick-and-mortar retail outlets in the first half of April, retail and people chief Deirdre O'Brien told staffers on Tuesday."   Did you not read the article ?
    bulk001
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