The global recession is having a serious impact on Apple's retail performance, says Needham & Co.'s Charlie Wolf. The researcher claims that while Apple Stores have for years done better than most retail chains, visitors per store fell 1.8 percent year-over-year in December, while same-store revenues dropped 17.4 percent. Mac shipments are said to have slid an average of 17.5 percent, while combined non-Mac revenues fell 10 percent.
Sales are unlikely to resume normal levels, says Wolf, until the worst of the recession is over. Apple Stores are believed to be instrumental in luring Windows users to the Mac however, due to a combination of free after-sales services and paid teaching sessions; Wolf observes that nearly half of the 515,000 Macs sold in stores during the December quarter were bought by people from a Windows background, in turning representing nearly 25 percent of all converts from Windows during the period.
The decline of same-store figures is also believed to be affected as much by Apple's rapid expansion during 2008, which lessened the average take for each location.
. . . from Kimberly-Clark, proving that the recession will affect EVERYONE, not just Apple's retail stores:
"The recession has turned bad enough that people bought less toilet paper--about 5.5% less last quarter in the U.S., according to Kimberly-Clark Corp. Chairman-CEO Tom Falk, who today blamed the economy for disappointing fourth-quarter earnings and a weak forecast for 2009."
Take that for what's it's worth (but don't think TOO much about it)!
Why do you think Apple has something like $26 Billion in cash now? They are in excellent shape to wait this recession out. Other tech companies only wish they had Apple's position.
or maybe just eating less, which probably means we are all going to be a lot healthier soon - is there no end to the good that this recession is doing us?
For some, recession is good. Macdonalds is raking it in, as people scale down their dining out and instead eat junk rather than at another restaurant, diner or similar.
All junk food chains are posting major increases in revenue. Sad, really...
The numbers across similar stores are useful so you can go "See, Apple's not doing as badly as xxxxx". But that's not the point of the article, is it. It was relating how Apple's stores did this year compared to last.
Are you expecting investors to go "Hey, look, Apple's not losing as much money on their stores as the Gap! Let's invest there and drive their stock price up to $150!"
The article is useless -- utter drivel -- without comparisons from similar-demographics type stores.
How are Bang & Olufson, Williams-Sonoma, Sharper Image, Brookstone et al doing these days? If they're doing as badly (or worse) than this is simple journalistic bias against Apple. If they're doing significantly better, THAT could be indicative of some need for strategy or management change.
Call me when the author finishes journalism school and understands the basic principle of "compare and contrast."
In order to post comments, you must be a registered member of the
MacNN Forums and logged in. Please login with your MacNN Forums username and password.
Not a member of the MacNN forums?
Register now for free.
