Apple's Making Big Changes to Its Retail Stores

Besides ushering in the smartphone age, which has utterly transformed modern society, Apple and its eponymous store managed to completely reinvent the modern retail experience. Now, for the first time in 15 years, the company is making some major changes to its brick and mortar operations in hopes of bringing even more people into its cult-like fold. 

In an interview with CBS This Morning, Apple's Senior Vice President of retail Angela Ahrendts announced that the company will be implementing a series of design changes to 100 of its biggest stores around the world. The most notable changes will be the addition of meeting and conference rooms, new large video screens, and a rebranding of the "Genius Bar," which will now be known as the "Genius Grove," and feature real trees. There will also be a slight change in the staffing of the Genius Grove, which -- in addition to Apple experts armed with secrets to getting free stuff -- will now include employees known as "Creative Pros," equipped with more specialized skills in things like photography and music. In most cases, these store changes will literally happen overnight.

The redesign isn't limited to the physical spaces, though. In an effort to transform the Apple Store from a place where you go just to try out and buy products into more of a social destination like Starbucks, Ahrendts also revealed that the company is implementing a free educational programming series they're calling "Today at Apple" in all of its stores. The 60 different creative sessions, which will be open to everyone, will range from entry level how-tos to professional-grade seminars designed to do everything from help entrepreneurs design better apps to provide artists with expert advice on building their brand. These will rollout worldwide in every one of Apple's 500 stores by the end of May.

This isn't the only major architectural shift for Apple this year -- by the end of the month, the company is scheduled to open the doors to its beautiful, brand new 175-acre headquarters in Cupertino.

h/tBGR

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