Apple says it will close 30 more US retail stores as COVID-19 cases spike, bringing the total re-closed stores in the US to 77 in recent weeks
where the stores are closed, it's the riskiest? Apple to re-close 30 more stores bringing total to 77... including LA area stores https://www.cnbc.com/... Chance Miller / @chancehmiller : Shut them all down and stop this scattershot approach. https://twitter.com/... Michael Steeber / @michaelsteeber : I agree with Chance on this. We're all eager to get going again, but the constant changes are confusing for employees and customers. Every day open risks destroying the goodwill Apple has built in the public's eye. https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
This reverses the spring playbook. In May, Apple was pushing toward roughly 130 of its 271 US stores being open, some taking walk-in customers for the first time since lockdown. Three weeks ago it began pulling back in the Sun Belt, closing 11 stores across Florida, Arizona and the Carolinas after case spikes.
First-order effects
- Roughly a third of Apple's US fleet is now shut again — 77 stores — with LA-area locations among the new closures, hitting the retail staff who were just recalled and the walk-in traffic the May reopening was designed to capture.
Second-order effects
- Retail commentators like Chance Miller and Michael Steeber are openly calling the state-by-state toggling 'scattershot,' arguing each daily flip-flop erodes employee trust and customer goodwill faster than keeping doors closed would — reputational pressure Apple's retail leadership can't price easily.
Third-order effects
- If reopen-and-re-close cycles keep repeating — as they later did when Apple shuttered nearly 100 stores globally in December and three more in Miami, Annapolis and Ottawa in late 2021 — the durable lesson is that Apple treats stores as optional demand channels, accelerating investment in online ordering, pickup and virtual support as the primary retail interface.
The trend: Apple is converting its retail footprint from an always-on channel into a flexible, health-contingent one, with digital purchase and pickup paths absorbing demand whenever physical doors close.