Almost a year after the coronavirus pandemic forced Apple to close its first store in the United States, every Apple Store location has reopened. Apple had closed its first store on March 13 last year. With more and more citizens getting vaccinated against the COVID-19 and the inoculation drive gaining momentum, Apple reopened the last of its retail stores in Texas. The tech giant confirmed that all its 270 stores in the country are open in some capacity. Either they are open for online order pickup or they are allowing in-store shopping. It has no direct link with the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic, Apple does follow local health guidelines in many cases.
The reopening of stores by Apple shows that is confident about the safety measures and in-stores shopping restrictions put in place at certain locations. Limited occupancy and mandatory face masks are some of them. As the pandemic broke nearly a year ago, Apple had announced the closure of all its retail stores in mainland China. At that time, Apple was developing a mitigation strategy for stores in China that started to close on February 1. This was much before the widespread outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States. As coronavirus positive cases skyrocketed, Apple announced that all stores in China will remain close indefinitely.
Over the past one year, Apple Stores faced various hiccups while running in-stores. From adopting evolving health guidance when COVID cases spiked to confronting looting and vandalism. As if it was not enough, the tech giant’s store in California even faced intense heatwaves and wildfire. Severe winter storms forced the reopening of stores in Austin by almost a week. Despite all this, Apple showed a strong willingness to act fast and do whatever it took to fit with the changing conditions. But the closing of stores continued at other locations even after that as it had to close all stores temporally in the United Kingdom last month.
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