‘Meet me at Apple’ is Cupertino’s Gen Z dream

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Angela Ahrendts wants you to hang out at the Apple store.
Photo: Apple

“Shall we meet at the Apple store?”

That’s the kind of question Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior vice president of retail, wants Gen Z shoppers to ask one another, according to a new interview airing this week CBC This Morning.

Set to air tomorrow on CBS from 7am to 9am ET and PT the interview with show co-host Norah O’Donnell will include Ahrendts’ strategy behind the redesigned Apple stores, her approach to leadership, and her take on why Tim Cook hired her for the job from her previous role running Burberry.

With more and more high street stores shuttering, the idea of pushing Apple stores to be meeting experience-based places makes more sense than ever. As Ahrendts says in the preview:

“A lot of the big online guys have said they’re opening stores. Amazon’s investing in stores. Google’s investing in stores… Starbucks figured it out, you know? Being a gathering place for – right? ‘Meet me at Starbucks. And you know, I’ve told the teams, ‘I’ll know we’ve done a really, really great job if the next generation, if Gen Z says, ‘Meet me at Apple. Did you see what’s going on at Apple today?’”

This isn’t the first time Ahrendts has stated similar goals. In an interview at Fortune‘s “Most Powerful Women” conference last year, she stated that her vision for Apple stores was based around the idea of them becoming “town square” style “community hubs.”

Ahrendts isn’t the first person to think of making Apple stores places to meet and hang out, however. Steve Jobs was the one who pushed for it, back before internet shopping had reached the level that it is today. Ahrendts is just continuing his legacy:

Do you think Apple does a good job of making its stores somewhere you’d like to hang out? Leave your comments below.

Source: CBS News

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