Apple Stores Said to Lose Video Walls, Regain Dedicated Genius Bars

The useful part

Apple plans to rework the "Avenue," its term for the side sections of a store where accessories and services are displayed, reinstate standalone Genius Bars, and remove the large video screens installed in many locations. Pickup and Today at Apple, which typically share a counter and a seating area today, will each get their own compact section along the Avenue, described internally as a "bay" and measuring about 10 feet across. For pickup, Gurman described plans for an all-wood bay with a faint Apple logo worked into the upper section, with lockable drawers underneath for holding customer orders, fronted by a counter where staff can hand items over.

How it works

• Apple is working on a sweeping retail overhaul that would bring back dedicated Genius Bars to its stores, carve out new spaces for order pickup and Today at Apple classes, and do away with oversized video...
• The video walls being phased out trace back to the retail vision pursued under former retail chief Angela Ahrendts, who treated Apple stores as public gathering places rather than purely transacti...