![]() ![]() Walking around the stores, a couple of things strike you as particularly thoughtful and customer friendly. Another thing that’s common to both stores – both run on 100% renewable energy and are carbon neutral, with the BKC store touting a dedicated solar array to ensure zero reliance on fossil fuels for store operations. However, I did notice that third-party accessories were yet to make their presence felt on the store shelves in BKC and Saket. The accessories on offer are without fault, and you can find an extensive selection of cables, adapters, watch straps, many of which are typically missing at the reseller stores. The smaller store size hasn’t meant compromises in terms of the product selection and, as with the BKC store, you can find each color variant of each product – iPhone, Mac, iPad, HomePod, AirPod Max – that you can touch and feel before purchase. The Today at Apple sessions are to be found alongside this wall, around smaller circular tables where experts can hold forth with customers on education around Apple products and services. Utilizing a curved storefront, the store features the familiar white oak tables and walls covered with accessories, audio products and Apple services (Arcade, Music)… except the one feature wall that’s made of locally sourced wood that adds an air of warmth to the store. Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., right, greets customers during the opening of the new Apple Saket store in New Delhi, India, on Thursday, April 20, 2023. The Saket store in Delhi, on the other hand, feels a lot more like an Apple Store one would have seen inside many malls in the US, a significantly smaller-by-comparison (estimated to be over 8,000 sq ft) retail outlet that lines up alongside other stores in the popular Select Citywalk Mall. This very much feels like a flagship store to lead Apple’s retail initiatives in India. The thing that strikes you most about the store is that while it isn’t as much of a visual marvel as some stores in Dubai, Singapore and Bangkok, the airy, expansive space that the store has at its disposal (estimated to be over 20,000 sq ft), and the intelligent use of natural light to illuminate the space makes it stand out. The rest of the store, from the wide pro-accessibility aisles (and elevator access to the upper level) to the neat rows of white oak tables all follow the signature pattern of minimalism and a visually striking display of the brand’s latest products. ![]() On the other, besides the indoor trees, is a large screen and seating for the informative Today at Apple sessions. Each of the over 450,000 individual timber elements in the Mumbai store were assembled in Delhi, which joins the two stone walls that greet customers upon entering the store (sourced from Kota, Rajasthan) as the two local Indian elements to the store.Īt one side of the store, a 14-meter long stainless steel staircase takes you up from the expansive ground level to the cantilevered mezzanine which houses the Genius Bar (for resolving queries and issues) and a host of accessories for Apple products. ![]() The ceiling, which extends outwards past the glass wall like a sombrero and distinctly identifies the store, is made from 408 pieces of timber, forming 31 modules per tile with a total of 1,000 tiles that make up the ceiling. The BKC Store in Mumbai is located in a prominent corner location within the upscale Jio World Drive mall, with a wraparound double-height glass wall that soars upwards of 25 feet to its rather unique triangular ceiling. We took the Mumbai and Delhi stores for a spin, and here are our first impressions. It’s no shiny gadget, though.įor all these years, Apple has relied primarily on third-party resellers to get its products physically in front of Indian consumers, a reliance that ended this week with the opening of the Apple BKC and Apple Saket store. Ever so often, Apple’s shiny new products find mention on these pages, but there’s a particular offering from the Cupertino giant that’s been curiously absent even as the brand marks 25 years of operations in India…or 15 years since it first started selling its iPhone in India.
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