Apple Store Modernization Efforts Continue From Los Angeles to London - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Apple Store Modernization Efforts Continue From Los Angeles to London

Apple's process of modernizing its chain of over 500 retail stores continues in several major cities around the world.

Over the weekend, Apple celebrated the grand opening of its relocated Beverly Center store in Los Angeles. Apple's original store in the shopping mall, opened November 2005, permanently closed at the end of Friday.

apple beverly center

Apple's new Beverly Center store via Instagram

Apple's remodeled stores often gain additional square footage to accommodate an increased number of both products and customers. The extra space is also beneficial to Today at Apple sessions related to photography, coding, exercising with the Apple Watch, and other topics.

Apple's latest retail design, introduced in 2015, typically includes large glass doors, large video screens for product marketing and in-store events, and sequoia wood shelves on the walls for accessories.

Apple recently announced that its flagship Covent Garden store in London will be closed starting June 27 to allow for renovations to be completed. Of note, this location became Apple's largest store when it first opened in 2010, although it has since ceded the title to a newer store in the United Arab Emirates.

apple covent garden sign

A sign at Apple Covent Garden tipped by a MacRumors reader

Likewise, 9to5Mac's Michael Steeber reported that Apple Wangfujing in Beijing will be closed for renovations starting June 24.

Elsewhere in the Greater China region, Apple has revealed that it will be opening a second store in Macau, along the Cotai Strip, an area with several hotels, casinos, and resorts, earning it the nickname of the Las Vegas of Asia. Apple has yet to specify an exact opening date, but it could be within the next month.

image3

Apple's banner for its second store in Macau via MacRumors reader Chris Gooda

Apple's renovation efforts continue at its iconic Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan, and at its Palo Alto store, often visited by Apple CEO Tim Cook on product launch days due to its close proximity to Apple's headquarters.

fifth ave cube reinstalled

Apple reinstalling its glass cube on Fifth Avenue via MacRumors reader David Bills

Other regional stores closed for renovations include locations in Charlotte, Nashville, and Westchester County north of New York City.

Update: As noted by a MacRumors reader, Apple Causeway Bay in Hong Kong is also undergoing renovations, although the store remains open.

Update 2: Apple has announced on its store page for the Cotai Central location in Macau that the grand opening will be June 29.

Popular Stories

iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Wednesday March 18, 2026 7:39 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...
Apple Logo Sketch Feature

Apple Has Now Unveiled Eight New Products This Month

Tuesday March 17, 2026 9:25 am PDT by
Apple has unveiled a whopping eight new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, and now the AirPods Max 2 this week. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as the iPhone 16e, but it gains Apple's...
ios 26 4 yellow

Here Are Apple's Release Notes for iOS 26.4

Wednesday March 18, 2026 11:56 am PDT by
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4, which means we're going to see a public launch as soon as next week. The RC versions of the software include Apple's official release notes, giving us final details on what's included in the update. Apple Music - Playlist Playground (beta) generates a playlist from your...

Top Rated Comments

102 months ago
apple's product changes have been so miniscule in the past years that the value of these stores has decreased significantly. for me it is basically zero.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
102 months ago
You can tell its modern by how white the walls are and how little products are on display.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
102 months ago
Great products mean great sales, period. "Innovation" can be garbage too. Innovation doesn't necessarily make a great product.

A few innovative items:

* iPhone X
* Airpods
* Apple Watch with cellular
* A-Series Silicon
* FaceID
* Privacy/Security (Bugs are fixed, don't start saying these aren't industry leading)

Mac innovation isn't going to be as obvious because the product life cycle is longer and the size of the business is relatively smaller. Computers/Laptops are going to get updated processors and software, but they aren't going to move as fast as mobile and wearables.

I think Apple has done a phenomenal job managing the business. You don't innovate so fast that you lose sales. You slowly release features and market them to maximize sales. That's business. It's working, btw. If people buy and are satisfied with incremental innovations, it is smarter to release them as needed and when the features are fully vetted...not just innovating to innovate.
And to that I'd add MBPs with four ports of prodigious bandwidth multipurpose 40 Gb/sec Thunderbolt 3, 5K iMac displays with DCI-P3 color gamut, iMac Pro, Homepod, and ARKit.

In many ways, Apple is beholden to Intel. I suspect that will change within the next two years.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BrettArchibald Avatar
102 months ago
You can tell its modern by how white the walls are and how little products are on display.
"How white the walls are..." :rolleyes:

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
102 months ago
I guess you haven't really paid attention to all the changes they've made or they aren't valuable to you? Doesn't mean the changes have been "miniscule" to others or that the value of the stores has decreased.

The entire company is more valuable today than ever before, so it kind of refutes your thesis.
The value of the company and how good it's products are aren't mutually inclusive. matt_and_187_like_this ('https://forums.macrumors.com/members/matt_and_187_like_this.1007624/') is correct that Apple's product changes especially in regards to Mac have been demonstrably non-innovative and utterly lackluster since the round Mac Pro came out in 2013.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BrettArchibald Avatar
101 months ago
That's the store that hasn't been done yet. The Covent Garden Store, which IMO is FAR superior to the extremely sterile product-vacuum over on Regent St.

This upcoming refurb is a shame, because I've been using Covent Garden pretty much exclusively for the past couple of years, even though I work at the western end of Soho. I don't like the new design.
Yep, I know it's the Covent Garden store. I used to work in Covent Garden a few years ago.
I like the Apple Store there. It's quirky and has character, but I'll admit, it's not a very "Apple-like character"...
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)