Apple to reopen many of its stores in May, report says

The majority of Apple’s retail stores outside of China have been closed since mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic, but this should change fairly soon. 

According to a Bloomberg report, the company plans to open “many more” of its retail stores in May. The report cites Deirdre O’Brien, vice president of retail and people at Apple, who shared the news in a video update with employees. 

“We are continuing to analyze this health situation in every location, and I do expect we will reopen up many more stores in May,” she said. 

Apart from Chinese stores, Apple also reopened a retail store in Seoul in April, but stores in other parts of the world are still on hold.  

O’Brien shared no details on which stores, exactly, will reopen in May. However, Bloomberg says O’Brien previously told employees that some locations in the U.S. should resume operations in early May. MacRumors quotes another source as saying that Apple aims to open its retail stores in North America by mid-June. 

Apple is scheduled to report its earnings for the March quarter on April 30, and the numbers will likely be strongly affected by the store closures as well as disruptions to Apple’s supply chain in January and February, when the coronavirus epidemic was raging in China. The company’s earnings in the June quarter will be highly dependent on retail stores reopening. However, the company is bound by local shelter-in-place orders, some of which expire in May, while some are being extended, possibly into June.