By Claire Reilly
SYDNEY, NSW: Apples are popping up everywhere on the Australian retail tree at the moment.
Following the launch of a new iStore in the Western Sydney heartland of Penrith, the company behind the iPhone and MacBook is also set to open in Hornsby, Sydney, as well as the Melbourne suburb of Cheltenham.
While the continuing domination of the Apple brand may have many traditional retailers feeling nervous, the question remains as to how the rollout of a new store every 50 hours will affect Apple resellers.
According to Debra Singh, general manager of Dick Smith Electronics, the aggressive growth of Apple is not a threat to the company.
Click here to sign up for our FREE daily newsletter
“I’m actually pretty comfortable with what Apple is doing,” said Singh. “I wouldn’t want to see them in every one of our centres that we’re in. But certainly, wherever they are and we are, we coexist really well.”
“The great example of that is when they put their first big store in George Street in the city – we’ve got our George Street store literally in the same block. And we coexist there really, really well.
“There’s a great flow on effect from the Apple store into our store,” Singh continued. “And certainly the Apple stores drive a lot of education around the Apple products, and I think that’s good for retailers.”
Singh asserted that Apple product was “a very core part” of the Dick Smith business, and would remain so progressing into the future.