Apple stores now exceeding Tiffany's sales per square foot

[Graph of Apple retail sales through mid-2005. Click here for a larger version]. Source: Apple Computer financial presentation

Red Herring put out some great data from Sanford Bernstein Research this week showing that Apple's stores are posting more than $4,032 in annual revenue per square foot of space. That's more than six times the revenue per square foot at Neiman Marcus, four times that of Best Buy, and about one and a half times that at Tiffany's.

The article then proceeds to compare Apple's retail store strategy with that of Gateway's, which is a little bit like comparing the Four Seasons hotel chain's strategy with Holiday Inn's: they address different target markets and get different results. But given I spent almost a year defending Apple's retail strategy when they opened their first stores against a crowd of analysts claiming it was stupid, it's nice to have vindication through data, even if it is five years later.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Best Buy, Marketing, Merchandising, Neiman Marcus, Gateway, Retail, Tiffany