Apple Closes 2 More Stores In Response to Chinese Coronavirus

Image via Macrumors The Chinese coronavirus has progressed to its worst stages and is still continuing to progress in the country. While...

Image via Macrumors

The Chinese coronavirus has progressed to its worst stages and is still continuing to progress in the country. While Apple is donating to the organisations helping out with the outbreak, they also closed two more of their retail stores in the country, with one closed since yesterday. The closures are important for the safety and well-being of customers and Apple employees while the coronavirus takes a toll on 7,700 cases including 162 deaths.

The first Apple Store closure in China started at the Qingdao location, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook in the first-quarter earnings report. The two locations that are recently closed from the outbreak include the Nanjing and Fuzhou stores, set to reopen on February 3rd.  The Qingdao store will reopen a day after the other stores reopening, which is February 4th. Other China Apple Store locations are under special hours, meaning that they are only open for short periods of time a day. In addition to preventing Apple employees from getting infected with the virus, care kits will be provided to employees in Wuhan, China and employee travels are restricted to “business-critical” operations.

Not only the Apple Stores in China are closed, but Apple’s supplier and manufacturing plants will be shut down due to the Lunar New Year and coronavirus outbreak. Only a few plants are closed until February 10th, which Cook said that closing all of the manufacturing plants would make an impact on iPhone production. The Cupertino company is still continuing to gather data from the coronavirus as the virus continues to spread in China and many other countries.

As a result of the store closures in China, sales revenue in the retail stores have been dropping due to the closures and the fears of customers and employees getting the virus. This means that Apple set the guidance for next quarter’s retail sales revenue at $63 to $67 billion dollars, which is above average than the usual range. Tim Cook says that this $4 billion range is reflective of the coronavirus outbreak and the uncertainty of it.