Sales giant at Hackesche Höfe

Great Surprise: Apple CEO Tim Cook himself shows up

This morning, there’s a round of loud applause. Surprise! Apple CEO Tim Cook himself shows up, followed by Apple's retail and people chief Deirdre O'Brien and other executives. A quick chat with developers and the increasingly excited employees: "Thanks for the warm welcome from the team at Apple Rosenthaler Straße in Berlin!" Tim Cook tweets afterwards. After half an hour, the visit is over, and the top managers disappear – leaving behind a completely exhausted Apple workshop instructor. "This is so wonderful! I never thought Tim would come by here in person!" says the young man. He has been working at the Apple Store on Rosenthaler Straße for a year, having previously spent many years at Apple’s location on Kurfürstendamm. "It's just exciting here. It's a completely different crowd," he says. The customers are younger and more international. And the store is one of the most modern in the world.

Creativity and historical roots

Tim Cook's visit to Berlin shows how important the store and its location are for Apple. "We are very excited to open our second store in Berlin – right in the heart of Mitte," Deirdre O'Brien had said at the opening in December 2021. The new store is located near Hackesche Höfe, in the neighborhood of design companies, art studios and historical sights of Berlin, as the head of the retail division emphasized.

The company now operates more than 500 shops around the world. The stores are very important to Apple. Studies from the U.S. show that some stores generate the equivalent of more than 60,000 euros per square meter. That's why Apple carefully selects the locations for its stores.

International clientele

More than 130 employees work in the new store on Rosenthaler Straße. Because the audience strolling through the streets of the Spandauer Vorstadt is so international, there’s lively chatter in a variety of languages.

The store has an impact on the entire neighborhood. Such a high-turnover store leads to high shop rentals and makes the area around Hackescher Markt attractive for a new audience. And coming out of the Apple Store and strolling over to Hackescher Markt on market day, you’ll dive into an analog world of fruit, silver jewelry and smoked fish instead of digital products.  

But with its design, the Apple Store picks up on the concept of the marketplace. In the center of the salesroom, products are placed on tables, with other items on shelves and display windows on the walls. In the back, a giant flat-screen plays clips and info. Light, wood and real trees in the enormous space create a pleasant campus feel. Apple's goal: to create an experience for customers and a space for encounters.