Apple has made a slight adjustment in how it refers to its retail locations. The Cupertino company has rebranded the chain by dropping the “Store” moniker when referring to its Apple Store locations.
The change can be seen online, where all of its store pages now refer to the retail locations by titles like “Apple the Grove,” or “Apple Fifth Avenue,” instead of “Apple Store, The Grove,” and Apple Store, Fifth Avenue,” respectively. Apple apparently quietly began the rebranding effort with the launch of newer locations, such as the Union Square store in San Francisco, which has always been referred to as Apple Union Square.
MacRumors notes an archived page or the Fifth Avenue Apple Store still had the older branding as of August 12, suggesting this is a fairly recent modification to Apple’s retail plan.
Apple reportedly sent a recent memo to retail employees informing them of the branding change, which said the change will be a gradual one, and will start with new stores, although Apple website pages for almost all the company’s retail locations have been updated to delete the “Store” reference.
The change is believed to be a part of Apple’s attempt to present its retail locations as more then just a place to buy or repair Apple products, and instead encourage people to treat the locations as community gathering places, where they can come to hear talks, enjoy musical performances, and more in addition to coming in to get advice, help, and training on Apple devices.
