Microsoft Continues With Plans To Expand Retail Stores

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Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has no plans to slow down anytime soon. The large tech company just announced the six new stores that will open in 2013.  Geekwire shared the small list of upcoming retail locations in the following cities:  San Antonio, Miami, Beachwood(Ohio), San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and St. Louis. The retail shops will open up in upscale shopping centers like Westfield San Francisco and Dadeland Mall(Miami). At [press time, there is no exact date on when these locations will officially open although it’s most likely to be sometime next month.

This year, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) opened 51 new stores including “pop-up” stores, the latter of which opened up during the holiday season and offered a small selection of Microsoft products. The company also opened up their first international retail stores in Canada including Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, and Burnaby.  Next spring, Microsoft will open their first European store in London. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) also mentioned plans of opening even more stores in the future although the exact locations were not mentioned.

Microsoft’s retail stores were designed to compete with Apple retail stores and help them sell more Surface tablets and XBox 360 game consoles. It’s also important to point out that their retail stores also help them garner more software sales.

Nearly a year ago, Microsoft’s chief executive officer Steve Ballmer mentioned in an interview (via TNW) with BusinessWeek that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) must be “beat” and that they wanted to build their retail stores near Apple’s stores.

Jonathan Adashek (the company’s general manager for communications in the sales and marketing sector) also reminded us that their customers are genuinely appreciative of Microsoft’s retail employees and how they help the customers interact with the products.

Despite the company’s failure to compete with the likes of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is making a leap of faith this upcoming year with six new stores.

 

 

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