Thousands flock to Apple's first official store in Delhi; CEO Tim Cook welcomes customers

Apple chief executive Tim Cook on Thursday welcomed customers at the company’s first store opened in the national capital and second in the country.

Thousands of people have flocked to the store on day one.

Apple fans and customers started queuing up outside the mall at 6 am to be among the first lot who can get to meet Cook.

By the time the store opened at 10 am, there were thousands of fans, customers and enthusiasts at the mall.

“What an incredible reception, Delhi, thank you! We’re delighted to welcome our customers to our newest store — Apple Saket!” Cook tweeted after he greeted people at the store.

Apple CEO tweeted his photo with a 5-year-old kid Ranvir Sachdeva, who shared his interest in coding.

Sachdeva, who was accompanied by his parents, shared that Cook asked him to come to the Worldwide Developers Conference.

A fan of Apple products Arjun Parashar, who was among the people in the queue, said that he has been waiting outside the mall since 6 am. Parashar said that his grandfather was also a fan of Apple products and loved the iPod.

“I lost my grandfather to Covid. I am here to buy an iPod which he always loved,” Parashar said.

While selfie was a common thing that people opted for when they met Cook, people touched the feet of the Apple CEO to mark respect for him and also took autograph on old devices. People continued to queue up for the store till the evening.

Over 6,000 people are estimated to have visited the store till the time the story was filed.

Located at Select Citywalk Mall in Delhi, the barricade for Apple Saket features a unique design that takes inspiration from Delhi’s many gates. The Saket store is smaller than the Apple store in Jio World Drive at Bandra Kurla Complex on Tuesday.

Apple Saket store in Delhi is half the size of the Mumbai store where the company will pay a portion of total sales from the store as rent or Rs 40 lakh per month, whichever is higher, according to sources.

The company has more than 70 highly skilled retail team members at the Saket store, who come from 18 states of India and collectively speak more than 15 languages.

People at the store can get to learn about the usage of Apple products for free and experience the devices without any compulsion to buy them.

The store will also provide repair services.

The company has been selling products in India through exclusive Apple Premium Reseller (APR) stores, large format retail chains like Reliance Digital, Croma etc, multi-brand retail stores and through e-commerce platforms.

Apple has over 100 APR stores in India.

One of the APR stores was located in the Select CityWalk Mall which had to shift to a nearby mall to pave the way for the Apple Store.

Apple is estimated to have 500 official stores across the globe, which includes two newly opened units in India.

Cook also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday as the iPhone manufacturer is looking to invest more in the world’s second-largest smartphone market.

According to government sources, the iPhone maker is likely to double the employment base at its contract manufacturers in India to around 2 lakh soon.

Cook, on his first trip to India in seven years, opened Apple’s first official retail store in the country in Mumbai on Tuesday.

Cook had last visited India in 2016 when the tech giant was just beginning to scale up operations in the country.

Looking to replicate what China did to Apple’s business in the last 15 years, the tech giant is eyeing India’s massive market with an expanding middle class to power sales growth, and potentially make it a home base for the production of millions of Apple devices.

Cook during his visit met Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

As per the sources, Cook has sought government support to widen its components supplier base in India.

Apple CEO is learnt to have also discussed manufacturing facilities and app design and development accelerator in Bengaluru with both ministers.

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