Vogue Business recently met with Angela Ahrendts, Apple's SVP of retail on the steps of its soon-to-be-unveiled Washington, DC, flagship store. Apple began eyeing that location back in 2016 and got approval for it in July 2017. Vogue's Suzy Menkes spoke to Ahrendts while they picked their way past Carnegie Library’s historic pillars and through concrete and rubble as a hard-hat brigade were in the process of inserting beacons into the new Apple Store's walls.

Ahrendts told Menkes that "We don’t talk a lot about it but there are thousands of beacons behind those walls. These location-aware sensors connect with the Apple Store app on iPhones, sending visitors a greeting when they arrive in store, and prompting them to skip the cash register and pay for purchases via the app as they approach the accessories area."

As we renovate every store we update all of the technology. We don’t want to be gimmicky, but stores need to become living, breathing spaces, not just two-dimensional boxes."

Apple Stores are thriving in a very difficult environment where shoppers are making more purchases online every year. Ahrendts believes that building long-term relationships with its customers is key.

Ahrendts: "We are now opening fewer, larger stores so that you can get the full experience of everything that’s Apple." In the case of the new Carnege store, "we’ll have field trips with busloads of kids; or they will be coming in learning to code every morning. It’s a different type of investment."

“I think as humans we still need gathering places,” Ahrendts says. “And when you are serving digital natives, the thing they long for more than anything is human connection. Eye contact.”

Its ‘Today at Apple’ programme offers classes, talks, concerts and workshops, each designed, in Ahrendts’s words, to “enrich lives”. The lineup is part whimsy and part inspiration, including events like “Drawing Treehouses with Foster + Partners”, fitness walks and “Make Your Own Emoji” sessions for kids.

While the number one product for Apple is the iPhone, the stores are more about the Mac says Ahrendts, a surprising revelation.

Ahrendts background is fashion and led London's Burberry Retail. Ahrendts admitted that she's "loved fashion for 40 years. It is wonderful when you know everything there is to know about the industry because you grew up in it. There are things about the fashion industry that I miss, but I went to Apple because I felt it was a calling to one of the greatest companies on the planet." For more of Vogue's article, click here.

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