Apple has announced a new UK retail store in Leeds opening this Thursday, while also posting job ads in Germany for a store in Düsseldorf [Google translation] and a second store in Munich [Google translation]. Apple typically advertises for staff 6-9 months before a store opens, suggesting that the German stores could open late this year.
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The unusual Thursday opening for the new store in Leeds coincides with the grand opening of the Trinity Leeds shopping center where the store is located.
Leeds, situated in the north of England, is Britain's third-largest city (after London and Birmingham), making it surprising that Apple has waited this long. Munich is coincidentally Germany's third-ranking city (behind Berlin and Hamburg), and was rated Germany's most liveable city by Monocle magazine. Düsseldorf is best known as an international business hub, playing host to around 20% of the world's major trade fairs.
Apple currently has over 400 stores worldwide, with global sales exceeding $20 billion in fiscal 2012. Apple has long held the top spot in revenue per square foot among top retail chains, with the most recent estimates for Apple topping $6000 per square foot, double that of Tiffany & Co.
Top Rated Comments
Look, I corrected it for you.
Leeds, situated in the north of England, is Britain's fourth-largest city (after London, Birmingham and Manchester), making it surprising that Apple has waited this long.
As a Mancunian I am used to having to reluctantly accept Brummies' delusions of superiority, based purely on population statistics. However, this usurping by the admittedly fine city of Leeds is a new one on me.
Look, I corrected it for you.
I logged on just to make the exact same comment. iManc.
At last an Apple store in God's own country, West Yorkshire. It opens on my wife's birthday too so I may take her there for a treat. Being from Yorkshire we of course won't go in and actually buy anything.
Fly in class there! You must be grateful theres an Apple Store in Yorkshire, I thought leaving the County was frowned upon? :cool:
I think we must be confusing the Americans on here with the casual inter-county discrimination :D
By authority Leeds is indeed the third biggest with a population of 750,700 while Manchester is only the ninth largest with just 502,900. Although on this scale the entire county of Cornwall is fifth because it is covered by a single local authority.
By population of just the city itself, excluding suburbs with their own separate identity, Leeds is fourth at 477,600 with Glasgow in third. Manchester is fifth with 465,900 residents, only 400 more than Bristol.
The only scale on which Manchester does beat Leeds is when counting the urban area, which effectively covers surrounding towns and cities where there is a continuous urban spread.
On that scale Greater Manchester, with a population of 2,362,849, is second only to London, while West Yorkshire is only fourth with 1,616,608. Of course that does mean counting the likes of Oldham, Stockport, Bolton, and Rochdale, and even extending into parts of Cheshire and Lancashire to make up that area. For West Yorkshire extends south and west to include Bradford, Huddersfield, and Wakefield, and the towns in between.
The urban area is clearly not a good definition for a city because it does include so many other places that are known and identified as distinctly separate places.
So in short, Mac Rumors are correct to consider Leeds the third biggest.
Populations are all the most recent ONS figures.