(Reuters) – Apple Inc will temporarily close 17 of its 20 stores in France from Oct. 30, as the country goes into a fresh one-month lockdown due to a resurgence of coronavirus cases, the company’s website showed.
Apple’s Opéra, Les Quatre Temps, and Rosny 2 stores in Paris will remain open, the company’s website showed. Those three stores are using Apple’s new “Express” format, according to the site.
Apple is expanding the “Express” format this month in hopes of still being able to serve customers in areas with high numbers of coronavirus cases, while meeting its own health and safety standards for employees and customers, the company’s retail chief told Reuters earlier this month.
The new format has a wall in front of the main store, with sales counters protected by plexiglass and a few shelves of accessories. Customers make an appointment to pick up orders placed online.
The company’s 15 stores in Germany will remain open, according to Apple’s website.
Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
(Reporting by Aishwarya Nair and Juby Babu in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; editing by Vinay Dwivedi and Richard Pullin)
