Why Apple is opening a $30 million store that admittedly won't sell much

Apple CEO Tim Cook knows you're not buying every new iPhone, and that you're definitely not buying them in an Apple Store.

"Probably one of the least done things in an Apple Store is to buy something," Cook recently admitted to The Washington Post. But that doesn't mean he's having any doubts in Apple's newest Washington, D.C. store that's two years and presumably more than $30 million in the making.

While iPhones accounted for 60 percent of Apple's revenue last year, the company revealed Tuesday those sales fell 17 percent from this point last year. That's probably part of the reason why Apple is pivoting away from its hardware roots, like with the new Apple TV+ streaming service it announced earlier this year. But that also doesn't explain why Apple would spend millions of dollars to turn the long-vacant Carnegie Library in D.C. into its newest flagship store.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Then again, Cook doesn't exactly think it should be called a store, "because it’s more of a place for the community to use in a much broader way," he told the Post. The restored 116-year-old building will be one of 13 so-called "town square" Apple stores, offering classes in how to maximize the use of Apple products in addition to the usual sales and repairs. The Historical Society of Washington D.C. will also get a rent-free space in the building, and there will be a six-week launch event stacked with music performances and artsy parties. Everyone will be welcome inside, and they won't be greeted with a sales pitch, the Post says.

Still, some local activists are skeptical of a corporate entity seemingly spreading an egalitarian cause. Read more about it at The Washington Post.