Apple reboots its retail experience, now with temperature checks and long lines

Apple has already reopened 100 stores globally and is enforcing strict social distancing.

May 18, 2020 at 4:38 p.m. EDT

An employee wearing a protective mask checks the temperature of customers outside an Apple store in Shanghai. (Qilai Shen/Bloomberg)

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple’s retail stores are known for crowded areas of display devices ready for experimenting and the ability to make a purchase without needing to line up at a cash register.

But as the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant reopens about 100 of its retail stores globally, the customer experience is bound to feel different. Apple will be enforcing strict social distancing guidelines in its stores, Apple retail and human resources chief Deirdre O’Brien wrote in a public letter this weekend. The company will cap the number of people allowed in to keep at least six feet between everyone, will require masks and will check customers’ temperatures before they enter. Some stores will only do curbside pickup.