All Apple stores in Australia reopening on Thursday sans Sydney one

Apple has acknowledged that it will be reopening a bunch of company-owned brick-and-mortar locations in Australia, a 25 million people market, on Thursday, May 7, 2020.

9to5Mac first reported this yesterday, based on Apple’s retail websites in Australia.

21 of Australia’s 22 Apple Stores will reopen on May 7 at 10:00 am following extended closures due to the coronavirus pandemic. […] Reduced operating hours, physical distancing and a focus on support — it’s a familiar tune. Apple’s tried-and-true guidelines for safe and responsible store reopenings will extend to Australia.

Apple’s store in Sydney, however, won’t reopen:

The flagship location closed in January for renovations that are expected to include a Today at Apple Forum for creative sessions. It’s not known if the coronavirus pandemic had a significant impact on the renovation timeline, but celebrating a remodeled store in the midst of public health crisis wouldn’t be appropriate.

Precautions include social distancing measures, temperature checks, limiting the number of customers in a store at one time, using and giving face masks to customers who don’t have one, focusing on device repairs and order pickups, and s forth.

As you know, all Apple Stores outside Greater China have been temporarily shuttered because of the ongoing health crisis due to the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, a disease it causes.

The Cupertino tech giant today re-opened its lone store in Vienna, Austria, marking the second Apple location that has reopened outside of Greater China after its South Korean store, located in Seoul’s Gangnam district, re-opened its doors to customers last week.

Just like with Australia’s store re-openings, the Vienna store currently operates on limited hours from 11am until 6pm because of the ongoing health crisis.

Apple’s retail head Deirdre O’Brien told staff that “many more”store re-openings are due in May, based on her email to retail troops that was seen by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

Photo: Apple’s store in Brisbane, Australia