Apple is re-closing seven stores in Houston due to COVID-19 concerns

While Apple continues to monitor the situation regrading the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease it causes, the company continues to make changes in regards to its physical retail stores.

The company, like other companies that have physical retail stores, wants its stores re-opened, but only if it’s safe to do so. On June 16, it was confirmed that Apple would be re-opening more than 70 stores across the United States and Canada. And then, on June 19, the company said it would be re-closing 11 stores across four states in the U.S. due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns.

So it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster.

Apple has been re-opening stores in regions it believes to be safe to do so since mid-May, but as the situation continues to evolve the company makes changes as necessary. In each of these cases the store re-closures are all temporary, and Apple will eventually decide to re-open them when the time is right. As noted by 9to5Mac today, Apple re-opened stores in Colorado, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Virginia, Illinois, Maryland, and Minnesota. So even as some states see re-closures others are still re-opening.

Per the original report, here are the seven stores in Houston, Texas, that are re-closing as of Thursday, June 25:

  • Highland Village
  • First Colony Mall
  • Houston Galleria
  • Memorial City
  • Willowbrook Mall
  • Baybrook
  • The Woodlands

Apple stresses that the re-closures are due to an overabundance of caution:

Due to current COVID-19 conditions in some of the communities we serve, we are temporarily closing stores in these areas. We take this step with an abundance of caution as we closely monitor the situation and we look forward to having our teams and customers back as soon as possible. For help with an Apple product, more ways to shop, or additional information on our stores, please visit http://apple.com/retail.

Unfortunately, this is simply the nature of the situation right now. Apple will re-open stores as it sees fit, based on the information it has, but the same thing can be said about closing them, too. And until the coronavirus pandemic is truly mitigated, store hours will continue to fluctuate.

Is your local Apple Store open?