Apple Store
Apple Store is a chain of retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc. The stores sell Mac personal computers, iPhone smartphones, iPad tablet computers, iPod portable media players, Apple Watch smartwatches, Apple TV digital media players and select third-party accessories; the first Apple Stores were opened as two locations in May 2001 by then-CEO Steve Jobs, after years of attempting but failing store-within-a-store concepts. Seeing a need for improved retail presentation of the company's products, he began an effort in 1997 to revamp the retail program to get an improved relationship to consumers, hired Ron Johnson in 2000. Jobs relaunched Apple's online store in 1997, opened the first two physical stores in 2001. Despite initial media speculation that Apple would fail, its stores were successful, by passing the sales numbers of competing nearby stores and within three years reached US$1 billion in annual sales, becoming the fastest retailer in history to do so. Over the years, Apple has expanded the number of retail locations and its geographical coverage, with 506 stores across 25 countries worldwide as of 2018.
Strong product sales have placed Apple among the top-tier retail stores, with sales over $16 billion globally in 2011. In May 2016, Angela Ahrendts, Apple's current Senior Vice President of Retail, unveiled a redesigned Apple Store in Union Square, San Francisco, featuring large glass doors for the entry, open spaces, rebranded rooms. In addition to purchasing products, consumers can get advice and help from "Creative Pros" – individuals with specialized knowledge of creative arts; the new design will be applied to all Apple Stores worldwide, a process that has seen stores temporarily relocate or close. Many Apple Stores are located inside shopping malls, but Apple has built several stand-alone "flagship" stores in high-profile locations, it has been granted design patents and received architectural awards for its stores' designs and construction for its use of glass staircases and cubes. The success of Apple Stores have had significant influence over other consumer electronics retailers, who have lost traffic and profits due to a perceived higher quality of service and products at Apple Stores.
Apple's notable brand loyalty among consumers causes long lines of hundreds of people at new Apple Store openings or product releases. Due to the popularity of the brand, Apple receives a large number of job applications, many of which come from young workers. Although Apple Store employees receive above-average pay, are offered money toward education and health care, receive product discounts, there are limited or no paths of career advancement. A May 2016 report with an anonymous retail employee highlighted a hostile work environment with harassment from customers, intense internal criticism, a lack of significant bonuses for securing major business contracts. Many Apple Stores are located inside shopping malls, but Apple has built several stand-alone "flagship" stores in high-profile locations, such as the one located in Grand Central Terminal in New York City. Several multi-level stores feature glass staircases, some glass bridges; the New York Times wrote in 2011 that these features were part of then-CEO Steve Jobs' extensive attention to detail, Apple received a design patent in 2002 for its glass staircase design.
Apple has partnered with architectural firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson in designing and creating its original retail stores, has in recent years partnered with architectural firm Foster + Partners in designing its newer stores, as well as its corporate Apple Park campus. Apple has received numerous architectural awards for its store designs, its "iconic" glass cube, designed in part by Peter Bohlin, at Apple's Fifth Avenue store in New York City, received a separate design patent in 2014. Ron Johnson held the position of Senior Vice President of Retail Operations from 2001 until November 1, 2011. During his tenure, it was reported that while Johnson was responsible for site selection, in-store service, store layout, inventory was controlled by then-COO and now-CEO Tim Cook, who has a background in supply chain management. In January 2012, Apple transferred retail leadership to John Browett. However, after attempts to cut costs, including reducing new hires and limiting staff hours, he was fired after six months telling a conference that he "just didn’t fit with the way they ran the business".
In October 2013, Apple hired Angela Ahrendts from Burberry. Due to the popularity of the brand, applicants for jobs at Apple Stores are numerous, with many young workers applying; the pace of work iPad. Employees work for only a few years as career prospects are limited with no path of advancement other than limited retail management slots. Apple Store employees make above-average pay for retail employees and are offered money toward college tuitions, gym memberships, health care, 401 plans, product discounts, reduced price on purchase of stock; the retention rate for the technicians who staff the Genius Bar is over 90%. A May 2016 Business Insider article featured a lengthy interview with an anonymous Apple Store retail worker in the United Kingdom, where the employee highlighted significant dissatisfactions and issues for retail workers, including harassment and death threats from customers, an intense internal criticism policy that feels "like a cult", a lack of any significant bonus if a worker manages to secure a business contract worth "hundre
Banana Republic
Banana Republic is an American clothing and accessories retailer owned by the American multinational corporation Gap Inc. It was founded in 1978, by Mel and Patricia Ziegler with the name "Banana Republic Travel & Safari Clothing Company", with a safari theme. In late 2016, the brand announced Olivia Palermo as its first women's global style ambassador; the original Banana Republic was founded by Mel and Patricia Ziegler in 1978. The couple were known for acquiring interesting clothing items that their travel-related jobs brought them in contact with, they opened a store in the Mill Valley area of Northern California. They were known for a hand-drawn catalogue of items with fictional traveler/explorer stories printed alongside, their safari-themed retail locations; the Zieglers recount their adventures in the first ten years in their memoir, Wild Company, published in 2012 by Simon and Schuster. Gap Inc. acquired Banana Republic in 1983. Rebranding it as a mainstream luxury clothing retailer; the literate articles, hand-drawn catalog, eccentric tourist-oriented items were phased out and were replaced with more luxurious, but not unique, items for which the brand is known.
The company operates more than 500 Banana Republic stores in the United States, 40 stores in Canada, 61 stores beyond North America. The Gap, Inc. is expanding its international presence with franchise agreements for Gap and Banana Republic in Asia and the Middle East. In 2015 Banana Republic opened a new flagship in Manhattan on 18th Street. Banana Republic opened its first store outside North America in 2005 in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district. Banana Republic's presence in South Korea debuted in August 2007 with a store in the Apkujeong district of Seoul. In 2007, the first Banana Republic stores opened at The Avenues shopping mall in Kuwait City, Kuwait. Banana Republic opened its first store in Turkey in March 2008 in the Kanyon Shopping Mall in Istanbul. By May 2008, İstinye Park Shopping Mall and Nişantaşı stores were opened in Istanbul. More stores are planned to be opened in Ankara and İzmir by the end of 2008 to bring the total number of stores in Turkey to six. Banana Republic opened in Saudi Arabia in late 2008, with a store in Mall of Arabia in Jeddah and a second in Riyadh Gallery Mall in Riyadh in March 2009.
On March 2008, Banana Republic opened its 17,000-square-foot store on Regent Street in London, England. On May 9, 2008, Banana Republic opened its store on Greenbelt 5 in Makati City, Philippines. On October 2016, Banana Republic announced that it would close all its UK stores by the end of the year, due to falling sales; as of 2017, Banana Republic had over 700 locations. As of the end of the first quarter of 2011, Banana Republic had 682 company-owned or franchised stores in operation across 32 countries, shipped to 21 countries through company owned websites, had the ability to ship to more than 50 countries through a 3rd party. In October 2017, a Banana Republic manager was fired after he told an employee that her box braids were too "urban" and "unkempt" for the store's image and that she couldn't receive any shifts until she removed them. U. S. official website Canadian official website Japanese official website European official website
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state located in the northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The Appalachian Mountains run through its middle; the Commonwealth is bordered by Delaware to the southeast, Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, Lake Erie and the Canadian province of Ontario to the northwest, New York to the north, New Jersey to the east. Pennsylvania is the 33rd-largest state by area, the 6th-most populous state according to the most recent official U. S. Census count in 2010, it is the 9th-most densely populated of the 50 states. Pennsylvania's two most populous cities are Philadelphia, Pittsburgh; the state capital and its 10th largest city is Harrisburg. Pennsylvania has 140 miles of waterfront along the Delaware Estuary; the state is one of the 13 original founding states of the United States. Part of Pennsylvania, together with the present State of Delaware, had earlier been organized as the Colony of New Sweden.
It was the second state to ratify the United States Constitution, on December 12, 1787. Independence Hall, where the United States Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution were drafted, is located in the state's largest city of Philadelphia. During the American Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg was fought in the south central region of the state. Valley Forge near Philadelphia was General Washington's headquarters during the bitter winter of 1777–78. Pennsylvania is 170 miles north to south and 283 miles east to west. Of a total 46,055 square miles, 44,817 square miles are land, 490 square miles are inland waters, 749 square miles are waters in Lake Erie, it is the 33rd-largest state in the United States. Pennsylvania has 51 miles of coastline along Lake Erie and 57 miles of shoreline along the Delaware Estuary. Of the original Thirteen Colonies, Pennsylvania is the only state that does not border the Atlantic Ocean; the boundaries of the state are the Mason–Dixon line to the south, the Twelve-Mile Circle on the Pennsylvania-Delaware border, the Delaware River to the east, 80° 31' W to the west and the 42° N to the north, with the exception of a short segment on the western end, where a triangle extends north to Lake Erie.
Cities include Philadelphia, Reading and Lancaster in the southeast, Pittsburgh in the southwest, the tri-cities of Allentown and Easton in the central east. The northeast includes the former anthracite coal mining cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton. Erie is located in the northwest. State College serves the central region while Williamsport serves the commonwealth's north-central region as does Chambersburg the south-central region, with York and the state capital Harrisburg on the Susquehanna River in the east-central region of the Commonwealth and Altoona and Johnstown in the west-central region; the state has five geographical regions, namely the Allegheny Plateau and Valley, Atlantic Coastal Plain and the Erie Plain. New York Ontario Maryland Delaware West Virginia New Jersey Ohio Pennsylvania's diverse topography produces a variety of climates, though the entire state experiences cold winters and humid summers. Straddling two major zones, the majority of the state, with the exception of the southeastern corner, has a humid continental climate.
The southern portion of the state has a humid subtropical climate. The largest city, has some characteristics of the humid subtropical climate that covers much of Delaware and Maryland to the south. Summers are hot and humid. Moving toward the mountainous interior of the state, the winter climate becomes colder, the number of cloudy days increases, snowfall amounts are greater. Western areas of the state locations near Lake Erie, can receive over 100 inches of snowfall annually, the entire state receives plentiful precipitation throughout the year; the state may be subject to severe weather from spring through summer into fall. Tornadoes occur annually in the state, sometimes in large numbers, such as 30 recorded tornadoes in 2011; as of 1600, the tribes living in Pennsylvania were the Algonquian Lenape, the Iroquoian Susquehannock & Petun and the Siouan Monongahela Culture, who may have been the same as a little known tribe called the Calicua, or Cali. Other tribes who entered the region during the colonial era were the Trockwae, Saponi, Nanticoke, Conoy Piscataway, Iroquois Confederacy—possibly among others.
Other tribes, like the Erie, may have once held some land in Pennsylvania, but no longer did so by the year 1600. Both the Dutch and the English claimed both sides of the Delaware River as part of their colonial lands in America; the Dutch were the first to take possession. By June 3, 1631, the Dutch had begun settling the Delmarva Peninsula by establishing the Zwaanendael Colony on the site of present-day Lewes, Delaware. In 1638, Sweden established the New Sweden Colony, in the region of Fort Christina, on the site of present-day Wilmington, Delaware. New Sweden claimed and, for the most part, controlled the lower Delaware River region (parts of present-day Delaware, New Jersey, Pe
Gap Inc.
The Gap, Inc. known as Gap Inc. or Gap, is an American worldwide clothing and accessories retailer. Gap was founded in 1969 by Donald Fisher and Doris F. Fisher and is headquartered in San Francisco, California; the company operates six primary divisions: Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Hill City, Athleta. Gap Inc. is the largest specialty retailer in the United States, is 3rd in total international locations, behind Inditex Group and H&M. As of September 2008, the company has 135,000 employees and operates 3,727 stores worldwide, of which 2,406 are located in the U. S; the Fisher family remains involved in the company, collectively owning much of its stock. Donald Fisher served as Chairman of the Board until 2004, playing a role in the ouster of then-CEO Millard Drexler in 2002, remained on the board until his death on September 27, 2009. Fisher's wife and their son, Robert J. Fisher serve on Gap's board of directors. Robert succeeded his father as chairman in 2004 and served as CEO on an interim basis following the resignation of Paul Pressler in 2007, before being succeeded by Glenn K. Murphy up until 2014.
On February 1, 2015, Art Peck took over as CEO of Gap Inc. In 1959, Don Fisher, a California commercial real estate broker specializing in retail store location, was a social friend of Walter "Wally" Haas Jr, President of Levi Strauss & Co. Fisher was inspired by the sudden success of'The Tower of Shoes' in an old Quonset Hut in a non-retail industrial area of Sacramento, California; that drew crowds by advertising that no matter what brand, style or size of shoes a woman could want it was at The Tower of Shoes. And knowing that Macy's, the biggest Levi's customer, was running out of the best selling Levi's sizes, colors, Fisher asked Haas to let him copy The Tower of Shoes' business model and apply it to Levi's products. Haas referred Fisher to Bud Robinson, his Director of Advertising, for what Haas assumed would be a quick refusal. Fisher agreed to stock only Levi's apparel in every style and size, all grouped by size, Levi's guaranteed The Gap to be never out of stock by overnight replenishment from Levi's San Jose, California warehouse.
And Robinson offered to pay 50% of The Gap's radio advertising upfront and avoided antitrust laws by offering the same marketing package to any store that agreed to sell nothing but Levi's products. Fisher opened the first Gap store on Ocean Avenue in San Francisco on August 21, 1969. In 1970, Gap opened its second store in San Jose. In 1971, Gap established its corporate headquarters in California with four employees. By 1973, the company had over 25 locations and had expanded into the East Coast market with a store in the Echelon Mall in Voorhees, New Jersey. In 1974, Gap began to sell private-label merchandise. In the 1990s, Gap assumed an upscale identity and revamped its inventory under the direction of Millard Drexler. However, Drexler was removed from his position after 19 years of service in 2002 after over-expansion, a 29-month slump in sales, tensions with the Fisher family. Drexler refused to sign a non-compete agreement and became CEO of J. Crew. One month after his departure, merchandise that he had ordered was responsible for a strong rebound in sales.
Robert J. Fisher recruited Paul Pressler as the new CEO. However, his focus groups failed to recover the company's leadership in its market. In 2007, Gap announced that it would "focus efforts on recruiting a chief executive officer who has deep retailing and merchandising experience ideally in apparel, understands the creative process and can execute strategies in large, complex environments while maintaining strong financial discipline"; that January, Pressler resigned after two disappointing holiday sales seasons and was succeeded by Robert J. Fisher on an interim basis, he began working with the company in 1980 and joined the board in 1990, would assume several senior executive positions, including president of Banana Republic and the Gap units. The board's search committee was led by Adrian Bellamy, chairman of The Body Shop International and included founder Donald Fisher. On February 2, Marka Hansen, the former head of the Banana Republic division, replaced Cynthia Harriss as the leader of the Gap division.
The executive president for marketing and merchandising Jack Calhoun became interim president of Banana Republic. In May, Old Navy laid off 300 managers in lower volume locations to help streamline costs; that July, Glenn Murphy CEO of Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada, was announced as the new CEO of Gap, Inc. New lead designers were brought on board to help define a fashionable image, including Patrick Robinson for Gap Adult, Simon Kneen for Banana Republic, Todd Oldham for Old Navy. Robinson was hired as chief designer in 2007, but was dismissed in May 2011 after sales failed to increase. However, he enjoyed commercial success in international markets. In 2007, Ethisphere Magazine chose Gap from among thousands of companies evaluated as one of 100 "World's Most Ethical Companies."In October 2011, Gap Inc. announced plans to close 189 US stores, nearly 21 percent, by the end of 2013. The company announced it would open its first stores in Brazil in the Fall of 2013. In January 2015, Gap Inc announced plans to close their subsidiary Piperlime in order to focus on their core brands.
The first and only Pip
Art exhibition
An art exhibition is traditionally the space in which art objects meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is true, it is stated to be a "permanent exhibition". In American English, they may be called "exhibit", "exposition" or "show". In UK English, they are always called "exhibitions" or "shows", an individual item in the show is an "exhibit"; such expositions may present pictures, video, installation, interactive art, new media art or sculptures by individual artists, groups of artists or collections of a specific form of art. The art works may be presented in museums, art halls, art clubs or private art galleries, or at some place the principal business of, not the display or sale of art, such as a coffeehouse. An important distinction is noted between those exhibits where some or all of the works are for sale in private art galleries, those where they are not. Sometimes the event is organized on a specific occasion, like a birthday, anniversary or commemoration.
There are different kinds of art exhibitions, in particular there is a distinction between commercial and non-commercial exhibitions. A commercial exhibition or trade fair is referred to as an art fair that shows the work of artists or art dealers where participants have to pay a fee. A vanity gallery is an exhibition space of works in a gallery that charges the artist for use of the space. Temporary museum exhibitions display items from the museum's own collection on a particular period, theme or topic, supplemented by loans from other collections those of other museums, they include no items for sale. Exhibitions in commercial galleries are entirely made up of items that are for sale, but may be supplemented by other items that are not; the visitor has to pay to enter a museum exhibition, but not a commercial one in a gallery. Retrospectives look back over the work of a single artist; the Biennale is a large exhibition held every two years intending to gather together the best of international art.
A travelling exhibition is another category of art exhibition. Exhibitions of new or recent art can be invitational, or open. A juried exhibition, such as the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London, or the Iowa Biennial, has an individual acting as judge of the submitted artworks, selecting which are to be shown. If prizes are to be awarded, the judge or panel of judges will select the prizewinners as well. In an invitational exhibition, such as the Whitney Biennial, the organizer of the show asks certain artists to supply artworks and exhibits them. An open or "non-juried" exhibition, such as the Kyoto Triennial, allows anybody to enter artworks and shows them all. A type of exhibition, non-juried is a mail art exhibition; the art exhibition has played a crucial part in the market for new art since the 18th and 19th centuries. The Paris Salon, open to the public from 1737 became the key factor in determining the reputation, so the price, of the French artists of the day; the Royal Academy in London, beginning in 1769, soon established a similar grip on the market, in both countries artists put great efforts into making pictures that would be a success changing the direction of their style to meet popular or critical taste.
The British Institution was added to the London scene in 1805, holding two annual exhibitions, one of new British art for sale, one of loans from the collections of its aristocratic patrons. These exhibitions received lengthy and detailed reviews in the press, which were the main vehicle for the art criticism of the day. Critics as distinguished as Denis Diderot and John Ruskin held their readers attention by divergent reviews of different works, praising some extravagantly and giving others the most savage put-downs they could think of. Many of the works were sold, but success at these exhibitions was a crucial way for an artist to attract more commissions. Among important early one-off loan exhibitions of older paintings were the Art Treasures Exhibition, Manchester 1857, the Exhibition of National Portraits in London, at what is now the Victoria and Albert Museum, held in three stages in 1866-68; as the academic art promoted by the Paris Salon, always more rigid than London, was felt to be stifling French art, alternative exhibitions, now known as the Salon des Refusés were held, most famously in 1863, when the government allowed them an annex to the main exhibition for a show that included Édouard Manet's Luncheon on the Grass and James McNeill Whistler's Girl in White.
This began a period where exhibitions one-off shows, were crucial in exposing the public to new developments in art, Modern art. Important shows of this type were the Armory Show in New York City in 1913 and the London International Surrealist Exhibition in 1936. Museums started holding large loan exhibitions of historic art in the late 19th century, as did the Royal Academy, but the modern "blockbuster" museum exhibition, with long queues and a large illustrated catalogue, is agreed to have been introduced by the exhibitions of artifacts from the tomb of Tutankhamun held in several cities in the 1970s. Many exhibition
Benetton Group
Benetton Group S.r.l. is a global fashion brand based in Ponzano Veneto, Italy. The name comes from the Benetton family, who founded the company in 1965. Benetton has a network of about 5,000 stores in the main international markets. In 1963, Luciano Benetton, the oldest of four children, was a 30-year-old salesman in Treviso, his initial small collection of sweaters received a positive response in local stores in the Veneto region, soon after he asked his sister and two younger brothers and Carlo, to join him. In 1965, the entity known as the "Benetton Group" was formed. In 1965, the Benettons opened their first store in Belluno and three years after in Paris, with Luciano as chairman, his brother Gilberto in charge of administration, their younger brother Carlo running production, Giuliana as a chief designer; the company's core business remains their clothing lines: United Colors of Sisley. The Group has a network of about 5,000 stores around the world; the company is known for sponsorship of a number of sports, for the provocative and original "United Colors" publicity campaign.
The latter originated when photographer Oliviero Toscani was given carte blanche by the Benetton management. Under Toscani's direction, ads were created that contained striking images unrelated to any actual products being sold by the company. Up to 1982, Benetton marketing campaigns relied on traditional models wearing the brand clothing. In 1982, the company decided to change its advertising campaigns by focusing on world issues to raise awareness and create an added value for the brand. In 1984, Oliviero Toscani photographed the first multiracial ad for the brand; these graphic, billboard-sized ads included depictions of a variety of shocking subjects, one of which featured a deathbed scene of a man dying from AIDS. Others included a bloodied, unwashed newborn baby with umbilical cord still attached, controversial; this 1991 advert prompted more than 800 complaints to the British Advertising Standards Authority during 1991 and was featured in the reference book Guinness World Records 2000 as'Most Controversial Campaign'.
Others included a black stallion covering a white mare, close-up pictures of tattoos reading "HIV Positive" on the bodies of men and women, a cemetery of many cross-like tombstones, a collage consisting of genitals of persons of various races, a priest and nun about to engage in a romantic kiss, pictures of inmates on death row, an electric chair, an advert showing a dark-skinned boy with hair shaped into the devil's horns, three different hearts with "black", "white" and "yellow" written onto them, a picture of a bloodied T-shirt and pants riddled with bullet holes from a soldier killed in the Bosnian War. Most of the advertisements, although not all, had a plain white background, in most the company's logo served as the only text accompanying the image. In November 2011, Benetton created the UNHATE Foundation and launched its new worldwide communication campaign, described by the company as an invitation to the leaders and citizens of the world to combat the "culture of hatred". In a press release, Benetton claimed the campaign was created as the group's corporate social responsibility strategy and not as a cosmetic exercise.
Benetton's Fabrica research centre partnered up with 72andSunny to create the UNHATE poster series. These show digitally manufactured images of political and religious leaders, i.e. Barack Obama at that time President of the United States and Hugo Chávez President of Venezuela, kissing each other. According to Benetton “These are symbolic images of reconciliation—with a touch of ironic hope and constructive provocation—to stimulate reflection on how politics and ideas when they are divergent and mutually opposed, must still lead to dialogue and mediation”. However, the image series of lip-locking political and religious figures sparked controversy. After protests by the Vatican, Benetton removed a campaign poster purportedly showing Pope Benedict XVI kissing Ahmed Mohamed el Tayeb, the imam of the Al Azhar mosque in Egypt. At the Cannes Ad festival in June 2012, Benetton won the Press Grand Prix for its Unhate campaign. In November 2017, UCB launched a campaign in collaboration with Devbhumi, a registered company owned by rural women from remote villages in Uttarakhand, India.
The initiative claims to empower over 6,000 rural women artisans across India. Benetton Group entered Formula One as a sponsor of Tyrrell in 1983 Alfa Romeo in 1984. Benetton Formula Ltd. was formed at the end of 1985 when the Toleman and Spirit teams were sold to the Benetton family. The team saw its greatest success under Flavio Briatore, who managed the team from 1990 to 1997. Michael Schumacher won his first Drivers' Championships with the team in 1994 and 1995, the team won their only Constructors' title in 1995. From 1996, the team raced under an Italian licence although it continued to be based, like Toleman, in Oxfordshire in England; the team was bought by Renault for US$120 million in 2000 and was rebranded Renault F1 in 2002. In 1979, Benetton first sponsored their local rugby team, A. S. Rugby Treviso. Benetton Rugby has since become a major force in Italian rugby, with 11 league titles and supplying many players to the national team. Benetton Group has sponsored Treviso Basket and Sisley Volley.
Benetton has faced criticism from Mapuche organizations over its purchase of traditional Mapuche lands in Patagonia. The Curiñanco-Nahuelquir family was evicted from their land in 2002 following Benetton's claim to it, but the land was restored in 2007; the company have published a position st
