Apple Thoughts: Expansion Plans Scaled Back for Apple

"Apple's fiscal first quarter was a blowout by any standard, but it's worth taking a look at one potential concern: retail."

Even after the glowing earnings report they seem to have found a weakness in the armor, namely the retail side of things. They had a drop of about 18% in the retail sales, and have since decided to scale back expansion to 25 new stores, 1/2 of them outside the United States. Seems like a smart move in an economic climate like this. It reminds of what Starbucks went through a year or two ago, consolidating stores and scaling back expansion plans. I always thought it silly when I saw one Starbucks store competing with another one across the street. I'm not comparing this situation to Apple's, but then again, we do have 3 stores in the Portland Metro area.