Apple released its blueprint Sunday night for how it will reopen its retail stores once it is safe to due so, per official coronavirus health guidelines. It will also reopen 25 stores in the U.S. this week.
When a store reopens, customers will be required to submit to a temperature check and wear a mask before entering the store, according to the guidelines, written by Apple’s retail and human resources boss Deirdre O’Brien. If a customer doesn’t have a mask, Apple will provide them with one.
Customers will also be screened for other symptoms caused by Covid-19, like a cough. Apple said occupancy will be limited in stores, and employees will be focused on “one-on-one, personalized service.”
Apple also announced on Sunday several stores in the U.S. that will be reopening this week. Some of the stores will allow customers in, while others will only offer curbside pick-up service. Apple stores will be reopening this week in a handful of states: Florida, California (curbside service), Washington (curbside service), Hawaii, Oklahoma and Colorado.
O’Brien said stores would reopen per local official guidelines and Apple’s own data, and could even close again if lockdown orders in a certain area have to be renacted.
The pressure comes as Son’s top-down management style is under increased scrutiny with the fund expected to report its third consecutive quarterly operating loss later on Monday, plunging the group as a whole to a record loss.
The board is largely comprised of SoftBank insiders and confidants. It also includes Yasir al-Rumayyan, who heads the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund that is the Vision Fund’s biggest outside backer.
Ma’s exit follows the departure of Tadashi Yanai, founder and CEO of Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing, who resigned from the board late last year to focus on his fashion business.
Separately, SoftBank said the board had approve a second 500 billion yen ($4.7 billion) tranche of share purchases, part of a 2.5 trillion yen buyback program announced in March to prop up the group’s share price as its tech bets flounder.
