By now, you’ve probably read about 100 epitaphs for Steve Jobs’ reign at Apple. Clearly we have been privileged to witness the multiple innovations that he shepherded into the marketplace. Are you reading this on your iPad? While listening to your iPod? Or talking on your iPhone? The best line I read came courtesy of a fellow analyst (who sent me an article from the National Review):

Jobs gave people products they didn’t know they wanted, and then made those products indispensable to their lives. “

And now it’s time to think about Retail. Apple, under Jobs’ leadership gave us the Apple Store. Make no mistake about it, the Apple Store has the potential to irrevocably change the face of retail, and not just because it uses portable POS devices, either.

Consider This:

• Apple’s stores average $4,406 per square foot. That’s AVERAGE, not the best of the bunch. That number exceeds the sales per square foot of high-end product store Tiffany and many others. A single store’s annual sales can exceed the sales of the multi-hundred thousand square foot department stores that are supposed to be the anchor stores of a mall.
• Apple has completely empowered its in-store personnel. I talked about this in an earlier newsletter, how a humble store associate was authorized to make an $850 repair on my MacBook Air free. I’ve had to fill out more paperwork to exchange a $3.00 hose nozzle at other retailers.
• Apple store employees are encouraged not to sell, but to help. How many of us can say the same?
• The store sells $300 headphones on PEG HOOKS. I know, because I bought a pair as an impulse item. How often have we seen a cool product in a locked case, and opted not to buy it because it was just too much trouble to find a store associate to open the bloody thing?
• Apple might well be one of the original cross-channel retailers. I bought the latest upgrade to my OS through the App Store. No CD, no visiting a store. No muss, no fuss (until I got it installed and found out how many apps weren’t ready for it, but that’s another story).

We may not yet understand the core of the Apple Store’s success (oh God, that was an awful and unintended pun!). Some of us may think it’s because Apple sells unique products – but more unique than Tiffany? I don’t think so. And Kinnect is a very cool product, but it isn’t spawning anything like this. The Apple store will be studied for years to come, even as we see if Ron Johnson can make lightning strike twice and transform JC Penney (and the department store) into a more modern customer experience.

So we come to the end of an era, and yet find ourselves walking into the early stages of another one. And even as Wall Street agonizes over what will become of Apple in the post-Jobs era, as I sit here listening to music on iTunes, I’m wanting to offer Mr. Jobs just two things:

1. A thank you for bringing me things I didn’t even know I’d want and now really can’t live or work without, and
2. My very best wishes — Godspeed as you walk into this next phase of your life.

Steve Jobs is that rare entrepreneur and businessman who actually made the world a little more fun. And THAT’s rare. Go in peace. And thank you.