Microsoft’s first-ever flagship store opens on New York City’s upscale Fifth Avenue shopping strip at noon Eastern on Monday, as the tech giant expands its retail footprint in an ongoing effort to challenge Apple’s brick-and-mortar success.
Since 2009, Microsoft has launched more than 110 retail locations in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. At 22,269 square feet, the Fifth Avenue store is the company’s largest to date. Microsoft revealed the store’s specs in a release aimed at emphasizing its size. The store will feature 198 LCD monitors, a 30-foot, two-story monitor tower with 36 monitors, and 36 video walls that measure 50’ by 5’8” each.
The store will employ 160 workers who collectively speak 19 languages. It also features an event space for up to 60 guests to hold workshops and training sessions.
The store will be located on one of New York’s most famous shopping thoroughfares, where luxury retailers Tiffany & Co., Prada, and Bergdorf Goodman lure well-heeled customers. But most notably, the Microsoft flagship is about four blocks away from Apple’s famous glass cube flagship at 58th and Fifth. In moving onto Apple’s turf, Microsoft is taking on the tech company whose 460 stores have become the gold standard for how retail should look and act. According to a March report, Apple’s stores generate a staggering $4,798.82 in sales per square foot on annualized basis—by far the most of any retailer in the nation.
