but apple retail chief angela ahrens told me she isn't worried about that competition >> i don't think about it frequently i've read their investing, alibaba is investing, google says they're going to invest billions and open up stores. honestly, i think it's great for the economy. i think it's great for employment and i think that it reinforces that physical retail is not going away, there is a purpose people want the human connection they want a place to pick up their products, et cetera. i think the great news is, as you said, we're nearly 500 stores ahead of them the tenure of our employees is unbelievable we have an over 80% retention rate in america alone. so i think it will take them a little while to catch up >> reporter: and more stores are on the way, including washington, d.c., paris, and milan. melissa? >> thank you very much, josh lipton in chicago. >>> apple shares have been under pressure in the last month after unveiling its next generation iphones, that stock down 4% since the debut. with earnings and the release of the iphone x two weeks away, how should you play it m

board out of ten members if you take a look at apple's senior leadership, also only one woman, angela ahrensyou go down to the vp level it's different tim cook has done a lot of work at apple >> we noted that we noted there are three critical vps, but there's a lot of vps there's a lot of vps i think jeff bezos addressed it, as noted in the story, he dr addre addressed it at a meeting, the reason these vps can't rise is because nobody leaves, and that's 100% true they are very good executives, wilkie, who runs the main service, you know, these are great executives they haven't gone anywhere, they've been there for years it's still an interesting question of how do you introduce as much, again, it's not diversity for diversity sake, it makes for a better company you know, as i said 100 times before, the only time standards are ever brought up around adding women or people of color to the workplace is when it has to do with women or people of color and never about the standards of the men that were there. the white men typically that were there so i think the question is, does it make for a be

retail chief angela ahrens now refers to the stores as town squares, meaning they are places you're goingmeet up with friends and family, listen to musicians, maybe take a class on everything from photography, to entrepreneurship retail consultant yann niffen agrees with the overall strategy and says apple does have some advantages in this retail fight. it basically has unlimited resources. you're talking about a company that sits on a cash mountain of more than $260 billion, also a loyal fan base limited in some sense of what she can do, after all, a compelling in-store experience can support great products, but it can't in the end create demand for them. guys, back to you. >> amazing, the architecture there out of, i think, it's foster the architect i can't wait to see more of it, josh, thank you for that josh lipton in chicago >>> still a very busy hour ahead on "squawk alley." we'll talk exclusively with sacramento kings owner and investor on why he thinks amazon should build its headquarters in his ohm city tom farley will join us. and later an exclusive mind the scenes look at kobe