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This is likely a firing as Apple Retail has been practically treading water since Angela came on board. She failed to address the major issues with Apple's reta

This is likely a firing as Apple Retail has been practically treading water since Angela came on board. She failed to address the major issues with Apple's retail offering including: - Failure to be a growth engine for the company. Originally Apple stores helped to drive growth of Apple and introduce new customers as the stores were rolled out across the US and then worldwide. Apple retail should have been the spearhead for greater China dominance and a strong foothold in India. Both have not occurred. - Cultural issues. Apple retail has changed from being a pleasant experience where staff were encouraged to help customers with issues (not matter what) to merely parroting a company line about why they cannot do anything with your issue because that's the company policy. Angela also kept trotting out the 'town square' community BS as well which rubs non-US citizens completely the wrong way; a US corporation trying to co-opt foreign public space for their sales offering. - Lack of support integration. Apple has had a number of high profile support issues and failures including battery gate and the MacBook keyboard issues. Instead of becoming a proactive support channel to help customers with these issues, Apple Retail worked as the company's PR firewall... exacerbating a bad situation for customers who experienced these problems. Support times at Apple Stores have increased and the experience has worsened. - No innovation. Apple retail hasn't significantly changed or improved since Angela came on-board. 'Today at Apple' is a re-brand of the many sessions that Apple Stores have always had. The interior design changes and architectural changes are more Jony's doing than Angela's. In 5 years most of the change has been superficial with the core changes that have evolved actually degrading customers experience. Glad to see the exec change. Took 5 years and should have happened earlier, but better late than never.

rkho 8y ago
I'm not sure where your perceptions come from (such as if you've ever worked at an Apple Retail store) so I'm going to give you my perspective and only on a couple of your points because I can't speak to all of them. I worked in Apple Retail under Ron Johnson and John Browett. From what I recall, the original intent of these stores was to have them be "gathering places" for people -- similar to a town square. This concept's as old as the first of the stores. During the ten months John Browett was in charge, the store I worked at saw significant attrition due to cut hours, an increased emphasis on offering more support than we had the resources for, and a very obvious push to attach multiple accessories onto each sale. Those "Today at Apple" rebranding you're talking about? They were essentially gutted to quick, useless Q&A sessions when Browett worked there. I really don't think Angela was a problem. If anything her hire was a breath of fresh air for them.
- mprev 8y ago
  I still don’t understand how anyone at Apple senior management expected anything different from Browett.
  - martinald 8y ago
    I still find that appointment almost hilarious. Dixons who he used to oversee in the UK had an appalling reputation for terrible support and very aggressive sales reps trying to sell useless accessories and extended warranties. I wonder if any Apple exec ever visited one of his old stores?
    - rkho 8y ago
      I wonder if anyone in the group of decision makers for the hire ever saw the cringey Currys Fives training video on Youtube
- macintux 8y ago
  Browett was a catastrophically poor choice. I was impressed that Apple corrected the situation relatively quickly. I think Ahrendts was a great hire, and while I don’t think Apple Retail is as good as it could be, it’s also a very hard nut to crack at their scale.
  - Mindwipe 8y ago
    Is it? The problem is scaling at the stores, both in support and sales, and that they can't really keep up. There are some fairly obvious ways to tackle both of those issues that have been ignored - god forbid Apple lowered themselves to have an actual sales counter that could churn through customers who know what they want rapidly. Triage and management of support cases seems to need desperate reform (it's still great that Apple gave me a whole new Macbook last week. It's bad that it took two weeks with a dead machine before they could see me and that product reliability is going downhill so fast that this is the third time that Macbook has fried itself in two years).
- happybuy 8y ago
covercash 8y ago
The first 5-10 years of Apple Retail were like the movie Empire Records... help the customer and have a fucking blast doing it. Rules? Not really. I worked there for almost 2 years and had a lot of fun solving unique consumer tech problems one on one with the customers. It was a very personal experience, customers knew our names, came back sometimes just to chat or bring us baked goods... maybe we’d go have a few beers on lunch break, smoke a little weed. Now when I walk into an Apple Store it feels like Best Buy.
- rconti 8y ago
  I'm not sure how you prevent this from happening when the goal is to grow, though. If anything... it worked.
  - rhizome 8y ago
    I think one strategy is to question the goal of perpetual growth.
    - azinman2 8y ago
      Strategy for whom? Not anyone in charge of Apple Retail, surely... sounds more like a policy question for government and society that undoes the foundation of our markets and most of capitalism.
      - eropple 8y ago
        Nothing about a capitalist market necessitates what the GP described. It is a question of ethics; you could instead treat it as a governmental policy question, but if you need law to codify ethics you've already gone off the road and you're just waiting to hit the ground. Which we have. "A question for society"? Apple's part of society, man.
      - rhizome 8y ago
        How many Italian restaurants where you live have expanded into making and selling their own pasta and sauce at retail? If we're talking about the foundation of most of capitalism, surely it would be exhibited there more often than "never."
TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
The cultural change is the difference between "Let's be awesome, shift units, and make money!" to "Let's shift units and make money!" That's not a very inspiring vision. The emphasis on retail-is-the-customer-experience as opposed to customer-experience-defines-retail is only going to cause more and more problems. TBH I expect the next few years to be something of a meltdown for sales+service, with retail following along for the ride.
toasterlovin 8y ago
FWIW, I don't think retail is a growth engine for any company in 2019. The Internet happened.
- mikepurvis 8y ago
  The first Apple Stores were in 2001. Online commerce was already a thing.
  - marsrover 8y ago
    I don’t know about you but I certainly couldn’t get almost anything I needed, living in bum fuck nowhere, the same day I ordered it in 2001. If we define online commerce as its 2019 current incarnation, I’d argue that in 2001 it wasn’t a thing.
    - chx 8y ago
      Same day is still rare, I'd argue. Walmart started online sales in 2000. Newegg came to be in 2001. Zappos existed since 1999. Amazon 1-click was also patented in 1999. Yes, you didn't have Shopify spawning an uncountable number of small stores, you didn't have Amazon Fresh or Instacart.
    - ulfw 8y ago
      To this day there still aren't Apple stores in "bum fuck nowhere". So not sure where you're going with the argument.
  - toasterlovin 8y ago
    Right, so you agree with me. Retail is not a growth engine in 2019.
cronix 8y ago
> No innovation. Apple retail hasn't significantly changed or improved since Angela came on-board. 'Today at Apple' is a re-brand of the many sessions that Apple Stores have always had. The interior design changes and architectural changes are more Jony's doing than Angela's. In 5 years most of the change has been superficial with the core changes that have evolved actually degrading customers experience. The first sentence is correct, as I see it, but I think it's a general Apple problem and not something the stores have much to do with. If you've been given subpar products over the last several years to sell, you're still selling subpar products no matter how you dress it up. The public knows Apple hardware isn't nearly as reliable as it used to be and suffer from a wide range of problems across all of their product lines, well the major product lines. After continuing for several years, it's catching up. There isn't anything the stores can do. It's up to corporate to mandate better quality control and build quality. What they've been providing is not acceptable for many. They're losing the most die hard apple fans. Even they get tired of having to waste so much time and money and Apple is becoming harder for them to defend. You can forgive for a year, or a few years maybe, but after that it appears to be a systemic problem that no one at the top is taking serious enough. The brand is tarnished. Go back to basics. > Apple has had a number of high profile support issues and failures including battery gate and the MacBook keyboard issues. Instead of becoming a proactive support channel to help customers with these issues, Apple Retail worked as the company's PR firewall... exacerbating a bad situation for customers who experienced these problems. Support times at Apple Stores have increased and the experience has worsened. That is also top-down. If Apple (corporate) fights hard against people and claims there are no issues with their hardware and won't cover things like the spotlight problem new displays are having (a design flaw), or keyboards that don't work if they get dust in them (a design flaw), or the phone bends in a pocket under normal use (a design flaw), until the news gets so bad and class action lawsuits have to get filed to provide extended warranties, then I'm not sure what the store can actually do about it except put lipstick on a pig, offer an apology, and commiserate with the customers frustration. My mother is a professional photographer. She has always been a die hard apple fan, because they made solid computers and a seamless OS. She has multiple iPads, an iPhone, iMac, Macbook Air and Macbook Pro. She does a lot of traveling. For over 10 years, she had 0 issues, except for normal wear and tear items. The last 3 years, she has been to the Apple store over 15 times, with multiple issues and hardware failures. Weeks without hardware as it had to be sent in to be repaired. Her whole life has been tied up in Apple and she loved them. Absolutely loved them. It all used to just work. They were reliable. She called me last weekend to ask what I thought about the Surface Pros and if I'd go look at some with her. I was shocked. She was steaming, she has had enough. Apple has lost her as a customer for life. There is no way she will ever try them again, no matter what they do. They can do whatever they want with the Apple store. It won't do anything. The problem is the products they are selling don't work as well as they used to, for many people. People who buy Apple are buying into the premise it will "just work" and is "quality, premium hardware." That is the reputation their brand is built on, and what they are no longer living up to.
cenal 8y ago
Biggest issue I’ve seen was the change of sending retail employees out for training at the mothership to doing it at the stores. That’s a huge cultural shift and a horrible horrible horrible idea.
- ksec 8y ago
  What's wrong with doing training in Apple Park? ( I am guessing Mothership referring to Apple Park )
Simulacra 8y ago
10 years ago when I first bought a Macintosh, the apple Store was a warm and inviting place. I could ask questions at the Genius Bar, I could talk to people who showed at least somewhat of an interest in me as a customer. Now it just seems very sterile and vacant, big open spaces but not very inviting.
sneak 8y ago
> Apple Retail has been practically treading water since Angela came on board It is my understanding that Apple stores have higher revenue per square foot than any other store in the entire history of retail, which is difficult to reconcile with your statement.
- happybuy 8y ago
  Which they’ve had since before Angela came on-board and will continue to have long after she has left.
  - djrogers 8y ago
    Income per sq/ft is up 20% since 2013, so no - it's not the same thing. [1]https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-apple-angela-ahrendts-20190205-story.html https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-apple-a...
tokyodude 8y ago
I'm 100% with you on this. My experience at Apple stores is where the veneer of "Apple" disappears. It's a mess. Hurded into likes. Having to wait 10-15-20 mins just to buy something I need zero help for. Watching how their sales systems, repair systems and apple.com are not remotely integrated so everything has to be entered in triplicate. Objectively bad support but with the name "Apple" applied everyone seems to give it pass.
- djrogers 8y ago
  > Watching how their sales systems, repair systems and apple.com are not remotely integrated so everything has to be entered in triplicate That is entirely the opposite of any experience I've had in an Apple store - they seem to have all the info they need (including my email address and card on file) at their fingertips - no re-entry or messing around.
clairity 8y ago
you’ve not substantiated any of those criticisms, and frankly they’re so general in nature that they’d apply to practically any executive departure to some degree, so they lack insight. what she did was increase sales per square foot by over 20% [0], expanded the retail footprint globally, and made the store experience more coherent/consistent. not too shabby but also not what she was hired to do. her problem was that she was tasked with the very difficult goal of turning apple retail into a luxury experience akin to burberry and turn apple watch into a must-have fashion accessory. she was to lay the groundwork for apple’s thrust into wearables, but she had very little control over the product (ascetic watch bands and ear tampons... i kid, i love my airpods) and no control over strategy or logistics. unlike burberry, where change cycles with the seasons, apple cycles over many years. you just don’t have enough control and urgency to make the changes apple wanted. honestly, i don’t think anyone could have accomplished that goal. [0] https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-apple-angela-ahrendts-20190205-story.html https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-apple-a...
- djrogers 8y ago
  > her problem was that she was tasked with the very difficult goal of turning apple retail into a luxury experience akin to burberry and turn apple watch into a must-have fashion accessory. she was to lay the groundwork for apple’s thrust into wearables, but she had very little control over the product And how, exactly, do you know that was what she waas tasked with? That sounds a lot like expectations that an outsider might have placed on her based on a quick glance at her bio, but you have no idea what her tactical and strategic objectives were.
whalesalad 8y ago
FWIW I was an Apple store employee (specialist) and your assessment resonates very well with me. I think the reason for the poor experience comes down to scale. Apple is too big now. There are just too many people. I remember when you used to be able to walk into the Genius Bar totally unannounced and you could usually get help in just a few minutes. Now you need to schedule your appointments a week in advance and you’ll only get an obscure 10:40am time slot. Apple retail was an experience when the customer base was smaller but the iPhone completely changed that. I don’t think retail can scale that big and offer the same experience. If anything stores need to be more plentiful and smaller.

rkho 8y ago

I'm not sure where your perceptions come from (such as if you've ever worked at an Apple Retail store) so I'm going to give you my perspective and only on a couple of your points because I can't speak to all of them. I worked in Apple Retail under Ron Johnson and John Browett. From what I recall, the original intent of these stores was to have them be "gathering places" for people -- similar to a town square. This concept's as old as the first of the stores. During the ten months John Browett was in charge, the store I worked at saw significant attrition due to cut hours, an increased emphasis on offering more support than we had the resources for, and a very obvious push to attach multiple accessories onto each sale. Those "Today at Apple" rebranding you're talking about? They were essentially gutted to quick, useless Q&A sessions when Browett worked there. I really don't think Angela was a problem. If anything her hire was a breath of fresh air for them.

mprev 8y ago
I still don’t understand how anyone at Apple senior management expected anything different from Browett.
- martinald 8y ago
  I still find that appointment almost hilarious. Dixons who he used to oversee in the UK had an appalling reputation for terrible support and very aggressive sales reps trying to sell useless accessories and extended warranties. I wonder if any Apple exec ever visited one of his old stores?
  - rkho 8y ago
    I wonder if anyone in the group of decision makers for the hire ever saw the cringey Currys Fives training video on Youtube
macintux 8y ago
Browett was a catastrophically poor choice. I was impressed that Apple corrected the situation relatively quickly. I think Ahrendts was a great hire, and while I don’t think Apple Retail is as good as it could be, it’s also a very hard nut to crack at their scale.
- Mindwipe 8y ago
  Is it? The problem is scaling at the stores, both in support and sales, and that they can't really keep up. There are some fairly obvious ways to tackle both of those issues that have been ignored - god forbid Apple lowered themselves to have an actual sales counter that could churn through customers who know what they want rapidly. Triage and management of support cases seems to need desperate reform (it's still great that Apple gave me a whole new Macbook last week. It's bad that it took two weeks with a dead machine before they could see me and that product reliability is going downhill so fast that this is the third time that Macbook has fried itself in two years).
happybuy 8y ago

covercash 8y ago

The first 5-10 years of Apple Retail were like the movie Empire Records... help the customer and have a fucking blast doing it. Rules? Not really. I worked there for almost 2 years and had a lot of fun solving unique consumer tech problems one on one with the customers. It was a very personal experience, customers knew our names, came back sometimes just to chat or bring us baked goods... maybe we’d go have a few beers on lunch break, smoke a little weed. Now when I walk into an Apple Store it feels like Best Buy.

rconti 8y ago
I'm not sure how you prevent this from happening when the goal is to grow, though. If anything... it worked.
- rhizome 8y ago
  I think one strategy is to question the goal of perpetual growth.
  - azinman2 8y ago
    Strategy for whom? Not anyone in charge of Apple Retail, surely... sounds more like a policy question for government and society that undoes the foundation of our markets and most of capitalism.
    - eropple 8y ago
      Nothing about a capitalist market necessitates what the GP described. It is a question of ethics; you could instead treat it as a governmental policy question, but if you need law to codify ethics you've already gone off the road and you're just waiting to hit the ground. Which we have. "A question for society"? Apple's part of society, man.
    - rhizome 8y ago
      How many Italian restaurants where you live have expanded into making and selling their own pasta and sauce at retail? If we're talking about the foundation of most of capitalism, surely it would be exhibited there more often than "never."

TheOtherHobbes 8y ago

The cultural change is the difference between "Let's be awesome, shift units, and make money!" to "Let's shift units and make money!" That's not a very inspiring vision. The emphasis on retail-is-the-customer-experience as opposed to customer-experience-defines-retail is only going to cause more and more problems. TBH I expect the next few years to be something of a meltdown for sales+service, with retail following along for the ride.

toasterlovin 8y ago

FWIW, I don't think retail is a growth engine for any company in 2019. The Internet happened.

mikepurvis 8y ago
The first Apple Stores were in 2001. Online commerce was already a thing.
- marsrover 8y ago
  I don’t know about you but I certainly couldn’t get almost anything I needed, living in bum fuck nowhere, the same day I ordered it in 2001. If we define online commerce as its 2019 current incarnation, I’d argue that in 2001 it wasn’t a thing.
  - chx 8y ago
    Same day is still rare, I'd argue. Walmart started online sales in 2000. Newegg came to be in 2001. Zappos existed since 1999. Amazon 1-click was also patented in 1999. Yes, you didn't have Shopify spawning an uncountable number of small stores, you didn't have Amazon Fresh or Instacart.
  - ulfw 8y ago
    To this day there still aren't Apple stores in "bum fuck nowhere". So not sure where you're going with the argument.
- toasterlovin 8y ago
  Right, so you agree with me. Retail is not a growth engine in 2019.

cronix 8y ago

> No innovation. Apple retail hasn't significantly changed or improved since Angela came on-board. 'Today at Apple' is a re-brand of the many sessions that Apple Stores have always had. The interior design changes and architectural changes are more Jony's doing than Angela's. In 5 years most of the change has been superficial with the core changes that have evolved actually degrading customers experience. The first sentence is correct, as I see it, but I think it's a general Apple problem and not something the stores have much to do with. If you've been given subpar products over the last several years to sell, you're still selling subpar products no matter how you dress it up. The public knows Apple hardware isn't nearly as reliable as it used to be and suffer from a wide range of problems across all of their product lines, well the major product lines. After continuing for several years, it's catching up. There isn't anything the stores can do. It's up to corporate to mandate better quality control and build quality. What they've been providing is not acceptable for many. They're losing the most die hard apple fans. Even they get tired of having to waste so much time and money and Apple is becoming harder for them to defend. You can forgive for a year, or a few years maybe, but after that it appears to be a systemic problem that no one at the top is taking serious enough. The brand is tarnished. Go back to basics. > Apple has had a number of high profile support issues and failures including battery gate and the MacBook keyboard issues. Instead of becoming a proactive support channel to help customers with these issues, Apple Retail worked as the company's PR firewall... exacerbating a bad situation for customers who experienced these problems. Support times at Apple Stores have increased and the experience has worsened. That is also top-down. If Apple (corporate) fights hard against people and claims there are no issues with their hardware and won't cover things like the spotlight problem new displays are having (a design flaw), or keyboards that don't work if they get dust in them (a design flaw), or the phone bends in a pocket under normal use (a design flaw), until the news gets so bad and class action lawsuits have to get filed to provide extended warranties, then I'm not sure what the store can actually do about it except put lipstick on a pig, offer an apology, and commiserate with the customers frustration. My mother is a professional photographer. She has always been a die hard apple fan, because they made solid computers and a seamless OS. She has multiple iPads, an iPhone, iMac, Macbook Air and Macbook Pro. She does a lot of traveling. For over 10 years, she had 0 issues, except for normal wear and tear items. The last 3 years, she has been to the Apple store over 15 times, with multiple issues and hardware failures. Weeks without hardware as it had to be sent in to be repaired. Her whole life has been tied up in Apple and she loved them. Absolutely loved them. It all used to just work. They were reliable. She called me last weekend to ask what I thought about the Surface Pros and if I'd go look at some with her. I was shocked. She was steaming, she has had enough. Apple has lost her as a customer for life. There is no way she will ever try them again, no matter what they do. They can do whatever they want with the Apple store. It won't do anything. The problem is the products they are selling don't work as well as they used to, for many people. People who buy Apple are buying into the premise it will "just work" and is "quality, premium hardware." That is the reputation their brand is built on, and what they are no longer living up to.

cenal 8y ago

Biggest issue I’ve seen was the change of sending retail employees out for training at the mothership to doing it at the stores. That’s a huge cultural shift and a horrible horrible horrible idea.

ksec 8y ago
What's wrong with doing training in Apple Park? ( I am guessing Mothership referring to Apple Park )

Simulacra 8y ago

10 years ago when I first bought a Macintosh, the apple Store was a warm and inviting place. I could ask questions at the Genius Bar, I could talk to people who showed at least somewhat of an interest in me as a customer. Now it just seems very sterile and vacant, big open spaces but not very inviting.

sneak 8y ago

> Apple Retail has been practically treading water since Angela came on board It is my understanding that Apple stores have higher revenue per square foot than any other store in the entire history of retail, which is difficult to reconcile with your statement.

happybuy 8y ago
Which they’ve had since before Angela came on-board and will continue to have long after she has left.
- djrogers 8y ago
  Income per sq/ft is up 20% since 2013, so no - it's not the same thing. [1]https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-apple-angela-ahrendts-20190205-story.html https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-apple-a...

tokyodude 8y ago

I'm 100% with you on this. My experience at Apple stores is where the veneer of "Apple" disappears. It's a mess. Hurded into likes. Having to wait 10-15-20 mins just to buy something I need zero help for. Watching how their sales systems, repair systems and apple.com are not remotely integrated so everything has to be entered in triplicate. Objectively bad support but with the name "Apple" applied everyone seems to give it pass.

djrogers 8y ago
> Watching how their sales systems, repair systems and apple.com are not remotely integrated so everything has to be entered in triplicate That is entirely the opposite of any experience I've had in an Apple store - they seem to have all the info they need (including my email address and card on file) at their fingertips - no re-entry or messing around.

clairity 8y ago

you’ve not substantiated any of those criticisms, and frankly they’re so general in nature that they’d apply to practically any executive departure to some degree, so they lack insight. what she did was increase sales per square foot by over 20% [0], expanded the retail footprint globally, and made the store experience more coherent/consistent. not too shabby but also not what she was hired to do. her problem was that she was tasked with the very difficult goal of turning apple retail into a luxury experience akin to burberry and turn apple watch into a must-have fashion accessory. she was to lay the groundwork for apple’s thrust into wearables, but she had very little control over the product (ascetic watch bands and ear tampons... i kid, i love my airpods) and no control over strategy or logistics. unlike burberry, where change cycles with the seasons, apple cycles over many years. you just don’t have enough control and urgency to make the changes apple wanted. honestly, i don’t think anyone could have accomplished that goal. [0] https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-apple-angela-ahrendts-20190205-story.html https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-apple-a...

djrogers 8y ago
> her problem was that she was tasked with the very difficult goal of turning apple retail into a luxury experience akin to burberry and turn apple watch into a must-have fashion accessory. she was to lay the groundwork for apple’s thrust into wearables, but she had very little control over the product And how, exactly, do you know that was what she waas tasked with? That sounds a lot like expectations that an outsider might have placed on her based on a quick glance at her bio, but you have no idea what her tactical and strategic objectives were.

whalesalad 8y ago

FWIW I was an Apple store employee (specialist) and your assessment resonates very well with me. I think the reason for the poor experience comes down to scale. Apple is too big now. There are just too many people. I remember when you used to be able to walk into the Genius Bar totally unannounced and you could usually get help in just a few minutes. Now you need to schedule your appointments a week in advance and you’ll only get an obscure 10:40am time slot. Apple retail was an experience when the customer base was smaller but the iPhone completely changed that. I don’t think retail can scale that big and offer the same experience. If anything stores need to be more plentiful and smaller.