6 ms·

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 cou

by 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
The town square “gathering places” notion isn’t a bad concept to have for a retail operation to adopt for their internal vision. It’s fine and really just a rip-off of Starbuck’s “third place” (which was around long before Apple used it for their retail vision). While Apple Retail was headed by Angela however she was involved in preposterous keynote speeches about how it’s making cities better and supporting the community. It was corporate BS writ large and used as a justification for pushing large retail stores into state significant public spaces. It’s not a town square when it’s owned and controlled by a corporation who decides what does and doesn’t occur within its boundaries.
barkingcat 8y ago
Whatever the original intentions, I can say honestly that an Apple Store in its current form is never a "gathering place" or a "town square". The experience from beginning to end is always - line up at the front, talk to an Apple employee, depending on whether you have an appointment or not, get shepparded to a lineup (whether at the genius bar, the teach and learn table, or the repair pickup table, etc) and wait in line until your turn. If you are just browsing / window shopping, the experience is jam yourself into a packed tiny space packed with human smells of sweat and farts, get a stern looking up and down by the security people, and try to get a computer/phone/idevice to look at. If you take too long, other people will either try to edge you out, or eventually you get an apple employee asking whether you want to buy it or if they can show you anything. This is NOT a gathering place/town square. Of course. Being a commercially oriented sales space it can't be because that violates the purpose of the space. I'm not saying that you can't build a space like this, but the way Apple has structured the retail stores makes it extremely sales oriented. Taking the Starbucks example quoted below. When you go to starbucks, get a latte, and sit down to browse your computer, you don't have Starbucks employees coming to you asking if you want a pumpkin spice latte or if you want some training on how to be a coffee barista in your own home too. You just want to take a seat and do whatever - none of the business of the store employees. It's just a place to sit. Of course, you should / need to buy something to sit there, but once you are there, you usually are left alone to do whatever, meet friends, have a date, etc. That's a good "gathering space" concept.
- nihonde 8y ago
  Your recounting of your experience is really far from mine. My local Apple Store (WTC in NYC) is very accessible and friendly. If anything, I find it mildly annoying to have to chit-chat with staff when I know what I want. With an appointment, support wait times are minimal and so far always helpful and friendly. I walk my dogs through the store sometimes, and even they love it!
  - barkingcat 8y ago
    There are no seats in the stores near me. (or you have stools at specific benches that you need to give up when the apple employee tells you to). No place to have some small table space for yourself temporarily, if you have a jacket (often times wet from coming in from outside in the rain or snow, etc), there's no place to hang it. No use of washrooms. If you have a whole family of 4-5 who want to come by to learn how to use a computer, can you accommodate that? Or do you need to "book" the lesson table, make an appt with the genius bar etc. Is it only accessible for single people or couples with money? Just those questions alone - think about what a gathering place is supposed to be! I think people are getting way too hoodwinked by marketing speak and are forgetting how an actual gathering space might function. As a sales space, it's designed brilliantly. People come in, they see stuff they like, they want to buy it, pay money, sale done, time to go. That is perfected by the Apple store environment, but it is very much NOT a gathering space

by rkho 8y ago

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

The town square “gathering places” notion isn’t a bad concept to have for a retail operation to adopt for their internal vision. It’s fine and really just a rip-off of Starbuck’s “third place” (which was around long before Apple used it for their retail vision). While Apple Retail was headed by Angela however she was involved in preposterous keynote speeches about how it’s making cities better and supporting the community. It was corporate BS writ large and used as a justification for pushing large retail stores into state significant public spaces. It’s not a town square when it’s owned and controlled by a corporation who decides what does and doesn’t occur within its boundaries.

barkingcat 8y ago

Whatever the original intentions, I can say honestly that an Apple Store in its current form is never a "gathering place" or a "town square". The experience from beginning to end is always - line up at the front, talk to an Apple employee, depending on whether you have an appointment or not, get shepparded to a lineup (whether at the genius bar, the teach and learn table, or the repair pickup table, etc) and wait in line until your turn. If you are just browsing / window shopping, the experience is jam yourself into a packed tiny space packed with human smells of sweat and farts, get a stern looking up and down by the security people, and try to get a computer/phone/idevice to look at. If you take too long, other people will either try to edge you out, or eventually you get an apple employee asking whether you want to buy it or if they can show you anything. This is NOT a gathering place/town square. Of course. Being a commercially oriented sales space it can't be because that violates the purpose of the space. I'm not saying that you can't build a space like this, but the way Apple has structured the retail stores makes it extremely sales oriented. Taking the Starbucks example quoted below. When you go to starbucks, get a latte, and sit down to browse your computer, you don't have Starbucks employees coming to you asking if you want a pumpkin spice latte or if you want some training on how to be a coffee barista in your own home too. You just want to take a seat and do whatever - none of the business of the store employees. It's just a place to sit. Of course, you should / need to buy something to sit there, but once you are there, you usually are left alone to do whatever, meet friends, have a date, etc. That's a good "gathering space" concept.

nihonde 8y ago
Your recounting of your experience is really far from mine. My local Apple Store (WTC in NYC) is very accessible and friendly. If anything, I find it mildly annoying to have to chit-chat with staff when I know what I want. With an appointment, support wait times are minimal and so far always helpful and friendly. I walk my dogs through the store sometimes, and even they love it!
- barkingcat 8y ago
  There are no seats in the stores near me. (or you have stools at specific benches that you need to give up when the apple employee tells you to). No place to have some small table space for yourself temporarily, if you have a jacket (often times wet from coming in from outside in the rain or snow, etc), there's no place to hang it. No use of washrooms. If you have a whole family of 4-5 who want to come by to learn how to use a computer, can you accommodate that? Or do you need to "book" the lesson table, make an appt with the genius bar etc. Is it only accessible for single people or couples with money? Just those questions alone - think about what a gathering place is supposed to be! I think people are getting way too hoodwinked by marketing speak and are forgetting how an actual gathering space might function. As a sales space, it's designed brilliantly. People come in, they see stuff they like, they want to buy it, pay money, sale done, time to go. That is perfected by the Apple store environment, but it is very much NOT a gathering space