get serious

stanhope said:

To me this started with the much hyped, overpaid, angela ahrendts.  One used to get the exclusive attention of the genius during an appointment, now you are in a cluster where you share the attention of the expert.  If you had apple care, the person helping you seemed to have wide latitude to address your problem even replacing the item outside the expiration date by a week or two.  This shopping appointment approach is foolish though i cannot lay that bit of stupidity at her feet.  What on earth does burberry have to do with apple?  Burberry isn’t as successful as Louis Vuitton.  It was always a second tier ‘luxury’ brand.  Bottom line apple isn’t what apple used to be and that is no compliment.  Kudos to those employees with whom I have interacted with that were pleasant, professional and thorough.  Only once did I have to upbraid a snotty jackass that now you tell me makes $13/hour.  With that he couldn’t avoid the merchandise he hawks.

Uh no...
This "started" when every Tom, Dick and Harriet started to buy iPhones. Apple's customer base went from 20 million mac users and 30 million iPod users to a Billion iOS users. The Apple User community was a relatively small group at the beginning of Apple Retail.

For the record Ron Johnson ran retail from 2000-2011. He hired the English ass hat that still will not be named within Apple Retail. He lasted 6 months. Tim got it back and found Angela. From 2013-2019 she repaired a lot of damage and began the transformation to digital and online model. Deidre, who worked her way from the shipping docks to Senior Vice President in charge of People and Retail at Apple is now in charge. And doing a fine job I might add.

coastalgathering said:

Until you’ve worked in Apple retail you have no idea what the day to day looks like. 

14 years and I have had many years that I loved my job..I would not of stayed so long if I hadn’t. 

You meet amazing people that are so intelligent and creative. Life long friendships. Both co-workers and customers. The customers are part of our communities. The products are amazing!  You are allowed to bring your unique and diverse best self to work everyday. 

Until it all changes…like everything good it comes to an end. 

The story can go on and on…but until you do it you’ll never understand what a underpaid tough job it is.  

I am grateful for many things, it’s just not an easy job anymore. Now that I am an older employee, I feel I have no job protection and it’s harder then ever, I don’t deserve to just have to walk away and “find another job” this was my career, I have gave it everything, sacrificed my family times to build this career . Now at 55 I can look and see it wasn’t worth it. 

Post pandemic has opened my eyes to life is too short to give it all up to  

Well done friend. Thank you for your service. I hope you participated fully in Employee Stock Purchase Plan and 401k because if you did you are easily a millionaire. 

Apple retail is not easy by any stretch. The product knowledge piece alone has ballooned in the past 15 years from 8 product and service lines to over 20 lines with another 20 sub categories. Then you need to know  a myriad of carrier plans, financing plans and trade options. That's the sales side. Technicians just had iPods and Macs not that long ago. In fact "relationship" repair was the primary task of the 'Genius' bar back when. 
I've been a part of every roll in the store in my tenure, save for management - been there done that, not worth it to me. That said I've seen Apple Retail grow from 100 stores to over 500 stores world wide. Head counts in stores  have quintupled. Training has varied from 3 days and you're on the floor, to two weeks and weeks of mentoring. Apple Store customer experience used to compete with Computer City, Best Buy and carrier stores, they still do. But now they compete with the expectations Apple created from past visits. A tough and ever higher bar customers reset every day.
I could go on but few are still reading this... Apple is a great way station for those young people to learn business and customer skills. As a lifetime career choice, not so much. Sure there are paths to other parts of Apple, but few realize there are more Apple retail employees than all of the rest of Apple. The stock options and benefits are wonderful. But after 5 years of the Genius Bar there are many companies that will take on that experience for more pay and less pressure. Just remember this as much as you think you won't miss the customers - you will. They are the greatest (except for those that aren't)

libertymatters said:

Their arguments fall flat when it is realized 'side-loading', aka installing software, is common practice on the Macintosh.  

It is quite simple, have two modes: full security and medium security just like Apple Silicon Macs.  Grandma can stay in full security mode.  People who want non-Apple approved software can turn on medium security mode.  Apple should not get to decide what a user values more, freedom or security.  It should provide a choice just like the Macintosh.

The bottom-line is this is about money from App Store revenue.  They cannot admit that because it is a losing argument so they lie about their motives.  They use fear, security! security! to sell it.  The fact that the Macintosh allows 'side-loading' proves it is about money.

By all means let's welcome the age of Mac Keeper shenanigans to the billion or so iPhone/iPad users in the world.

I don't envy the Chinese leadership. Hard choices are being made trying to move  1 1/2  Billion people (5x the U.S.) from a 19th century agrarian society into the 21st century. Coal has to go. A hard choice but the poisoned air of northeast china is causing serious political challenges for the CCP. Just like the U.S. in the 1970's-1980's, China has decided to focus on "clean"and profitable industries that enhance the environment, while discouraging "dirty" low profit industries. If steel mills have to move so be it, a more efficient software industry or robotics plant can take it's place.