
Are Apple Stores a Terrible Place to Work?  - incomethax
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/zachary-wilson/and-how/geniuses-move-are-apple-store-employees-planning-walkout
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novum
My dad is a chaperone (one of the people at the door who greet and help orient
you) at an Apple store in Tennessee. He's in his early 60s, retired, but he
really likes the vibe around the store with the (mostly) much younger staff.
Plus, he's passionate about the company and its products. I think it's been
great for him.

Apple is certainly among the better experiences to be had in retail.

Edit: Funny story! My dad came to visit me in SF earlier this year, and one
day we drove down to Cupertino to see Apple HQ. As an Apple store employee, he
showed up in Apple security's employee database, and they printed for him a
real plastic ID badge - like Apple corporate employees get, not store
employees - and waved him on through. We had a self-guided tour of Apple that
day. :)

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covercash
I think the position you're referring to is concierge, not chaperone.

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stcredzero
"Chaperone" reminded me about something a cute young college-aged friend of
mine said about working at a chain restaurant in Cincinnati. Apparently, that
retail space _needed_ chaperones -- the wait staff were constantly hooking up.

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covercash
I worked for Apple retail a few years ago. When I was there, it was like
working at Empire Records. We were rock stars of the retail world. Every day
we went in, provided amazing solutions for our customers and had a blast doing
it. We did whatever we had to do in order to get the job done and it very
rarely felt like work. One day I worked 13 hours off the clock to make sure
one couple I was helping had an amazing experience (there were major issues
with a data transfer, dead drive, etc).

At some point, I believe Apple retail started expanding too quickly and Apple
corporate didn't know how to handle it. They brought in managers from big box
retail stores to try and solve the problem, unfortunately they didn't "get"
the culture and a lot of the Apple zealots quit or got fired. They were the
ones who provided the best experiences for the customers. Maybe they didn't
attach enough extra items to the sales, but they always gave the customer
exactly what they needed. And when the time came, that customer would return,
and bring back 10 of their friends. I guess it's a lot easier to track # of
items per sale than to track customer satisfaction and enthusiasm.

You sly dog! You got me monologuing! I can't believe it. :) In any case, I met
some amazing people there and I'm glad that I was part of Apple retail's
growth.

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mitchellh
Whoa! I was a "Mac Specialist" at the University Village apple store in
Seattle, WA for about a year. The management was not abusive _at all_. It had
a great vibe to it, it was a friendly environment, and it was relaxed for the
most part (other than black friday... and Christmas...).

The only thing in this entire article I read that was true (for my
experiences) was the pay. I worked there for a year and did not get a pay
raise once (but to be fair I didn't ask for one, I was young), but new hires
were coming in getting paid a few dollars more per hour than I was, which
frustrated me. But it didn't frustrate me enough...

Anyways, if everything that is said in this article is true, then good for
Lynnwood Apple Store Staff to stand up! Great for them! But if its not true,
and "fastcompany.com" didn't check their facts right, then what a terrible
thing to post...

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tibbon
Compared to what? Working at a Dell kiosk? A Gateway Country store? Best Buy?
CompUSA? A Microsoft computer store?

Retail is retail, and honestly Apple is probably one of the better companies
overall to work for in this environment. From what I've heard they pay better
and probably treat employees a bit better. They seem to embrace the culture of
the generally young and hip employees about as well as any coffee shop. In
Boston most have visible tattoos, piercings and are able to speak fairly
freely about stuff. Their goals aren't constant upselling and they are pretty
good at their jobs. I can't say the same for Best Buy.

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omouse
They're so good that there's a fucking _line-up_ to get hired. I think they
ran 50+ people in a night just to give an information session on being hired
to work in the Apple Store.

It was crazy. I don't think any other retail could pull that off.

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jrockway
_New people who were hired knew nothing about Macs or any Apple products and
were paid more than us. It killed us, but there was nothing we could do._

Uh, it's called quitting. Don't like your job? Get another one.

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jrwoodruff
I believe, if you read the article, the guy interviewed did just that...

You also might want to consider that, these days, decent retail jobs are not
the easiest thing to come across.

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jrockway
Sounds like he was tech support, not retail.

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endtime
Not a very good title...this seems to relate to one particular Apple store.

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kburn
Yes, lasted 3 weeks.

