(1) They rescinded this decision publicly --- a spokesperson (not Browett) conceded it was a mistake, which is ominous.
(2) The Apple stores I've been to have been comically overstaffed, with badges & blue shirts sometimes outnumbering customers, despite large numbers of those customers. Many of those retail staff don't appear to be doing anything. Perhaps they need more people at the "Genius Bar" and fewer on the floor.
I think (2) is on purpose. It's a fundamental result of queuing theory that if demand is 'lumpy' you have to put with either long lines or idle resources.
Most places choose long lines, but Apple seems like the sort of company to choose to have people some people idle most of the time rather than have long lines some of the time.
As Sam points out below: it is especially aggravating if you're getting slow service while 20 blue-shirted staff are standing around doing nothing. Intellectually, I understand why that might be happening: those people don't have roles that enable them to check customers out. Emotionally, it feels like (a) nobody at the store cares, and (b) that I can't get any bead on when or who or how someone at the store is going to help me.
My general point is, I can imagine how a seasoned retail pro might tour a bunch of Apple stores and come to the conclusion that they are haphazardly and wastefully staffed.
I also buy any argument for that conclusion being wrong! I'm not a retail guy. But do note that, like many other people who will chime in on this thread, while the Apple retail experience isn't bad per se (it's much better than shopping at Best Buy), it can in reality be very annoying. They have room to improve.
I think the staffing levels makes a lot of sense. Apple sells above-market items with large ASPs, and service is important. Why go to the trouble of building a great retail experience, located in the most desirable real-estate in each city, if you diminish the buying experience by forcing customers to wait a long time to buy?
Every Apple store I've ever been to (Silicon Valley, Toronto, Ottawa) has been crowded, new product release or not. Yet, I've never had to wait more than 5 minutes to talk to someone (not including waiting in line for a new iPhone model).
Not having to wait long at an Apple store is part of a good retail experience - it's another way to strengthen our association of the Apple brand with quality (in line with their use of materials in their products, as well as their attention to packaging).
Sometimes an Apple Store can get comical if you just want to go in and buy a product. A nice worker who is emphatically not willing to actually sell you anything advises how to get your name on the queue, at which point you have to stand next to that table until someone frees up from some other endless sale.
I guess that's why they introduced the "buy online and just take it and leave" model, so you don't have to deal with anyone, but it doesn't work for stuff in the back room.
Unless you need advice from a blue shirt working the floor or what you were buying is over $100, you can pay and check yourself out with the Apple Store app [1] and what they call their Easy Pay feature. I find this especially convenient when a store I go into is very crowded or I just don't want to wait. I grab what I need, scan it with the app, key in my password, and walk out usually within 5 minutes.
The last time I was in the SF apple store, the "geniuses" we're too busy chatting to one another to help me. I had to loudly exclaim "is anyone here actually working" to get them to stop talking and give me service. I have had to chase them down in the past as well.
I have only had one good experience at the apple store which was in the valley fair mall in San jose. The SF store has always been fairly bad.
I hate buying anything at Apple stores. Maybe it works for some demographic besides me, but I find it to be more work to actually purchase an item there than in any other store.
I had two experiences at Apple Stores, both have been fairly good
In one of them I managed to get good service even when the store was crowded (like Florida Mall crowded between xmas and new year). You use the iPad in the tables to join a queue, it may take some time, still it works.
(2) The Apple stores I've been to have been comically overstaffed, with badges & blue shirts sometimes outnumbering customers, despite large numbers of those customers. Many of those retail staff don't appear to be doing anything. Perhaps they need more people at the "Genius Bar" and fewer on the floor.