As a long time consumer of electronics products in the UK, from Apple as well as Dixons Stores Group - PC World, Dixons (when it had high street stores), Currys - I can say with first hand experience that the DSG consumer experience has always been rubbish. They've always had a pile 'em high and sell 'em not-exactly-cheaply approach. The stores were always ugly.
As regards Tesco though, I have to say that my experience contradicts the poster above who says it's got bad customer service. My experience has almost always been good, from store staff to managers to their online customer services, etc.
While I didn't like the reports of what Browett was said to have been doing with staffing policies in Apple's stores, that could quite reasonably be put down to the 'new boy' not quite getting it in the first months of his job and having the guts to correct himself rather than claiming that he was either right or that there was no problem at all.
So far as I can tell, customer experience at Apple stores (those which I frequent at least) is still second to none. New customer-friendly services have been introduced, including more convenient ways to pay/deal with transactions - for both customers and staff alike including new credit card terminals, iTunes account integration, etc. Transactions now take less time and require less waiting around while the Apple staff person scurries around looking for bits of paper. The backoffice Apple systems still remember who you are when you go into any Apple shop, which is excellent and if you have a business account, like I do, you still get good service and, importantly, discounts!
I think Apple fans - of which I am one - are very very loyal. Indeed I think it's that loyalty that means that they pay very close attention to anything that threatens to upset the apple cart (pun intended!) at the company they love to buy stuff from. When it looks that someone might be a threat they come out guns blazing, but in this case I think that reaction is premature. So far all we've had is one small mis-step and an immediate row-back. Nothing else whatsoever seems to have gone wrong and I think it's rather unfair to heap so much criticism on Browett at this juncture. I'll keep an open mind, based on his corporate background apparently not matching that of Apple, but then is there any other corporate background that can match Apple? Probably not, considering there IS only one Apple after all...