Angela Ahrendts Departing Apple in April, Deirdre O'Brien to Oversee Retail and People

[DevNull0]

Even Burberry has its sale season...

Before Ahrendts reign of destruction, I used to buy a lot of Burberry shirts on sale around $80 each (from $150). Now the sale price is typically around $250 (from $450). For the exact same shirts made from the exact same materials in the exact same style. I haven't bought a Burberry shirt in about 10 years. And in my circles, it used to seem like 50% of the men were wearing a Burberry shirt on any given day. It's been years since I've seen one in the wild.

These days, I have bespoke shirts made for $95 each, they're nearly as good quality as Burberry and since the fit is perfect they actually look a heck of a lot better on me, and there's thousands of fabrics to choose from as well as the style customizations. There is no way Burberry is worth $250 on sale much less $450 when I can have custom shirts made for me for $95 all day any day.

My wife has a Burberry trench coat that was $1000 regular price nearly 10 years ago. Today that same coat is $2700. The exact same coat.

 

[KPOM]

Do you have a source for that?

Not debating that you’re wrong, but im genuinely curious. I thought it was such an odd launch and I kinda want to know what happened.

It launched 6 months after it was announced and Apple had let leak that supplies were severely constrained and that the pre-orders were the only way to obtain the Watch at first.

 

[DevNull0]

LOL. Sure.

99% of the complaints in this thread about the apple store are that it's too crowded. You have the one ghost town somehow.

The internet is full of photos comparing MS store to apple store, showing that MS is empty. But someone you live in the one, unnamed, town, where there's a rave going on in the MS store, and tumbleweeds are blowing through the apple store.

Fine, I guess this isn't too much personal information. Yorkdale Mall in Toronto. And the Apple store isn't really deserted but it's maybe 10% as crowded it was 10 years ago and less crowded than the MS Store 3 doors down most of the time. Many times I a can go up to a table of iPhones or MBPs and I am the only person at that table.

And let's see these so-called photos and what the sources are. It's way too easy to fake. Last month both stores were packed out the door with holiday shoppers. Right now on a Wednesday afternoon in February, both stores will be ghost towns. Anyone with an agenda can show one store packed and the other empty as much as they want.

The other non-flagship Apple stores I see are pretty empty as well apart from the huge crowd waiting their turn at the genius bar at any given time, of course.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Seriously, in 5 years what did she do??? The stores are exactly the same, just with worse service. Everyone who works there is overworked, you have to wait forever to get any help. It's a horrible experience.

But at least Apple makes the most profit, and that’s what really matters.

 

[ccppch]

Seriously, in 5 years what did she do??? The stores are exactly the same, just with worse service. Everyone who works there is overworked, you have to wait forever to get any help. It's a horrible experience.

She brings "Diversity" to the "Men Dominated" tech company.

 

[BlandUsername]

Seriously, in 5 years what did she do??? The stores are exactly the same, just with worse service. Everyone who works there is overworked, you have to wait forever to get any help. It's a horrible experience.

Absolutely this X 1000 . Since we pay for premium products. Should not premium access to the products be there as well? We pay the premium price AND pay for the extended policy via Apple care. If you have ever had to stand in an Apple store for over an hour. you should understand. Their staff is way over-loaded in customer to staff ratio every Friday through Monday AM. having to schedule service support on hardware a week in advance is really way to long.

 

[cmaier]

Fine, I guess this isn't too much personal information. Yorkdale Mall in Toronto. And the Apple store isn't really deserted but it's maybe 10% as crowded it was 10 years ago and less crowded than the MS Store 3 doors down most of the time. Many times I a can go up to a table of iPhones or MBPs and I am the only person at that table.

And let's see these so-called photos and what the sources are. It's way too easy to fake. Last month both stores were packed out the door with holiday shoppers. Right now on a Wednesday afternoon in February, both stores will be ghost towns. Anyone with an agenda can show one store packed and the other empty as much as they want.

The other non-flagship Apple stores I see are pretty empty as well apart from the huge crowd waiting their turn at the genius bar at any given time, of course.

Ive posted photos myself in these forums, with metadata indicated date and location. And I'm not the only one. There are entire threads about it.

 

[Tozovac]

In my city, the Microsoft store is a few doors down from the Apple store in the same high-end mall. The MS store is typically busier than the Apple store and for good reason. Apple always has a display of their latest phones that are just like last year's phones. MS is always showing off some cool new tech.

A few years ago when it was newish, they had a 3D printer running that would draw a crowd. More recently, they had an HTC Vive setup for customers to try out modern VR. That drew a huge crowd for months. Apple is so much about the phones and watchbands they don't even have a mac mini or macpro on display, and the small handful of imacs is hard to find. Why go look at watches when MS is showing something cool every time. The XBox Ones playing on huge screens looks a lot more impressive than a display of watchbands. The MS store even sells raspberry PIs to help push windows10 IoT edition. It is just a cooler store with cooler products.

5 years ago, the MS store was a ghost town and it was had to squeeze into the Apple store. This is Ahrendts legacy, the Apple store is a pathetic, boring hole next to the MS store.

Thanks for the compelling datapoint.

 

[LordVic]

Fine, I guess this isn't too much personal information. Yorkdale Mall in Toronto. And the Apple store isn't really deserted but it's maybe 10% as crowded it was 10 years ago and less crowded than the MS Store 3 doors down most of the time. Many times I a can go up to a table of iPhones or MBPs and I am the only person at that table.

And let's see these so-called photos and what the sources are. It's way too easy to fake. Last month both stores were packed out the door with holiday shoppers. Right now on a Wednesday afternoon in February, both stores will be ghost towns. Anyone with an agenda can show one store packed and the other empty as much as they want.

The other non-flagship Apple stores I see are pretty empty as well apart from the huge crowd waiting their turn at the genius bar at any given time, of course.

Yorkdale's is a little more than 10%, i'd say everytime I go in that area, it's got people in it, but hardly crowded.

the Apple store at Markville Mall in Markham on the other hand is almost always dead with only a couple stragglers walking around.

Eaton Centre downtown on the other hand is always rammed.

 

[DevNull0]

Ive posted photos myself in these forums, with metadata indicated date and location. And I'm not the only one. There are entire threads about it.

This is one of the first links I found about it: https://www.geekwire.com/2012/tale-stores-photos-apple-microsoft-retail-stores-busy-sunday/ and it has a whole accompanying article.

The Apple store is not exactly breeding tumbleweeds there but it's not in the same league as MS. It's also a fairly old article.

The point is that all these anecdotes are meaningless either way and saying Apple stores are bustling while MS stores are deserted is just plain lies.

 

[Tozovac]

"At Apple, we believe our soul is our people..." said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO.

Puh-lease. When has any aspect of an Apple product, store, keynote, or Jony Ive hot air statement radiated “Apple’s people is our soul” to any consumer here?

Apple’s products radiate that Apple’s current soul is no more than an incessant, singular form-first dongle-breeding drive for more thinness, less interface buttons/ports, and more minimalism, period.

 

[urnotl33t]

There's no such thing. 13 is just a number, like all other numbers. And they didn't have any such base superstitions about version 13 (High Sierra) of macOS.

--Eric

I agree. Cisco believed it tho, when they went from IOS 12.x for their routers and switches to IOS 15. 13 is "unlucky" in the US, and 14 is "unlucky" in many Asia regions. 4 also is unlucky in Japan, as the word for 4, "shi", also means "death", which is why elevators in Japan often have no "4th floor" like we don't have a "13th floor". So in Japan, "4" also goes by another word "yon". And we thought English was the only f'ed-up language!
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The stores look the same to me today as they did 10 years ago.

Except, going there is more of a hassle than ever. You either get bombarded by fake overly-enthusiastic employees, or it's impossible to find someone to check out when you just run in to grab something.

Self-checkout with the Apple Store app and Apple Pay.

 

[Abazigal]

I don't think you understand the meaning of the word scapegoat. She is tasked with defining the retail strategy for the entire company. She isn't a scapegoat if she defined the strategy and said strategy failed.

That’s not how she would be graded for her performance review. The point of the retail stores isn’t solely to sell more Apple products.

If Cook is grading Ahrendts on one metric, it’s likely not the number of iPhones sold per store. Instead, it would be Apple retail employee satisfaction and retention. As discussed in the Vogue piece, Apple retail employee retention appears to be near 90%.

All signs point to Angela leaving simply because she wanted a change of environment and April so happens to be the time when her stock options vested, not because she was forced out or had some bad working relationships with her peers.

Angela was brought in at a time when Apple store foot traffic was declining and suffering from a lack of leadership overall. Under her tenure, the number of Apple retail staff increased and she also introduced a slew of new initiatives such as combining both offline and online shopping experiences, redesigning the retail stores and positioning the retail employees as the most crucial ingredient for retail success.

I don’t know if Tim Cook got his money’s worth with hiring her away from Burberry, but it’s not as though she was just sitting around drinking coffee all day.

Despite the numerous criticisms being levelled at her here, I believe time will tell that her legacy here at Apple will have been a meaningful and crucial one.

 

[Q-Dog]

That’s not how she would be graded for her performance review. The point of the retail stores isn’t solely to sell more Apple products.

If Cook is grading Ahrendts on one metric, it’s likely not the number of iPhones sold per store. Instead, it would be Apple retail employee satisfaction and retention. As discussed in the Vogue piece, Apple retail employee retention appears to be near 90%.

All signs point to Angela leaving simply because she wanted a change of environment and April so happens to be the time when her stock options vested, not because she was forced out or had some bad working relationships with her peers.

Angela was brought in at a time when Apple store foot traffic was declining and suffering from a lack of leadership overall. Under her tenure, the number of Apple retail staff increased and she also introduced a slew of new initiatives such as combining both offline and online shopping experiences, redesigning the retail stores and positioning the retail employees as the most crucial ingredient for retail success.

I don’t know if Tim Cook got his money’s worth with hiring her away from Burberry, but it’s not as though she was just sitting around drinking coffee all day.

Despite the numerous criticisms being levelled at her here, I believe time will tell that her legacy here at Apple will have been a meaningful and crucial one.

Oh please! That announcement was straight out of the public relations textbook that I studied in college 35 years ago. "Leaving to persue other personal and professional opportunities" is a different way of saying she's "leaving to spend more time with her family." Usually, when a high profile executive leaves on their own, they either retire, or say where they are going next. When they are pushed out without their next gig lined up, they "are leaving to spend more time with their family."

Apple is giving her a golden parachute by letting her stick around until the rest of her shares are vested. She has 3 months to clean out her office and try to line up a new gig, but I bet she has been relieved of most of her duties.

She wasn't a good fit and Apple cut their losses.

 

[techno-Zen]

Adios Angela. Sure, she made the Apple store on the surface kind of interesting but I have personally found the level of technical knowledge and knowledge and passion for the products SEVERELY lacking since her arrival. Something has just been off, Including the friendliness of employees. I think morale at the store level has dropped significantly during her tenure.

 

[5hugknight]

I appreciate your half full glass view, but can anyone explain what she did in five years? I mean tangible things for us customers.

the 'Today At Apple' program. Which is FREE arts + coding education for the public. Version 2.0 just launched in Retail Stores. Did no one watch that part of the Keynote? It was effectively a New Product Launch...

 

[Veinticinco]

She wasn't a good fit and Apple cut their losses.

What, after 5 years? You could make that comment about Browett, her predictably disastrous predecessor, but AA has been rewarded beyond avarice for delivering very little other than constant reminders of just how far her finger was off the pulse. She should never have survived the Apple Watch launch and subsequent luxury positioning that had her vacuous fashionista stamp all over it, but I imagine she was Teflon-coated given the diversity quota and likelihood Apple couldn't afford another high profile sacking at that time. As many others have said, she's overseen a quite dramatic drop off in Apple Retail satisfaction at both ends, customer and employee.

 

[DevNull0]

What, after 5 years? You could make that comment about Browett, her predictably disastrous predecessor, but AA has been rewarded beyond avarice for delivering very little other than constant reminders of just how far her finger was off the pulse. She should never have survived the Apple Watch launch and subsequent luxury positioning that had her vacuous fashionista stamp all over it, but I imagine she was Teflon-coated given the diversity quota and likelihood Apple couldn't afford another high profile sacking at that time. As many others have said, she's overseen a quite dramatic drop off in Apple Retail satisfaction at both ends, customer and employee.

After the insane signing bonus Apple gave her to buy out her Burberry golden parachute (113,000 shares worth $68 million at the time, about $200 million today), there is no way they could have fired her earlier. It may have cost Timmy his job on the spot to admit a mistake of that magnitude any sooner.

Even now, a $200 million signing bonus for someone you're firing after 5 years is a huge disaster and humiliation for Apple that Timmy is going to have to answer to the board for. Her 2018 pay was $26.5 million. She was a colossal mistake and one I strongly hope Timmy is raked over the coals for.

 

[supercoolmanchu]

Seriously, in 5 years what did she do??? The stores are exactly the same, just with worse service. Everyone who works there is overworked, you have to wait forever to get any help. It's a horrible experience.

Hardly. No Apple Shirts in retail have become poorly trained, and poorly managed. They aren’t anywhere near overworked, walk into an Apple Store, they are typically lazy and apathetic. Hard work would fix both of those problems, better management would provide better structure and discipline for store employee performance and behavior.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the reason behind this ‘resignation’ is tied directly to a major dip in store customer satisfaction surveys combined with softer sales. No place for a retail chief who’d rather work ‘behind the scenes’ safely at her desk, than bust her ass and tackle the difficult tasks of getting the retail stores ship shape.

 

[chatin]

Solid cost cutting move to combine duties under one exec. Angela probably tried a power play on Cook's CEO job but came up short. By the numbers, Cook still looks good.

 

[cube]

She turned Apple into a fashion company, does that count?

It was already a fashion company.

 

[I7guy]

Apple Store in general is not doing well except in certain location and cities unless you live in that city and you won't notice it. First of all Apple has just increased their online presence with the deal with Amazon, it's a thing now to buy stuff online and that speaks a lot for Amazon customers that's the reason why Amazon is dominating the online market. Secondly, frustration of going to Apple Store just keeps growing unless you have the Apple Care, if you have problems with your device without warranty be ready for some suggestion to just buy a new one. Also the online to store pre-order/activation was a failure and people are getting frustrated they rather go to carrier store now than Apple Store. And obviously if you've been paying attention and the news confirms it that iPhone sales is down that means fewer people visiting Apple Store is fewer people wants to buy it. Like I said if you don't notice that in your town then maybe that particular store is doing really good.

Do you have some citations (not one of internet posters or bloggers) to back up that Apple Store in general is not doing well. You couldn't tell from the Apple Stores near me.

Apple of course has been steadily increasing it's online presence and times have changed and it's no longer "cool" to hang out in an Apple Store, like Starbucks. Although nobody will throw you out, it's not a "thing" as I can tell. People go there to transact business, from what I can see.

As far as the frustration cited, I think, Apple has gotten much more selective as to what service will be rendered to non-Applecare devices. This might be due to combat the previous liberal policy of anything goes.

But from the Apple Stores near me, they are pretty much busy every time I walked into one. People want more than iphones and sometimes they go to an Apple Store to buy that thing.

 

[Zwhaler]

You're right, but even in that effort, Apple management is just too stupid to get it. When you buy a designer brand, it's about the experience, you pay a fortune for a Louis Vuitton purse, but the product you get it complete. If you buy the latest model iPhone and latest model Mac, you can't connect them to each other without buying even more overpriced accessories. Fine, charge $2000 for a photo or tablet, but you damn well better include all the accessories to make it a complete product. At the price point, it should be a no brainer that the pencil comes with the iPP. Could you imagine the shoulder strap being sold separately on a Louis Vuitton purse? Apple is not a designer brand. They're commodities which can, for now, command a premium price based on the recent memory of what they were.

Also, designer brands are someone exclusive. People wan't Burberry because most people cannot have Burberry, they're willing to pay a premium just to have what others cannot. Last week, Timmy told us there are 1.4 billion iToys in current use. 20% of the population of the entire planet owns an iToy. They are not a designer brand.

About the designer brand part, true, but at the same time, consider this: when you see someone with an XS or an XS Max, you know they're rocking the most expensive non-niche smartphone out there. Unfortunately the same is true of the iPad Pro these days. MacBook Pros sure have been getting there since 2016...

And that's where Apple chooses to thrive. Most designer brands cannot produce volume, but Apple can. So they split the difference. They're a more-expensive-than-thou designer brand for consumable electronics which, like any other designer brand, have a legitimate cool-factor when they're the latest thing in season (other manufacturers have not been able to replicate this). Similarly, when they go out-of-season, they quickly fall off within 1-2 years, and the latest iDevice steals the spotlight (iPad Pros after the iPhone, MacBook Airs after that, then the new Air Pods, then the new Product Red this or that, etc...)

It's a little hard to convey my point but that's the basic idea. Apple's already had this locked down for years, but now they're taking it to the next level by charging exorbitant prices across the lineup. I mean just think about how much prices have gone up in the last few years. It's because Apple decided to go designer! The XR and cheaper models are the Outlet version.

 

[I7guy]

After the insane signing bonus Apple gave her to buy out her Burberry golden parachute (113,000 shares worth $68 million at the time, about $200 million today), there is no way they could have fired her earlier. It may have cost Timmy his job on the spot to admit a mistake of that magnitude any sooner.

Even now, a $200 million signing bonus for someone you're firing after 5 years is a huge disaster and humiliation for Apple that Timmy is going to have to answer to the board for. Her 2018 pay was $26.5 million. She was a colossal mistake and one I strongly hope Timmy is raked over the coals for.

Nobody knows the real story and that story is unlikely to get circulation, at least in the near term. Whether Apple views her as a mistake is conjecture. Timmy won't be raked over any coals. That's for certain.

 

[0388631]

My wife has a Burberry trench coat that was $1000 regular price nearly 10 years ago. Today that same coat is $2700. The exact same coat.

Ah, the cashmere coat? Honestly, worth the money. Though put another $1-2K on it and get a higher end and higher quality trench. The women's trenches have remained the same quality, I can attest to that... The men's trenches have improved, but have also remained the same price as they were a decade ago.
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when you see someone with an XS or an XS Max, you know they're rocking the most expensive non-niche smartphone out there. Unfortunately the same is true of the iPad Pro these days. MacBook Pros sure have been getting there since 2016...

Face value, sure. Carriers ran trade-in events or upgrade events. You could get an XS Max 512 GB for under $1,000 around the holidays.
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Nobody knows the real story and that story is unlikely to get circulation, at least in the near term. Whether Apple views her as a mistake is conjecture. Timmy won't be raked over any coals. That's for certain.

The Hermès watch lends to the theory.