WOW, waste of money. Wonder why tech companies just hand out cash for so so work.
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Angela Ahrendts Departing Apple in April, Deirdre O'Brien to Oversee Retail and People
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Truly loved Angela for her empathy. She was a true shining star at Apple. A real shame that Apple is loosing such a valued Lady. Apple is very much worse off for this.
Always very very very bad for a company when their true inspirers leave and never a good advert for a company either when staff leave!
Always very very very bad for a company when their true inspirers leave and never a good advert for a company either when staff leave!
What? My local store always has some dude teaching something on an iPad using an IMAX-sized screen while billions of people who have been waiting for hours for an appointment to fix their iPhone 7 watch in despair. And weep.
I still remember absolutely destroying my iPhone 4 in NYC in 2012 and getting a brand spanking new one at the Grand Central store in less than 20 minutes for $199. Today that would be a very expensive proposition and there is absolutely no way that would be a same day replacement. Or cost just $199...
I don't think Angela really understood that in 2019, people don't want to go grab a cup of coffee and hang out at the Apple Store. That seemed to be her mentality behind the whole 'Today at Apple' push, and I think it was pretty out of touch with what most of Apple's customers are actually looking for from Apple.
I had this experience also.
At first, I thought it was not the norm, like maybe there was some employee training event going on, but I had the same experience weeks later, and couldn't understand why there were so many underutilized employees.
I'm not convinced that the horizon was open for her. I believe immediately that she was told that those bloody awful beach tables of Steve's had to stay. Now those damn table make the Apple Stores look very year 2000. They have to go whether Steve likes it or not - interiors have moved on from 2000 or 2001.
She showed empathy to all around and that in 2019 is the main thing that is missing from this messed up world. Just read some of the distasteful comments here and you'll realise that!
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I disagree, she was trying to educate people and teach. Education is the sole most important element lacking from some many people's lives. She was trying to make a difference.
At this point, Apple's retail partners probably still sell more Apple gear than Apple does. Apple probably doesn't want to kill off all their partners. As usual Apple just wants to do "enough" and skim off the primarily profitable ones. They don't want to do everything for everybody.
Honestly the could just use more teaching (and maybe service ... but they shouldn't be trying to kill off all of the thrid party service partners ) centers and that would clear out some of that overload in the smaller stores. But they also don't want the stores looking "empty". Making the store look like a place where people want to be is partially by design. (the follow the herd" trait they aren't going to completely suppress. )
Apple probably has a fixed budget and also a long list of the expensive "cool" places they want to be ( e.g., revitalizing some spot that an influential city might need). That's aren't doing the Starbucks on every other corner move. That would be very expensive for them and perhaps not as much return.
Say what you want about her but she had style. She was a breath of fresh air amongst all the dorky Apple dudes. I thought she was going to be even more important when Apple will move into the wearable space further (glasses)
I think it's because Apple foolishly expects an organized, process oriented experience from an overcrowded mess.
LOL. How long have you been following Apple? When I purchased my first PowerBook, it was more than twice the price of a comparable PC on specs. But I boughten it for the attention to detail and the brilliant macOS. Apple has always been a luxury brand.
Absolute rubbish. You cannot teach empathy or integrity to people, it's something that is in their soul. Tech people do not make mentors. Angela is a people person, there's enough tech people already at Apple.
Yup, that is how it was....
Plus, it seems like it is way too hot in their stores.
So, hot, sweaty, chaos is not a good combo for shopping nor customer service.
Right, but I still don't think many people want to go grab a cup of coffee and hang out at the Apple Store. It's just not a pleasant experience, in my opinion -- and it hasn't been for a while. To me, going to the Apple Store right now is only slightly more enjoyable than spending an hour in the dentist chair. It's certainly not a place I'm excited to go.
I agree with you completely - she has a great taste in jackets and I can't believe anyone would say otherwise!!
Honestly, whatever her vision was, it wasn’t great customer service. When ever I go into the apple store it tends to be groups of sales team members clustered around chatting.
Admittedly, I do have higher than average standards for customer service due to my own line of work, I just hope that the new direction is making customers a priority.
Admittedly, I do have higher than average standards for customer service due to my own line of work, I just hope that the new direction is making customers a priority.
I don’t think you know that. There were veiled shots at making it easier at retail to trade in your phone.
Also, the service/sales separation is a mess at the stores.
It was kind of hard to compare the specs back then.....
But they were expensive.
Actually, I would prefer them to be expensive if that meant getting a much better quality product than the cheaper competition. I think it was the case back then, but today, that gap has gotten much more narrow.
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Good. G T F O. You were handed the Golden Goose and you effectively killed it. You won't be missed in the slightest. Next up, Ive and then Cook.
I hate the idea of Apple becoming a fashion brand, which is why I never liked the idea of someone from the luxury fashion world been a part of the exec team. I wasn't a fan of the town square stuff either, Apple stores as the hub of the community seems so pretentious as if Apple is the most important thing in your town....here is a quote from the Financial Times.
"Ms Ahrendts, the former Burberry boss who is the technology company’s retail chief, unveiled the stores’ redesign last year. She laid claim then to the language of city planning. The new shops have “avenues” (of Apple products, naturally) and “forums”, for talks about photography or coding (on Apple products). The largest link to “plazas”, where concerts and events can take place, and feature tree-planted “genius groves”, where service technicians roam free. But Ms Ahrendts’ latest lexical takeover is more than just branding nonsense. It betrays Apple’s — and indeed Silicon Valley’s — sometimes patronising attitude to the world outside its bubble, and it is as arrogant as it is presumptuous." link to the entire article below, I agree with most of what the author says
https://www.ft.com/content/8c5d4aec-988f-11e7-a652-cde3f882dd7b
Anyway maybe we can get some more down to earth people in Apple.................
"Ms Ahrendts, the former Burberry boss who is the technology company’s retail chief, unveiled the stores’ redesign last year. She laid claim then to the language of city planning. The new shops have “avenues” (of Apple products, naturally) and “forums”, for talks about photography or coding (on Apple products). The largest link to “plazas”, where concerts and events can take place, and feature tree-planted “genius groves”, where service technicians roam free. But Ms Ahrendts’ latest lexical takeover is more than just branding nonsense. It betrays Apple’s — and indeed Silicon Valley’s — sometimes patronising attitude to the world outside its bubble, and it is as arrogant as it is presumptuous." link to the entire article below, I agree with most of what the author says
https://www.ft.com/content/8c5d4aec-988f-11e7-a652-cde3f882dd7b
Anyway maybe we can get some more down to earth people in Apple.................
I do know that. The bad quarter was due to much reduced iPhone sales in China. You have anecdotes. The rest of us have numbers.
True. I was at a local mall today and my wife asked if I wanted to stop at the Apple Store. I said No. They used to be exciting. Now they are filled with people waiting for someone to fix their phone or whatever.
I had a feeling this was going to happen. Not sure she was a great fit for Apple. Bet she was pushed out. It was also odd, that she didn't present for the first couple years of her tenure and I though Apple would've loved to have her come out to show they have a woman in the C-Suite. When she finally came out to present, she wasn't that great of a presenter. Even worse were her informal updates to the retails teams.
Overall, despite some design upgrades to the stores, I know longer think they are as much a destination as they used to be. They no longer have valuable how-to events in their mini-theaters. They finally replaced this void with pretty simplistic how to use your iPad type of classes. The stores also show some interesting accessories but there's no explanation on how to use them or even find a price. It took me a long time to get help at the Salt Lake City store to ask a basic question about a gamble on display. The stores are more about order pickups.
Bring back Ron!
Good riddance. Her tedious presentations about stores were the low point of every Apple event. Maybe now we can hear more from the engineers and less fluffy drivel about the retail experience.