Angela Ahrendts Discusses Apple's Experiential Retail Strategy in New Interview

[jjudson]

This "high-end retail experience" (and even the employment of Angela) is misguided in my opinion.

Apple has some systemic product concerns (like the sluggish Mac refresh, falling iPhone sales, quality concerns, new product development, etc.) that need to be addressed prior to an expensive real estate acquisition push. It makes no sense to have such lavish property expenses when your basic product line is falling. It doesn't do any good to have a prime located, elaborate guilded sales mansion if you have nothing more than iPhones and antique computers to sell. I'm not even sure what the value of this high-end retail experience really is other than to stroke the vanity of Angela and Jony Ive.

 

[newyorksole]

I’d have more respect for this woman if she was more honest: it’s all about selling iToys. “We want to enrich people’s lives...by selling a $1,500 iPhone!” Disgusting.

All Apple wants to enrich is their profits.

Are you serious? What CEO or executive flat out says “ we want to sell you things and get more rich”.

The products and services sell themselves (for the most part). People are going to buy regardless, so why not give them even MORE of a reason to buy and stop by their retail locations.

Also, not all of their phones are $1500.

This thread is really telling. Some of you are just fed up with Apple and are being incredibly irrational. Apple is a business at the end of the day. Steve is gone. They still have a lot more to do.

Just relax.

 

[DevNull0]

ROFL. Apple needs to get over their idiotic hyperbole and get back to making products.

The Apple store has become a miserable experience. The stench in their stores is so gross if I do actually need to buy something I'll go into a best buy instead. The staff is rude and non-helpful and seems to try and evade customers. What a difference from 5 years ago. It wasn't that many years ago that they replaced the logic board on my MBP just because I complained the audio wasn't switching to the earphones properly when I plugged it in, even though they couldn't replicate the problem. These days they will say or do anything to avoid repairing things. I remember when my iPad 1's cable failed. The Apple worker didn't even test it, he took a brand new retail boxed one off the shelf, opened it, handed me the cable and took the broken one. Imagine an Apple store doing that now. Laughable. My first 3.5mm-lightening adapter failed less than a year after the 7 came out. So every single one was under warranty, and Apple still wouldn't replace it.

Ahrendts explained that the location will become a community hub for the area, including field trips for local schools and off-site walking tours of the nearby sites in Washington, D.C.

You're a cell phone store. Not a major attraction. It is just sad and pathetic if you're a field trip destination, and I'd sure be complaining to the principal if I were a parent of one of those kids. Let's see, should we take our kids on a tour of the Capitol or of the local Apple store. Disgusting Angela.

each retail worker starts their day using an app called Hello, including briefings on important matters for the day with videos from Ahrendts and her team.

Wow...Cringe. 1984 is here and thy name is Apple. I feel sorry for Apple retail workers having to work for this hag.

 

[Defthand]

"...when you are serving digital natives, the thing they long for more than anything is human connection. Eye contact."

Natives? Wow. That has the same connotation as savages. Freudian slip by a fashion diva? Frankly, I think it's the perfect word for the iOS groupies.

Meanwhile, Apple wants to promote more connection and eye contact... with store staff. Maybe we should invite them to Thanksgiving dinner next time. Does she not see that the modern day problems that Big Apple wants to solve with its most popular products are problems that those products spawned?

 

[WaxedJacket]

long winded rant:

I think the first few times I went to the Apple store it was a good experience. This going back to picking up the 2nd gen iPods. Since then it's been a clusterf*** of confusing, check in lines, people saying "wait here for someone to assist you". It's not a fun experience and it's not an issue with the number of employees. It's an issue with efficiency. There needs to be a designated crew for people just looking to pick up orders. Yet every employee can spend as much time as they like with any customer. Even on slow days through the week it can take upwards to half an hour to get an order filled that was placed online because the login/checkout system is on those wacky handheld iPods they use to check out.

Okay enough ranting for now. I'm curious what Angela Ahrendts really adds to the "Apple Town Square" experience.

 

[maccentury]

Apple stores have been yet another casualty of user-unfriendlyness in the post-Jobs era.

1. You can't look at the hardware specs while playing around with the machine, because they got rid of the physical spec placards.
2. They had ONE non-touchbar macbook pro on display in the gigantic new store I was at.
3. The iPhone XS was on the other side of the room from the iPhone XR--in order to compare them side-by-side I had to contact an apple employee who had to pull out a special case which had loose display units in it. To compare probably the two models everyone would be choosing between...

WTF

 

[ipponrg]

I think what Angela added was a facade that Apple is bigger than it really is. She's done a great job at that considering the droves of people that go into the store excited to be in the Apple store until they have to deal with the sales and genius bar reps.

The glass, lights, and feel of the architecture make it modern, appealing, and open. But the vibe of the stores make it feel unnecessarily chaotic. I went to the 5th Ave NYC store a few weeks ago to check out their flagship, and it's just ridiculous with the droves of Apple sales employees standing around talking amongst each other and doing nothing. It's difficult to know who to talk to for what.

I loathe having to set up an appointment at the Apple store and dealing with the Genius Bar. The ratio of staff to customer is insanely high, but the output is so low. Even when you make an appointment, you still usually have to wait ~15 mins after. What's the point of the appointment?

 

[kagharaht]

I like this part. “Steve told the teams when he opened retail 18 years ago, ‘Your job is not to sell, your job is to enrich their lives and always through the lens of education.’” Seriously, it's a good directive from Steve. The products sells itself so you don't need to push push push push to sell. If you do, then your no different from another retail stores.

 

[partsofspeech]

So we pay high premium price for every Apple product for this woman and top bonus men?

 

[triton100]

Although I am not the target audience and personally do not feel the attraction that Apple stores obviously have for the people that go there, Angela Ahrendts is doing an excellent job and her concept works for the company and its customers - so kudos to her.

I think just like Barnes & Noble and other book stores, they should add a coffee area to their stores - that would definitely help with the human interaction and make those places more attractive. Good cheese cake would also help.

Just curious. What has she done that's majorly different to how the Apple store experience was before she came onboard?

 

[lunarworks]

I like this part. “Steve told the teams when he opened retail 18 years ago, ‘Your job is not to sell, your job is to enrich their lives and always through the lens of education.’” Seriously, it's a good directive from Steve. The products sells itself so you don't need to push push push push to sell. If you do, then your no different from another retail stores.

It's funny. The current Apple Store is pretty much exactly how Steve Jobs pitched it, but the "Steve Jobs would never..." cultists always chime in otherwise.

 

[Rojaaemon]

Vogue Business

As a stock holder, it would be interesting to see a demographic profile of their readership.

 

[Defthand]

Just curious. What has she done that's majorly different to how the Apple store experience was before she came onboard?

That's the million dollar question. I feel MacRumors should offer a prize to the person who can enlighten us.

The only change I've noticed about the newer stores' announcements... she's made them more pretentious.

 

[TTTedP]

The stores are so empty...

Empty??! I haven't seen an empty one in years. They are mobbed (and not in a good way). I find myself walking over to the MS store if I want to mess around with displays and kill time in the mall.

 

[CrystalQuest76]

I am very long time Apple consumer (started with a Mac Classic).

I remember the earlier stores that sold third-party software on shelves (before the online app store existed and before iPhones). I remember that they regularly had classes teaching new and intermediate level lessons to store visitors. I recall that once in a while they had some semi-advanced topics. The stores had projection screens and lecterns in the back of the stores for these events. Now days people acquire those skills watching tutorials on YouTube.

 

[Hank Carter]

The stores look better, but it's chaos. The layout is not very structured or apparent.

Wait times at the Genius Bar are way too long.

And worst of all the sales staff has become more obnoxious in the past few years or at least that's my impression of many stores on the west coast of the US.

Smart ass kids with big ego's, who are too cool for their own good and act like they are doing you a favor by helping you and think anyone over 30 is computer illiterate.

Also too much fraternizing.

I have also noticed that in the past year or so they have been making a push to hire every artsy, hip, cool kid they can find or at least that is the impression I get in the west coast stores. Most of them are annoying, self entered and offer poor customer service, because they are too wrapped up in themselves. Not exactly the experience I want, when I'm dropping hundreds or thousands of dollars on a product.

They also need to learn to treat everyone with the same respect, if they are coming in to buy a $10 dongle or a $2500 computer. I actually had a few sales people blow me off once they found out that I was not there for a big purchase.

Good customer service is about making the customer feel like it's all about them. It's a service industry and the customer is king. It's not about some kid's ego, because they think they are super cool for working at the Apple Store and have a nose ring.

 

[Neepman]

The experience going to the store for an oldster like me is very different than a young'n. But being over 50 they could care less about me and my money.

 

[jjudson]

Some of you are just fed up with Apple...

Definitely getting there...

...and are being incredibly irrational.

I'm not sure being disappointed at watching and reacting to the steady fall and decline of a favorite brand is being "irrational".

Apple is a business at the end of the day.

And by all indicators, one that is entering a downward spiral.

Steve is gone.

Ain't it the truth...

They still have a lot more to do.

Then they best get to it and stop dinking around with luxury store locations and nonsensical sales strategies. A good start would be to come out with at least ONE new product that wasn't in the planning or release stages when Jobs was alive. And while they're at it, they can refresh their now-antique computer lines and address their failing quality concerns.

...but that's just me.

 

[Baymowe335]

"Just tired of seeing people act like companies can’t work on multiple projects at once."

I wish we had some evidence that Apple was working on multiple projects at once...

We do. You're ignoring it. That's just a ridiculous statement.

 

[itsmilo]

I don’t like the Apple Store experience at all. When you want to buy something you have to chase someone who is free instead of just walking to one particular spot.

If you have a Genius appointment you kind of feel lost from my experience like they ask you to sit down and you start to wonder if they forgot about you or not. They should distribute numbers or something and a screen that shows what number is up next

 

[JustinRP37]

Crowded stores seems like a good problem to have, no? And LOL not everyone waiting for the Genius Bar is angry. How could you compare a company that sells coffee and food to a company that sells technology?

You realize that there is a team at Apple that works on retail and a separate team to work on products, right?

Angela has specifically stated she wants the ‘stores’ to become a gathering place for people. What better example of this than Starbucks which is the ‘third place’, meaning a gathering for people. Starbucks routinely gives PR about wanting people to think of them as a gathering place. And to be honest, when I go to the Apple Store now it is crowded, not by people buying stuff, but by people waiting for repairs.

As someone that has had multiple Macs in for keyboard issues in th roast few years, I can tell you that here is a good number of people that are not happy at the Genius Bar. When it takes 5-8 days to fix a brand new computer because of a keyboard issue, people have a right to be upset. I have run labs full of Macs and while I still love the OS, the hardware of late has not been great. We spend a lot of money on equipment and it is not fun to have downtime. And yes I do realize Apple has different teams, as every corporation and organization has.

 

[UnusedLoginID]

Yes I know...but I wanted them to price match the MBA, which was on sale everywhere, so I couldn't do the transaction online.

If you know what you want, order it online and have it delivered home.
If you need a price match, you’re gonna wait because most of the employees are not there to ring up a sale.
And if you don’t like the wait, maybe next time you’ll forgo the discount and the Apple Store “experience“.
I think Angela A. is clear as to the kind of people she does NOT want to see at the Apple Store and you’re one of them.

 

[480951]

I’ve worked retail and have heard a lot of BS corporate speak but the thing about “gathering places” and “natives” might take the cake as the most pretentious I’ve seen. Apple is a business, at the end of the day they want you to swipe your credit card and give them your money. Apple stores are not Starbucks where you hang out and have a few coffees, you go to buy tech, maybe check out some new things and leave.

 

[Tonewheel]

All fluff, nothing more.

 

[BigBoy2018]

Apple sells you an experience, not a product. And the Apple Store is a part of that experience. Like it or hate it, it's not going anywhere.

The basic apple store 'experience' hasn't changed since 2001. I went to one of the first stores in Lennox Square, Buckhead Georgia.
I really don't understand why Angela gets paid millions of dollars to add a bush here or there, or rearrange the placement products on the long wooden tables that have always been a part of the Apple store.

So if someone can tell me the things she's done to justify her multi-million dollar salary, please ... I'm all ears.