Angela Ahrendts on Apple Retail Criticism: 'I Don't Read Any of it, and None of it is Based on Fact'

[brewcitywi]

And is it up to you to decide what noise is?

Nope.

Let me define "noise" as I understand it here. Anyone who isn't in the same "arena" as her. And, unless we are (and we are certainly NOT), then "we are the noise."

She has no accountability, in any way, to listen your (or my) opinion of her successes and failures.

Only those who worked with her, or who she answered to, within her position at Apple, does she have accountability. In that "arena," she was technically accountable to all of us. That's where she "listened."

Not here.

 

[Piggie]

You know........ I may be wrong, but.

Just hearing things she's said, and the very look of her in photo's

To me, give off a strong impression of Smugness, Arrogance, and a feeling that she see's herself as a better human being than "normal people"

It's just the vibe I get from her.

 

[oldmacs]

I've been stuffed around in Apple stores more times than I can count.

Genius Bar appointments are almost always late. (sometimes up to an hour). You go in to check in and there are hoards of Apple workers with iPads all chatting and no one avlaible to check you in. Last two times I've gone to pick up products from repairs, they haven't been able to find my name on the system. Then 30 minutes later, it is "oh it was ready an hour ago, we don't know why it didn't come up'.


Also being told that I needed to do a software restore to see if it would fix an iPhone SE button that was 'double clicking' and also being told that after a battery replacement the day before, that the top left of the screen popping out and being loose was "how they're meant to be". Fairly comedic...

While there are good elements to the Apple store, there are many bad ones.

 

[simonmet]

She looks awfully smug in that overly airbrushed profile pic. But it’s the buzzword-laden excessive self promotion that’s the bigger turn off here.

It’s rarely (if ever) attractive to blow your own trumpet unless it’s done for comedy or in jest. Perhaps it’s more tolerated or expected behaviour culturally in America, but I doubt it.

 

[Jsameds]

Good luck with this one, Airbnb.

Good riddance, arrogant woman.

 

[Machead2012]

She full of it and herself as well.
If she were worthy and doing a good job she would not be out the door. Period!
Total and complete deflection on her part. The retail sector of Apple Stores has been a disaster and many including myself NEVER buy Apple products from an Apple Store. Authorized retailers offer better service and slightly better prices as well.

 

[hbt15]

The biggest mistake they made was making stores so big, and filled with 100's of display devices that now it's just almost entirely full of tire kickers taking up room and people that actually want to buy get pissed an go elsewhere.

There is no 'experience' there anymore. I can go to my local big-box store and buy apple products in 10 minutes, often cheaper as well and feel like i'm missing nothing.

 

[barmann]

Well, I guess she really does have her head in the sand.

You call it sand in your country ?

 

[timber]

Nobody knows the real data but those who knew decided to replace her and not only replaced her but also chose an existent Apple executive instead of going on another headhunting mission.
And that tells a lot.

 

[ssmed]

re: When asked about criticism of the changes that Apple put in place in its retail stores, Ahrendts said that she doesn't pay any attention to it. "I don't read any of it, and none of it is based on fact," she said. "It's everyone trying to find stories."

You might think that – you don't say that. Phenomenal arrogance.
Pride comes before a fall!

 

[Ishayu]

Well, we don't have any Apple stores in Denmark, so I'm not really that concerned about this, but beyond the obvious "how do you know if you haven't read it" horse that's been beaten to death, I can certainly say, just looking at her philosophy, that I disagree.

Like Steve Jobs said when he originally fielded the concept of a store, people go to stores to buy solutions, and they want to get their solution as easily as possible so they can spend some time browsing around, and then leave with no confusion. Further, they want a great customer experience when buying products or getting repairs or support from them.

Her turning the Apple store into a "community center" where people just hang around and don't buy anything, and where most of the store is dedicated to hanging around instead of selling product, seems to me to be a colossal waste of everybody's time, and in particular it's a waste of Apple's resources, but what the heck do I know?! I mean if I want a relaxed community center and atmosphere, I just go to the park. It's a more pleasant place than any store ever could be.

She should've focused on making the retail store a place where technicians and sales people would get you buying a Mac or iDevice, and if you already had one they'd repair it cheaply and quickly, in some cases right on the spot. She didn't do any of that. I think Steve Jobs would be very upset at the way these stores are run today, judging by this video:

 

[first-to-tea]

Can journalists please do their homework and ask Apple critical questions about why their “flagship” stores have spectacularly failed in Stockholm Sweden and Melbourne Australia, never getting built amid locals protesting, and why there was great opposition at Carnegie Library in Washington. Why did Apple get these plans so wrong? I’m not levelling criticism just at Angela, but at Tim, Phil, and the entire executive team. Otherwise, these news articles just appear to be an example of inferiority complex where journalists suck up to Apple and allow delusional claims to be written that everything is/was happy rainbows. Can a tech journalist ask some hard probing questions for once?
[doublepost=1558772785][/doublepost]

How can she say it's not based on fact if she hasn't read any of it? Wow. Mind blown.

The “facts” don’t seem to mesh with the “real life facts”.
[doublepost=1558773049][/doublepost]

Good for her. I’m glad she is speaking out. A lot of unfair criticism directed her way.

Criticism shouldn’t be left on just Angela’s door step, but also at the doorstep of Tim, Phil, and the whole senior team.
[doublepost=1558773312][/doublepost]By the way, I do like Apple’s new stores, I just don’t think they’re particularly useful when the “community” can not afford a ticket to ride on Apple’s rainbow, which is reflected by Apple’s shrinking share of the market.

 

[femike]

What a waste of millions for this useless hire. Made it worse than it was before. I have no sympathy for the well deserved criticisms . She got what she want she came for and the many millions makes it very easy to paint over the criticisms and block your ears to them. She doesn't care anyway.

 

[triton100]

Apple will miss Angela as she's the nearest to Steve in terms of form and design of the Apple shops that Apple have ever had.

The stores were already in a good place before she came along. She barely changed anything other than adding some trees. The stores are busy because of the great products. Not because she has created ‘communities ‘. She is delusional.
[doublepost=1558774570][/doublepost]

I haven't worked at Apple, I'm not blindly defending AA, or their stores, and, I have no right to evaluate AA's performance, or, anyone's informed opinions here on this blog. That's not why I'm commenting.

Also, I don't want to get into every issue at Apple Stores, or debate on what's been transformed (or not) in the past 5 years. I'm sure, if I was pressed, I could come up with plenty of things I like and dislike, about how the Apple Stores have evolved, or devolved.

But, AA has a point. I'm sure that, in her time at Apple, there was overwhelming customer and employee feedback that AA and her team ferociously "listened to," and "reacted to," through their own internal communication channels.

That's not what she's talking about.

She is saying, and rather appropriately, that, unless you have been the Chief (something) Officer at a major corporation for an extended period of time, and you've had to deliver results (for which she was surely judged against inside Apple), that she has no reason to listen--or answer--to you (or me) in any way. She is not accountable to you, unless you're playing in the same "arena." (explained below)

And, she is 100% correct.

Whether time tells that she succeeded in her initiatives, or that they inevitably fail and new directions have to be pursued, that will have to work itself out.

Brene Brown cited a quote from Theodore Roosevelt for her book, "Daring Greatly," that specifically references this very thought:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; (...) who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and how at the worst, if he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt, the Man in the Arena, 1910.

That's who she's "not listening to."

And, if she ever does, then they're coming for you next.

Maybe but the ironic thing is she didn’t change anything. She added some trees.

 

[Shearwater]

Wow..very arrogant to say " I don't read any of it!" Just about sums up the " Apple experience" of late

 

[Tech198]

Ok, this is all good coming from an Retail side, but what about the part of "listening to customers" ? Where does fit that in? or is this only "in certain areas" like genius bars?

Wow..very arrogant to say " I don't read any of it!" Just about sums up the " Apple experience" of late

What else are you gonna say ? It's to a point anyway. I dunno a better way to put it.. It's bad, but i guess, a better method would be to side-step the question, then answer that way.

Thing is, when your in that business, you tend to block out your "surroundings"

When my parents were in the housing industry back in the day, she has "her" way, and wouldn't listen to anyone else's. You get like that, in an industry.

Open to ideas is what's keeps everyone happy... However, when you get your own Apple store, you can do it "your way" as well.

 

[vir2l2k]

angela ruined the stores. if I enter the store, I see 5-10 employees standing around, making me uncomfortable, not willing to help, blocking the way to the products. I don't know how to buy things anymore in the stores. there are no pro devices there and if I want help I need to talk to at least 3 employees, 2 of which are always chatting to each other and referring me to a 3rd person who is busy at the moment. I would prefer if there were no employees or no stores at all. the concept of having community sessions in the middle of the store sucks big time as it bothers everyone. I recently wanted to go play with the imac pro here in switzerland. they don't even have newest version or the high end model with vega 64x. it's a mess. after 25 years of having macs I am considering buying a pc because tim destroyed the mac.

 

[mixel]

Contrary to some people here I’ve had a lot of good experience with the Apple store here since redesign. It’s.. fine? No problematic waits, they’ve always been helpful. Nice environment.

It’s no Ikea..

And the weird standards for women in positions of influence come up, again. She’s only about a normal level of “arrogant” for someone in her position. You have to be confident to get there in the first place but people have a problem with that.

You can tell what she meant, when you don’t strip it of context. You’ll go out of your way to read between the lines to support people you agree with but won’t spend a moment on parsing the intention in the words of people you don’t like.

At least come up with better reasons than she “looks smug” excuse me.. have you met Apple? It’s their whole shtick!

 

[BvizioN]

Does she think that all criticism is baseless? I personally felt very lost last time I visited an Apple store.

You remind me of one of my work colleagues who felt so special that thought he would get a red carpet in the Apple store and the attention of every one. I seriously have problem understanding this kind of mentality. It may be just me but when I enter the store I know exactly where to find everything, do not need the never ending "can I help you with anything today " for every step I take, and certainly do not think the entire world revolves around me.

 

[rikscha]

The worst thing about Apple stores is when you are trying to buy something, and no one can help you, at a STORE lol. I remember I had to stand and wait for 20min to buy something, so absolutely ridiculous.

Like what? You can scan things yourself and pay in app....

 

[Heres2thecrazy]

I quit recently after nearly 7 years of service for Apple Retail. It was a great experience and I even got corporate training in Cupertino back when they did that. While I truly agree that Today At Apple was a positive thing, pretty much everything else served to create a bewildering experience for the customer. On top of that we were being asked to help more and more people while, as employees, we were already stretched so thin. There was also zero protection from abusive customers. It was an anxiety fueled experience when I left and we we’re hemorrhaging our best employees.

They needed to hire more employees. They wouldn’t.
They needed to go back to hiring more tech driven employees. They went the opposite direction.
They needed to keep the pay matching what we put up with on a daily basis. It stagnated.

The benefits were unreal, but my mental health was more important.

 

[Nicksd84]

It used to be fine to wander around an Apple store and go here and there and run into the Genius Bar. With the scale they’re at now it needs to be more structured for people needing service and help and people wanting to use it as a town square. She didn’t address the service part appropriately.

 

[PSCConMP]

It is always best to ignore your customers. Clearly the customer is always wrong and should be ignored.

 

[kazmac]

The switch from knowledgeable staff & more computers, to clueless or disinterested, snooty, on-the-clock hourlies, cold showroom iDevice environment, and crap music blasting consistently fits the lack of care Apple puts into their hardware & software now.

I don’t know what she and the remaining Apple brass were thinking; but the stores are not places I want to hang out in, much less stay longer than I have to.

I had fun annoying the staff by testing the iMac and MBP speakers with Bolt Thrower earlier this week. I have be sure these speakers can hold up against the noise I listen to. In a word, not anymore. Only the MBP sort of delivered.

I have issues with how she helped shape Apple into something I am increasingly uncomfortable with supporting. That’s my criticism.

 

[Elijen]

If she does not read it how does she know it's not based on facts?

As proven hundreds of times, it's completely pointless to ask Apple executives any serious questions. They are completely brainwashed and trained to give prepared answers by PR. Their answers never reveal any new information, just reassure that Apple is the best in everything.