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Angela Ahrendts: 'The Days of Waiting in Line' at Apple Stores Are Over

The hidden queue.

So now customers get to wait up until midnight (in their mom's basement), then hassle with an overloaded website for hours, give up, then try again after some sleep before finally placing an order that will arrive several weeks after launch day. Sounds great.
 
People don't wait in line because they need to but rather because they choose to to occupy their day(s).
 
Apple store and surrounding vendors cannot handle long lines for one more product line, especially a line for a small product like a watch that you try on. This new product effectively breaks how an Apple store has been working. So you PR stunt it in order to appear like you are making the change for the customer's benefit.
 
Arran said:
Not only that, but there's a visceral, primordial reassurance in seeing a huge crowd of other people validating your decision to buy at Apple. It's a safety-in-numbers sort-of thing.
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You might want to look in to counseling if you need that kind of validation for acceptance and assurance by society.
 
St0rMl0rD said:
Maybe they know the lines won't be long so they're trying to mask it with this?
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Exactly. I still think they watch is going to be a lot of sales (relatively speaking) for the first couple week then fade to little to nothing. The market is VERY small for a watch that is outdated in 18 months, has a piss poor battery life, and requires an iPhone to do much of what it is made to do.
 
Arran said:
Not only that, but there's a visceral, primordial reassurance in seeing a huge crowd of other people validating your decision to buy at Apple. It's a safety-in-numbers sort-of thing.



You can't see a crowd online.

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I know. This new model is like the worst of both worlds!
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I may be wrong, but I think this change, and it happening just before the launch of the Apple watch, highlights how uncertain Apple is about how the watch will fare. As you said, you can't "see" the lines online. Apple is uncertain about how this watch will be received and sell, and they are hyping it up as the next greatest thing to change a market (wristwatches). But they are also, for the first time, having to market it as a "fashion" item, which is foreign to them. And the worst thing that could happen for them would be to hype it this much, and there be very small/no lines. The media would jump all over that. So...Apple just removed the possibility of there being small lines.

That's my take on it.
 
Actually I think this change will affect me in a negative way but for a different reason. The Apple products that I have bought at launch I have pre-ordered online and picked up later on launch day when the crowd has died down. I walked in early afternoon to pick up my iPhone 6 and passed hundreds in line at the mall who had been waiting for hours with no guarantee of getting any phone let alone the one of their choice.

The new policy will force most to pre-order online now and I suspect the Apple website will be overwhelmed and impossible to get on and probably out of stock by the time you do. Everyone one in the store on launch day, having pre-ordered, will be in line and there will be long wait times. So I don't see this as a positive thing for me and others who pre-order. I could have the item shipped, but I prefer to open and set it up in the store to be sure there are no defects.
 
nando87 said:
I'm glad, those people camping look like beggars and the whole place smells badly. You can't tolerate that if you're going luxurious. Let's move from the geek's things. Angela knows very well what she's doing and I agree.
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"Cleanliness is next to Godliness"

There it is - Angela Ahrendts' true internal sales pitch.

:rolleyes:
 
Arran said:
Not only that, but there's a visceral, primordial reassurance in seeing a huge crowd of other people validating your decision to buy at Apple. It's a safety-in-numbers sort-of thing.

You can't see a crowd online.

----------



I know. This new model is like the worst of both worlds!
Click to expand...

Outside of iPhone launches are there huge crowds of people at Apple stores buying new product? You don't see lines outside the door when new Macs are released. When the iPad mini launched my local Apple store opened at 8 am. I got there around 8:30 and there were no lines, the store was basically dead. I think the days of long lines at Apple stores has come and gone and might as well let Apple be the ones to kill it once and for all. It will be interesting to see what they do this fall when the new iPhones launch.
 
Okay, great...I agree, the days of waiting in line should be over.

My question is:

Apple, are you going to upgrade your God damn servers to handle the increased traffic load when it comes time to preorder? Every year trying to preorder something is a bloody nightmare.
 
They better have an option for people who aren't online savvy, like the elderly. At least help them order online at the store.
 
redneck1089 said:
okay, great...i agree, the days of waiting in line should be over.

My question is:

Apple, are you going to upgrade your god damn servers to handle the increased traffic load when it comes time to preorder? Every year trying to preorder something is a bloody nightmare.
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exactly!!!
 
Angela Ahrendts said:
Tell your customers we have more availability online, and show them how easy it is to order. You'll make their day.
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Does anyone else find this slightly condescending? Plus, if we told our customers to get it online when they'd travelled in, they'd hardly consider their day made!
 
b0nd18t said:
So a person shows up at an Apple Store, excited to get their hands on the latest product. An employee tells them to go home and order online instead. How does this make the customer happy?

Feels like a speech from 1999 to me.
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+100.
Personally, there is nothing I like worse than this. this is not specific to Apple, but usually when a store clerk tries to sell me something which turns out need to be ordered online I leave. there isn't any point of going to a store if you can do the same thing from a computer at home. I am sure retail people know this phenomenon well. this email sounds like a way to prepare everybody for very short initial supplies.
 
I reluctantly agree with the new policy. The last couple launch days (and even for weeks afterward) were lines full of paid scalpers. They've ruined what used to be a cool experience, something I wish everybody got to do at least once. But if that's how it's going to be, then I guess we need to move on to reservations or online purchasing.
 
uwdude said:
I reluctantly agree with the new policy. The last couple launch days (and even for weeks afterward) were lines full of paid scalpers. They've ruined what used to be a cool experience, something I wish everybody got to do at least once. But if that's how it's going to be, then I guess we need to move on to reservations or online purchasing.
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Yep, sure. Cool story bro.
 
Win-Win

If there are no lines at the stores for this launch - then Apple can speak to overwhelming orders online without having the media attack the lack of lines

If there are lines, they get the same media attention as they do for the iPhone launches that garners long lines

Either way - they potentially eschew any "negativity" with the launch regardless of interest.

That being said - I think there's plenty of interest.
 
I have bought most of my Apple products except for refurbs at the store as I have two very local to where I live and its a lot easier to return items if necessary to the store rather than online.
If this new policy to encourage online ordering is going to apply across the board will online ordered items be able to be returned to a retail store?
The online operation has always been very distinct from the retail one but an Apple employee hinted that this may change under Arrends. I wonder if this is true .
 
jbachandouris said:
She sounds out of touch, but who am I to say?
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Totally agree. To me, she's implying that their customers are totally perplexed by online shopping and need reassurance that it's easy and more convenient.

I'm in the market for a new iPad and also work at a national AASP, but me and my colleagues are becoming more tempted by MS's new products by the day lately.
 
RichFromNY said:
You can pre-order all you want but nothing will stop you from still having to wait behind someone who is clueless to technology that will take up a store reps time with some of the most ridiculous question imaginable.

"my nephew has a Samsung, will I be able to still call him if I get this watch?"
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But his dollars are green exactly like yours
 
samcraig said:
Win-Win

If there are no lines at the stores for this launch - then Apple can speak to overwhelming orders online without having the media attack the lack of lines

If there are lines, they get the same media attention as they do for the iPhone launches that garners long lines

Either way - they potentially eschew any "negativity" with the launch regardless of interest.

That being said - I think there's plenty of interest.
Click to expand...

How many people actually want to stand in line other than die hards who view it as some sort of "experience"? These days the only lines at Apple stores are around new iPhone launches and this memo says nothing about iPhone. I think it's much ado about nothing.
 
bawbac said:
You might want to look in to counseling if you need that kind of validation for acceptance and assurance by society.
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Haha. Funny. I up-voted you. :)

Many people don't have time to research their gadgets. So, rightly-or-wrongly, they crowdsource their decision and just go with what's popular. Simple. You can argue it's lazy, but it's very time-effective.

After all, who wants to spend $1000 only to find a year later that they bought a dead-end Zune of a product with no future and no support?
 
I sincerely hope this is not for the iPhone, The one thing I look forward to each year is hanging out with my Brother and getting in line for the new iPhone, Its become a family tradition for me and him since 2007 now and we plan it each year. Its a good chance for me and him to bond and make new friends in line.
 
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