Apple Retail Stores Seeing Significant Layoffs of Recent Hires?

[Wrathwitch]

Exactly, sometimes some common sense needs to be applied. My RMBP needed a screen replacement, and after they fixed it, Apple's genius didn't tighten the screws properly so some of them were protruding causing a sharp edge and some creaking. I had to rebook another appointment since I didn't spot it when my computer was returned to me. Well, when I went back I was sitting there for 45 minutes after my appointment time and someone off the stand-by list was even seen right before me. 3-4 genius' asked me what I was in for since at that point they hadn't seen many RMBPs and were all curious. I told them all two screws needed to be tightened. You'd think someone could have either taken it in the back and fixed it quickly, or gone to get me the dam screw driver. Sure enough when someone actually saw me, it took 2 minutes to fix. They all had time to stop and chat with me, but none of them had time to tighten the screws apparently.

I'm all for waiting for your turn an all, but if someone has been in multiple times already in the first few weeks after a purchase, you'd think they should get a little priority, or if someone has a quick issue like only needing an approval for Apple Care+, then the tech can pause what he's doing for those 30 seconds.

No s*** eh?

Oh no, it took all of 45 minutes for someone to check out your computer for free. Thats forever compared to.... Oh yeah, no other computer company does that for free

Point of fact. He had an appointment and still got screwed regarding screws. Reminds me of a time I went into McDonalds. Some old guy waiting for breakfast asked the cashier if he could have his coffee while he was waiting and she said " I just do cash".........

So, the 40 other people who went to apple.com/storenamehere and booked appointments ahead of time should wait because your friend didn't have the foresight to do the same.

Not to mention, the consideration for those who did. She should just jump to the front of the line because she decided to just drop in to the store?

Dude, she was buying a feeaking product that takes less than 5 minutes to ring up INCLUDING THE TIME TO LOOK AT THE PHONE!!! You mean to tell me that if I had a question about a product I wanted to buy that I should have to wait the equivalent of 50 minutes for something that takes less than 5 minutes to look at because everyone in the store needs appointments for the simplest of things? She even told me it took less than 2 minutes to look at the phone!!!

Complete and utter ************!!! You mean to tell me that all of the employees in that store aren't qualified to take 2 minutes to look at a phone while they ring up a product???? Or do you get paid the big bucks to get special certification to slide unlock a phone and physically check out the exterior.

Complete and utter crap!

If you feel that that is logical, I would hate to live with you!!

 

[Netquity]

Unions

Union Busting time!

 

[Rocketman]

And by now I'd at least be able to expect to find other stories on it.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...pholds-individual-mandate-obamacare-survives/

http://www.businessinsider.com/5-monumental-costs-of-obamacare-2012-8

http://www.businessweek.com/article...e-to-stay-dot-what-do-business-leaders-do-now

http://blogs.smartmoney.com/advice/2012/07/26/will-obamacare-raise-the-price-of-a-big-mac/

There's a few. You have been spoon fed.

Rocketman

 

[WestonHarvey1]

Given their billions of cash and billions in revenue every year, I'm going to have to call ******** on this one.

Get a clue.

Do you ordinarily pay more than you have to for things, just because you have enough money to do so?

 

[cdmoore74]

Is this Bestbuy trying to be like Apple or Apple trying to be like Bestbuy?

 

[drblank]

IT would be nice

if they offered these people their old jobs back when they get busy again, should they need a job.

I don't think it's cool to demote people just because of a bad economic climate. These people don't much pay in the first place.

Don't destroy the morale of retail people.

There's an old saying.

Happy Store, Happy Employees, Happy Customers.

Now if an employee isn't really a Machead that LOVES to serve the customer, then you get rid of those because they are just trying to grab onto a big, profitable company during their Hey Days.

 

[wizzerandchips]

I've never purchased anything from a apple store, I felt the stores were a way of reaching out to the non apple owners, to give them the experience of using their products. I've always purchased my apple stuff from an independent retailer since 1992, KRCS in uk, they have a couple of there own stores, I use the one in Peterborough and those guys are great, and I will continue to use them for a along as apple don't open a store there and f&&k em over

 

[charlituna]

No source is mentioned for these 'reports'.....

Good question.

Also in said store is it possible that most if not all those folks with less than six months experience were folks hired as seasons due to the Olympics being in country. And how many folks is that. How big a deal this is changes if we are talking 5 people or 50 and so on

 

[itp]

Is this worth an article?

...yes, if you are one of the Apple employees referenced,
but what's next? "Apple stores cut back significantly on their
orders for toilet paper...."

 

[koobcamuk]

i hated going to the apple stores and the experience will be even worse.

Radio

Even more so in the UK. USA and UK are very different places. In the UK, the kind of "experience" given in US stores doesn't carry over well.

Even on a very basic level; in England one never hears a retail shop employee say "have a great day". Such brazen insincerity is part of the American culture.

 

[rdlink]

Even more so in the UK. USA and UK are very different places. In the UK, the kind of "experience" given in US stores doesn't carry over well.

Even on a very basic level; in England one never hears a retail shop employee say "have a great day". Such brazen insincerity is part of the American culture.

"Have a nice day?" I can't remember the last time I had such pleasantries sent my way by a retail employee, other than at my local Starbucks, and an Apple store...

 

[akadmon]

Even more so in the UK. USA and UK are very different places. In the UK, the kind of "experience" given in US stores doesn't carry over well.

Even on a very basic level; in England one never hears a retail shop employee say "have a great day". Such brazen insincerity is part of the American culture.

Seeing a few Batman movies and spending a weekend shopping in NYC does not give you the right to make blanket statements like this. It would be like someone who has never been to England insisting he knows all there is to know about the English culture based on watching the opening/closing ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics.

 

[msm859]

You wanted higher wages and you got them. The downside is you can't employ as many people.

Well that might make sense if you had small profits. But there is something morally wrong when one of the most profitable companies in the world cannot afford to pay their employees a living wage. If Apple can afford to give their CEO $400 million perhaps they could afford to pay their rank and file a little more.

 

[akadmon]

Well that might make sense if you had small profits. But there is something morally wrong when one of the most profitable companies in the world cannot afford to pay their employees a living wage. If Apple can afford to give their CEO $400 million perhaps they could afford to pay their rank and file a little more.

What "living wage"? Sales personnel in Apple stores are for the most part college/high school kids looking to make some drinking money and get a discount on their next MBP. If any of them are hoping to make a career out of this, they are grossly misguided. They are a commodity, meant to be bought and sold in accordance with market conditions. In any case, it's all bound to correct itself. If Apple sees that cutting back too deeply hurts the customer experience and, ultimately, has a negative impact on sales, they'll hire more. If sales cool off despite throwing more warm bodies on the floor, they'll cut, bleeding hearts be damned.

 

[luqtotheman]

so much for the "trickle" down effect -___-

 

[tigress666]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...pholds-individual-mandate-obamacare-survives/

http://www.businessinsider.com/5-monumental-costs-of-obamacare-2012-8

http://www.businessweek.com/article...e-to-stay-dot-what-do-business-leaders-do-now

http://blogs.smartmoney.com/advice/2012/07/26/will-obamacare-raise-the-price-of-a-big-mac/

There's a few. You have been spoon fed.

Rocketman

No, I've had some one try to spoon feed his opinion about some politics to me when that wasn't even brought up.

My point was I don't even think these layoffs happen since there is no story on them.

Whether you think Obamacare causes layoffs (in your very "clever" way of bringing politics into this) does not prove Apple did layoffs or not. If Apple did a bunch of layoffs, there would be a story about the layoffs.

 

[wizzerandchips]

Even more so in the UK. USA and UK are very different places. In the UK, the kind of "experience" given in US stores doesn't carry over well.

Even on a very basic level; in England one never hears a retail shop employee say "have a great day". Such brazen insincerity is part of the American culture.

Snob

 

[linkgx1]

Or this is all false.

A large company that is perceived to be doing really well, in fact makes stories about how it now has surpassed oil companies all the sudden having to do layoffs (which isn't a move you do when you start to do badly, this is a move most companies do when they are getting desperate. Usually by the time they do this move it is well known they are doing badly. Especially since doing a move like this is perceived as desperate and most companies don't want to scare their investors that way unless they have to)? Why is it that it is only here you can find a news story about that?

I'll reserve my judgement some and wait til tomorrow to see if more news surfaces (I have seen MR post something before other sources though usually it's within hours I see other reports) but I'm really skeptical as this would be huge news for any news site that likes to report on Apple (and a lot of them do). And by now I'd at least be able to expect to find other stories on it.

Agreed.

I just found that odd because I just walked past an Apple store here in St. Louis a few days ago and there was NOT ENOUGH staff for the amount of people there (they were literally pouring out of the store).

 

[MH01]

Seriously? It takes 'so long' to buy a product in the Apple store?

You must be kidding me.

This is a totally different topic. Until given appropriate reason, this would suck.

You do realise there is more then one store right and the experience will vary.

 

[budselectjr]

Usually have pretty pretty good stories on this site but this is ridiculous. Sources? Links to these "reports"?

 

[faroZ06]

Given their billions of cash and billions in revenue every year, I'm going to have to call ******** on this one.

Get a clue.

So Apple's stock is $630 right now. If they drop to $600 tomorrow, should they pay their employees about 4.8% less?

Contrary to your "clue", organizations with lots of money don't need to waste it. Apple is successful in the first place partially because it didn't waste money. Cisco used to have zero TV ads. But wait, according to your "clue", it was the biggest company in the world, so shouldn't it have been hiring more ad producers?

Similarly, every company that is worth >$0 that does not run TV ads is not employing enough people, according to this. Koenigsegg and DeLorean are tyrants exploiting the people!

 

[koban4max]

Wtf? This is disgusting. Apple is sitting on a boat load of cash and can’t promote employees? Glad I don’t work there. I was thinking about getting a weekend job there.
Too bad I guess.

You should be glad because the staff in my area hated it. They were there for benefits...

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Nobody who's serious about having a career that pays well and offers a lot of room for advancement should be working at an Apple Retail store in the first place. Those who have been laid off have actually been done a favor.

Totally agree. They need to go to school and get a right degree and get a career. Apple retail is a short term job. The staffs in my area don't have much education and one of them said to me that he didn't know what he wanted to do with his life....

 

[faroZ06]

Those who have been laid off have actually been done a favor.

Well, not unless those people were wrong in their job choice, and they got fired, opened their eyes for other jobs, then found a job that led them to success. Otherwise, a choice is always better.

 

[un10101]

Dude just looked at her phone and said "yep looks good" and then she bought her plan. I am sure the GENIUS could have easily looked at the phone at the cash register....



It doesn't take an Apple Genius more than 5 mins to look at a phone. Booking an appointment for that is just stupid.

Not every employee at the Apple Store is a Genius or a Mobile Certified Tech. Apple isn't going to let you add AC+ if the phone has previous damage, and anyways, for almost 90% of places that provide any kind of extended coverage for any product, it's at the time of purchase anyways, so your friend is lucky she was able to add it after the fact, even though Apple allows 30 days from the time of purchase, which they are extremely strict on.

 

[faroZ06]

Well that might make sense if you had small profits. But there is something morally wrong when one of the most profitable companies in the world cannot afford to pay their employees a living wage. If Apple can afford to give their CEO $400 million perhaps they could afford to pay their rank and file a little more.

Are you also mad at most other companies that have retail stores? Apple retail stores pay more than average for retail. I'd also call "evil" on McDonald's since they don't pay their burger-flippers enough for them to buy nice stuff. And Lehman Brothers was really evil; they paid their CEO $0/year at one point!