Apple's photos and promo videos are terrible. I like some devices made by Apple, but the culture they try to sell with them is just total bull-feces. It's like a creepy cult. And looking at some of Apple's latest designs I'm starting to suspect that Apple's management isforcing this distorted vision of their customers onto engineers and software developers. Kifflom!
In a sense, Apple is trying to pull a " Starbucks Coffee " with their own store lingo and re-assigning staff to positions that make no sense. I can tell because I used to work for the coffee chain over 10 years ago and the similarities are there. Before 2002, the company was trying out a few things here and there and had one Coffee Master position which the barista had to wear a black apron to exhort 'coffee knowledge' to customers during a sampling run on the floor during a busy rush, or when there are less than 3-4 people working behind the counter. The company was shaving the staff to the bone to save money.
Anyway, the Coffee Master was an example of a BS position to work on the floor when this person should be spending time helping the rest of the crew during a rush. It was one of those things that I sensed phony intentions.
However, the dress code was fine as we had to wear black shirts and pants to exude professionalism. But sometimes t-shirts were allowed on certain promotional days. And the training we had back then was far better than what they got now especially using the old school La Marzocco espresso machine.
The company did even try to have some baristas volunteer 'off the clock' on certain functions, which would be around 2002-2005, right before Schultz came on board as CEO. I remember this well because 'volunteering' off the clock was illegal and it wouldn't surprise me if Apple tried to pull this in their stores.
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As an apple products consumer since 1983, I agree with you 100%. When I saw the keynote of last November, when Craig tried his best to promote the MBP touch bar, I was shaking my head. I wasn't the only one that felt this way, as the camera panned across the audience, the expressions on the faces was priceless. Sadly, the management at Apple are so incredibly out of touch, I doubt they'll change at this point. Apple has clearly taken the "experience" too far, but they're too blind to see it.
You nailed it. I had the exact same impression when I saw that keynote which disgusted me, even though I felt bad for Craig to have to present MBP touch bar. Having that DJ demo was sad and embarrassing. No DJ would ever do that in a nightclub. Ever. I go to nightclubs time to time and have seen them use turntables the proper way.
But I'm inclined to agree that the management in Cook's level are out of touch, focusing too much on the 'experience'. Almost like what Starbucks tried to do 10 years ago by creating a sense of 'theater' in the store ( just like what Apple is doing ) but dropped the ball with a cluster of a mess. They had to close many stores because the CEOs before Schultz pushed for a massive expansion. When I worked for that coffee chain in one store, I saw a huge list of stores that were about to open. My jaw dropped and I thought " You guys are expanding way too fast! This is going to bite this company in the rear ". Eventually, it bit them.
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You know those that can do, those that can't are found a position where they can't do too much damage.
More layers of employees. Apple Stores have added a lot of non-customer contact jobs in the past 2 years and created "titled" roles. 11 years ago there were Specialists, Genius, Creative, Back of House and Leader.
Now Specialist, Expert, Product Pro, Creative, Creative Pro, Genius, Technical Specialist, Technical Pro, Genius Admin, Backstage Specialist, Preservation Specialist, Visuals, Lead, Schedule Specialist, Leader, and Store Manager.
Every title comes with it's own ego.
Clearly, that's a mistake by the company to create more phony positions to add more breadth to the staff's responsibility. At Starbucks Coffee, you weren't forced to climb up but encouraged to. From barista, to shift supervisor, to store manager and regional manager. And then it goes up higher from there, if it happens but very rarely.
Apple should've kept the staff position names simple and focused. If they prefer to stay as staff/Specialists/Geniuses, etc, then fine. They'll eventually get weeded out or move on to another job or finish up college, or however they planned to do with their lives. But the titled roles are just plain stupid, contrived and phony.
I think it's going to get to a point where there will be a cluster of a mess and the stores will take a hit, forcing some closures. Apple can't keep these stores going forever. One Apple store I used to frequent years ago in Ohio closed down and relocated further out in the city, and I think it may have to do with the lease. It's in a more affluent neighborhood but the drawback is the traffic gridlock and parking congestion. The old location was much easier to get to since it was part of a bigger outlet mall.