That's absolutely correct. And it wasn't so much a telling off I'd get, but a bollocking in front of other employees.
It's a god-awful company that I'll never, ever buy from again. And the illegality they practice regularly is shocking.
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Microsoft Attempting to Lure Away Apple Retail Store Staff?
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That's absolutely correct. And it wasn't so much a telling off I'd get, but a bollocking in front of other employees.
It's a god-awful company that I'll never, ever buy from again. And the illegality they practice regularly is shocking.
What is the advantage of recruiting from Apple? There are surely qualified managers out there that do not work for Apple. This could lead one to speculate that they are looking for more than just the manager. They could be looking for inside information into how the Apple stores work.
I wonder if Apple managers sign a non-compete agreement. If not I'm guessing new hires will be.
I wonder if Apple managers sign a non-compete agreement. If not I'm guessing new hires will be.
1) Microsoft sells virtually everything they make at a loss just to "compete" so I'm sure this store will be no different.
2) The majority of Windows PC's are sold in bulk to corporations, versus Mac's which are mainly sold to families & individuals. Can't you just picture hundreds of millionaire C.E.O.'s & C.I.O.'s lining-up in front of the new M$Store at 5am to be the first to buy 10,000 copies of Windows 7? C'mon....
3) Corporations who buy Microsoft don't want to be cutting-edge. Just last year my employer finally upgraded his 200 PC's to the "new" Windows XP from Windows NT. Serious, in 2008 we jumped from a 1999 OS to a 2001 OS. He wanted something that was "proven". Is the new M$Store going to stock decade-old software for people like him? (Could you imagine running down to the Apple store next week to finally upgrade your iMac from Jaguar to Panther? But seriously, this is how PC People think!!!)
4) People like the Apple store because it's a "cool" place to visit. Microsoft will never, ever, ever be "cool". Microsoft is the anti-cool. Microsoft is the #1 reason why so many people are switching to Mac's.
5) Apple Stores: Consistently the highest profits per square foot of retail space.
M$ Stores: Consistently the highest returns per square foot of retail space.
2) The majority of Windows PC's are sold in bulk to corporations, versus Mac's which are mainly sold to families & individuals. Can't you just picture hundreds of millionaire C.E.O.'s & C.I.O.'s lining-up in front of the new M$Store at 5am to be the first to buy 10,000 copies of Windows 7? C'mon....
3) Corporations who buy Microsoft don't want to be cutting-edge. Just last year my employer finally upgraded his 200 PC's to the "new" Windows XP from Windows NT. Serious, in 2008 we jumped from a 1999 OS to a 2001 OS. He wanted something that was "proven". Is the new M$Store going to stock decade-old software for people like him? (Could you imagine running down to the Apple store next week to finally upgrade your iMac from Jaguar to Panther? But seriously, this is how PC People think!!!)
4) People like the Apple store because it's a "cool" place to visit. Microsoft will never, ever, ever be "cool". Microsoft is the anti-cool. Microsoft is the #1 reason why so many people are switching to Mac's.
5) Apple Stores: Consistently the highest profits per square foot of retail space.
M$ Stores: Consistently the highest returns per square foot of retail space.
It was exactly the same in DSGi (Currys, Dixons, PC World et al). Actually pound notes aren't important, it's all about selling 'essentials' with the product. For me, being on computing, this was hell.
Norton 360 - 50%,
Whatever Happens (known to them as Whe-hey!) Extended Warrenties - 60% (very difficult to do with the cost),
Laptop cases - 30%,
Office 2007 - 40%
Mobile (3G) Broadband contracts - 35%
It got harder and harder all the time, if you were selling a PC and the customer didn't want any of these essentials, then it was the done thing to pass them on to somebody else or to put the sale on a managers till log on number.
It got so bad that on my last day, I was going to buy a netbook. Talking to one of the managers about it, he told me (without any irony) that I either bought Norton or went and bought it elsewhere.
Hahaha, Apple store staff are terrible! Why would anyone want to employ them never mind actively poaching them!?
The MS store will be rammed - trust me. You might not like them but there are millions who associate computing directly with MS. And you know which store they'll go into?
And MS do have some pretty amazing technology in the pipeline which i'm sure they'll role out to their big stores they have a much greater ability to create a massive buzz around events.
And as far as cool is concerned MS have the xbox which has gone a long long way to helping them out *don't forget about their huge gaming audience
Wow, staggeringly unsporting of them.
Apple's decisions about where to open stores are made very carefully, and simply opening stores besides them without a second thought is simply ungraceful and desperate.
Calling up their staff and trying to get them to leave, and then trying to get them to make others leave? That's just so unsporting it's crazy. If people are not happy at Apple, they can look for places elsewhere and Microsoft can advertise. Actively soliciting this stuff is just plain wrong.
The reason Apple stores have done so well is that they have standards - locations are picked carefully, people are picked carefully, and the products are purposefully not password-locked. Everything's been chosen to give people the best experience. Microsoft are cheapening the idea of having standards by acting with absolutely no class.
Apple's decisions about where to open stores are made very carefully, and simply opening stores besides them without a second thought is simply ungraceful and desperate.
Calling up their staff and trying to get them to leave, and then trying to get them to make others leave? That's just so unsporting it's crazy. If people are not happy at Apple, they can look for places elsewhere and Microsoft can advertise. Actively soliciting this stuff is just plain wrong.
The reason Apple stores have done so well is that they have standards - locations are picked carefully, people are picked carefully, and the products are purposefully not password-locked. Everything's been chosen to give people the best experience. Microsoft are cheapening the idea of having standards by acting with absolutely no class.
I think you will find that the Apple store is unique, M$ is not after a retail manager, they are after managers who can sell a brand and actually pretend to care. M$ is trying to copy the fun/cool culture of the apple store, and not something like currys, dixons etc, that is why they are after these people.
Most people have worked someplace, and been lured away to another. (Unless they're unskilled, of course.) At a higher level, Apple has recently hired away several ex-Motorola sales execs.
Microsoft seems to want better employees, than just hiring inexperienced people off the street.
What do Apple stores do? Do they just hire people who've never worked before, or do they try to hire skilled workers from other computer stores?
Microsoft seems to want better employees, than just hiring inexperienced people off the street.
What do Apple stores do? Do they just hire people who've never worked before, or do they try to hire skilled workers from other computer stores?
Oh idk maybe this is big news because Apple and Microsoft are huge rivals and Apple has been the underdog for so long. Apple's rival is now trying to use some of Apple's methods of success.
Whatever.
If one loves working at the Apple store because they like Apple. They'll stay.
If one works at the Apple store because of the paycheck, then they'll go.
So what? It's not like those apple store floor people know ANYTHING about the product engineerings and/or programming codes or w/e stuff anyways.
And the Sales Rep training manuals and stuff is probably already obtained by MS anyways. (If they're trying this hard to rip Apple off)
So to be honest, I'm glad that they're doing this because this will filter out the true Apple enthusiastic sales rep from the opposite.
I can only (so far) see positive outcome from this. Nice.
It's win-win for both the workers going away (more money for them) and the end-users like us who will benefit from true Apple-loving employees.
If one loves working at the Apple store because they like Apple. They'll stay.
If one works at the Apple store because of the paycheck, then they'll go.
So what? It's not like those apple store floor people know ANYTHING about the product engineerings and/or programming codes or w/e stuff anyways.
And the Sales Rep training manuals and stuff is probably already obtained by MS anyways. (If they're trying this hard to rip Apple off)
So to be honest, I'm glad that they're doing this because this will filter out the true Apple enthusiastic sales rep from the opposite.
I can only (so far) see positive outcome from this. Nice.
It's win-win for both the workers going away (more money for them) and the end-users like us who will benefit from true Apple-loving employees.
I feel your pain. It's a terrible way to work.
Game routinely - every week - post a 'managers special' deal outside their stores. If you break it down, which few people do, the cost of the managers special is the cost of the constituent components all added up and bundled together as one. Any idea how hard that is to sell to customers who DO the maths, and realise what they're paying for? The deals always include an extended warranty, which is a legal grey area too.
Shocking.
Unnecessary.
Whatever they do isn't going to help them. It works for Apple because Apple cares about the customers.
M$ just sees numbers. That isn't how retail works. For that fact, neither does "If you can't beat 'em, rip 'em off".
You got it.
Hate to break it to you but there is a very ugly competitive world out there where businesses compete against each other to win your $. Have you seen the Get a mac ads? Apple has been hitting below the belt for years and openly bad mouthing PCs, is that sporting? is that classy? Classy and sporting would be promoting Os x and macs without the need to trash another brand? Seen the latest keynote? interesting how Apple had a nice dig at Sony and Nintendo..... oww Apple is no angle mate, they are running a business, and they pull no punches.
Hopefully they don't hire anyone from the RI store LOL.
The Loop reports that Microsoft, which is preparing to open the first of its retail stores, has been contacting Apple retail store managers and attempting to lure them away with increased salaries to run its own stores.Apple managers who have accepted Microsoft's offers have reportedly then been tasked with attempting to hire Apple retail store staff, similarly dangling increased compensation as an incentive for employees to make the switch.
Microsoft's retail store initiative has been designed to directly compete with Apple retail stores, with the company looking to open its new stores in close proximity to Apple's existing stores. Microsoft has also hired former Apple real estate executive George Blankenship as a consultant to assist with its retail store initiative.
The company's retail stores are not the only arena where the Microsoft has attempted to gain a running start by tapping into the Apple ecosystem. Microsoft has also been reported to have offered significant sums of money to certain iPhone developers in order to entice them to port their applications to the new Zune HD platform.
Article Link: Microsoft Attempting to Lure Away Apple Retail Store Staff?
Thats how the industry works, if you are loosing, make a better product. The evolution of the zune HD is proof of this.
Thing is that Apple and Microsoft compete in different segments.
I dont understand what the big deal is.
poaching sales clerks?
usually poaching is used to refer to stealing a top executive not a college-aged retail associate.
Also, most of the apple store workers....i cant see them wanting to work in a MSFT store, even if they got more pay.
poaching sales clerks?
usually poaching is used to refer to stealing a top executive not a college-aged retail associate.
Also, most of the apple store workers....i cant see them wanting to work in a MSFT store, even if they got more pay.
No, that would be when they listened to the suits in marketing. When they actually listened to their own field staff and the public they developed W7, the Jasper motherboard and the Zune HD.
You know, topics like this highlight the worst excesses of fandom. Does it honestly matter who works for who?
I don't understand why MS is spending so much money to fight Apple. As they are offering increased salaries, their budget to take back market share from Apple must be quite sizable.
Apple still has a minority market share, but a fair percentage of Apple users install a retail version of Windows on their Boot Camp machines. So in terms of revenue, I don't think MS lose out that much to Apple.
It only requires about 1 in 4 Apple Mac users to install a retail copy of windows to generate more revenue than 4 PC sales with OEM bulk licenses.
Sheer madness, and puts even more distance between me and MS. So glad they've made numourous errors with Zune HD (no app store, no apple mac support, etc).
As I have said elsewhere, MS would gain more by investing these sums of money into fighting piracy in the asian region.
Phil
Apple still has a minority market share, but a fair percentage of Apple users install a retail version of Windows on their Boot Camp machines. So in terms of revenue, I don't think MS lose out that much to Apple.
It only requires about 1 in 4 Apple Mac users to install a retail copy of windows to generate more revenue than 4 PC sales with OEM bulk licenses.
Sheer madness, and puts even more distance between me and MS. So glad they've made numourous errors with Zune HD (no app store, no apple mac support, etc).
As I have said elsewhere, MS would gain more by investing these sums of money into fighting piracy in the asian region.
Phil
And the true Apple-loving employee who stays get paid less as a thanks of being loyal and enthusiastic about it. How is this a win situation for them? Or that doesn't bother you because they 'get to work in a cool store'? They should be happy to be of the 'chosen ones'?
Please, think things through.
i don't see how this is legal. and microsoft keeps trying to act like apple is a nobody, but they sure want to be like them