“What was once a truly enriching place to work has become a place that leeches and drains everything from their employees. Apple retail no longer values its people and when I say people, I am referring to both your customers and your retail employees serving you on the front-lines.”
Chad Ramey, former Apple store Genius, who resigned from the Arrowhead (Ariz.) store has sent an email to Apple CEO Tim Cook, thanking him for the job experience, but warning that the stores have shifted from life-enriching to life-draining for employees.
I linked to this article because the Arrowhead store is the one I (used to) visit quite often, and I actually met Chad a few times and found him to be quite helpful and polite. He also struck me as a fairly level-headed guy – so I believe everything he’s written in the letter to Tim Cook. And I think what he has to say about the situation is the cause of what I think is a major deterioration of the Apple Store experience over the last year or two.
In May of 2001, Apple opened its first retail outlet store in Tysons Corner, Va. It was immediately met by critics and the typical roster of Apple-haters with predictions of doom and massive financial losses. Eight years later, Apple has more than 255 retail stores worldwide, and are the darling of the retail computer industry. So what makes them so successful? While the Mac, iPod, and iPhone are what makes Apple successful, the formula for the retail stores’ success isn’t so obvious until you actually visit an Apple store. Sure, great products sell themselves, but Apple has made sure that its products have the best opportunity to do so by creating an environment that offers virtually no reason for a buyer to go elsewhere. I’ve listed several reasons why I think