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darcilicious
Cyber Librarian
Premium Member
join:2001-01-02
Forest Grove, OR

darcilicious to BellBoy

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Re: [rant] Are you an Apple store employee?

Yeah, I don't get the point of comparing an Apple store to a big box store. They're two entirely different things.

haroldo
join:2004-01-16
USA

haroldo to BellBoy

Member

to BellBoy
said by BellBoy:

In my experience, good luck finding someone at a BB or Target that knows what they're talking about in regards to multiple brands.

Personally I find it refreshing to go someplace where people know what they're talking about--and if they don't, they try to find out the answer with you. Other than the Apple Store, just about the only other place that knows their shit is the Container Store.

I'll disagree, to an extent.
The quality of Apple Store floor (not Genius Bar) personnel has gone way downhill over the years. Years ago, they seemed to have an above average knowledge of their products, but of late, it seems that the current crop of sales people are more like typical retail employees, no different than Best Buy, etc.
I had one greeter attempt to help me with my laptop (before an appointment with Genius Bar) who, three times touched the display trying to show me something. I guess he might not have known the difference between an iPad screen, designed for touching, and a laptop's which is not.
On many occasions, I've overheard them giving wrong or incomplete advice.

In addition, the inventory at the Apple Store is far simpler to master than a typical Best Buy. There are basically just a handful of products for sale, all very similar, with most products, if not all, from one manufacturer, Apple. The products are very easy to understand and anyone who has spent any time using them, an iPhone, for example, can easily appear to be an expert to a non user.
Best Buy, on the other hand, stocks significantly more products and each product for sale has many different models, brands, etc.
For example, Apple sells two routers, AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule, essentially the same product, only one has a backup drive built in. Best Buy may stock twenty different routers. The same employee tasked with knowing all these models also has forty different printers, twenty different hard drives and thirty different laptops an aisle away. How can they possibly know and understand all the varieties as well as the Apple Store employee?

IMHO, it's not that Apple has superior quality personnel, but it's easy for them to appear so by the simplicity of the products and the relatively limited choice of the product line.

robbin
Mod
join:2000-09-21
Leander, TX

robbin to haroldo

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to haroldo
said by haroldo:

These comments seem to imply that this is an Apple-only phenomenon.
Many brand specific vendors will attempt to promote their wares at the expense of competitors

Sorry, but I do not find that to be true on the larger scale. If you have a quality product, then all you need to do is sell your product. I find very few places I do business with that ever verbally discuss the competition. The one exception is Costco. They are just as rabid at dissing Sam's Club as the Apple whatevers are at dissing Microsoft. I really don't understand the need to be negative to sell a positive product. It really turns me off.

ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium Member
join:2005-03-14
Woodstock, CT

1 recommendation

ptrowski to darcilicious

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My point there being there is not as much of an incentive for the salesperson to disparage a competitors product versus a store that sells only one brand. They are there to sell, not push the particular brand. That's all.
Haroldo says it best in his post above mine.
ptrowski

ptrowski to BellBoy

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to BellBoy
said by BellBoy:

said by ptrowski:

...but if I go to a Best Buy, Target, etc there are multiple brands so the associate can in theory point out the pros/cons of each model etc.
But Apple, let's call them enthusiasts, seem to be on a higher tier than the rest. May be truth, may be perception, but perception is reality.

In my experience, good luck finding someone at a BB or Target that knows what they're talking about in regards to multiple brands.

Personally I find it refreshing to go someplace where people know what they're talking about--and if they don't, they try to find out the answer with you. Other than the Apple Store, just about the only other place that knows their shit is the Container Store.

I have never stepped foot in a Container Store, so I cannot comment about it. I feel that the quality of employees at the Apple Stores is not nearly what it used to be. Even the Genius bar appointments seem to be less about service, just turn and burn. Again, obviously your view is different.
rugby
I think I know it all.
join:2000-09-26
Plainfield, IN

rugby to cableties

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It's all about the $$$. I think employees now a days make less than I made 10 years ago when I worked there. WITHOUT factoring in inflation.

haroldo
join:2004-01-16
USA

3 edits

1 recommendation

haroldo

Member

said by rugby:

It's all about the $$$....

What isn't about the money?
I wish I had a dollar for every time someone said 'it's about the money' (oops! my comment was about the money...LOL).
There's nothing wrong with money.
Few people would get out of bed in the morning if it wasn't about the money (and there are some that make money by staying in bed).
Money is why Apple strives for excellence in their products.
It's also why every other company in the world delivers their goods and services.

Money is good.

not quite right
I'm not cool enough to be a Mac person
join:2001-06-23
Puyallup, WA

2 recommendations

not quite right to robbin

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to robbin
Obviously you didn't read my post. It has been quite common place in Apple culture to bash competing products for sometime now. I would not be surprised if that elitist mentality & attitude didn't originate with Steve Jobs himself, but I can guaranty you that it didn't start with some teenager at your local Apple store. This phenomena has been happening for over 30 years with Mac fanatics, and one would have to be pretty naive to believe that's all going to change when you pay someone $8 bucks an hour & toss them a royal blue t-shirt to wear.

BellBoy
Steven Paul Jobs 1955-2011
Premium Member
join:2001-02-20
Los Angeles, CA

BellBoy

Premium Member

said by not quite right:

This phenomena has been happening for over 30 years with Mac fanatics

Since the first Macintosh itself just turns 30 this year I don't think it's been happening THAT long.

not quite right
I'm not cool enough to be a Mac person
join:2001-06-23
Puyallup, WA

not quite right

Member

said by BellBoy:

Since the first Macintosh itself just turns 30 this year I don't think it's been happening THAT long.

I was including the Apple II in that number, and that was released in 1977. My bad I guess ...

bjf123
We Want... A Shrubbery
Premium Member
join:2000-02-11
Hamilton, OH

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said by not quite right:

It has been quite common place in Apple culture to bash competing products for sometime now. I would not be surprised if that elitist mentality & attitude didn't originate with Steve Jobs himself, but I can guaranty you that it didn't start with some teenager at your local Apple store.

That's not unique to the Apple fans. Ask many die hard Windows supporters and they'll bash the heck out of Apple products. Years ago, I was even one of them. When asked, I would tell people to stay away from Apple computers because they didn't have much software available, you couldn't do "real" work on an Apple, there were no games available, yadda, yadda, yadda.

not quite right
I'm not cool enough to be a Mac person
join:2001-06-23
Puyallup, WA

not quite right

Member

said by bjf123:

That's not unique to the Apple fans.

I never said it was exclusive to Apple fans. I will tell you that there are millions of people that bash Microsoft daily because they are forced to use their products wether it be for work, school, or whatever. Were as with Apple, people actually choose to buy and use their products with great conviction, so naturally that belief & product loyalty is going spill over into their conversations with family, friends, and customers. I feel people who are somehow offended by this banter need to realize that the Apple store isn't a normal retail establishment, but an Apple Geek Mecca of sorts where it's totally expected to hear employees & customers alike talking shit about the competition. I mean DUH!

robbin
Mod
join:2000-09-21
Leander, TX

robbin

Mod

said by not quite right:

I feel people who are somehow offended by this banter need to realize that the Apple store isn't a normal retail establishment, but an Apple Geek Mecca of sorts where it's totally expected to hear employees & customers alike talking shit about the competition. I mean DUH!

That is the entire problem. Many current customers aren't any part of the geek kool-aid fanset. iOS and OS X customers are two entirely different customer sets. I could care less how good Apple people think Apple is. I just want my iPhone and iPads to work. No insults. No putdowns. No DUH!