Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay
1–10 of 69 posts
Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay
#2Nothing new. As usual the faithful are the suckers.
Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay
#3For me , here's the key paragraph from the article:
"By the standards of retailing, Apple offers above average pay — well above the minimum wage of $7.25 and better than the Gap, though slightly less than Lululemon, the yoga and athletic apparel chain, where sales staff earn about $12 an hour. The company also offers very good benefits for a retailer, including health care, 401(k) contributions and the chance to buy company stock, as well as Apple products, at a discount."
Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay
#4Oh hell am I going to step into it.
Uh, its retail job. No one there creates the products they sell. Better yet, its not a hard sale. I would bet the majority of people entering an Apple store are there to buy something, provided they can afford it.
While some could and can make a living off of these jobs I see them as a stepping stone. As in, I would be forever fascinated by how these product I sell and obviously like are made, the design, the programming. So I would probably gravitate to learning the skills necessary to move into that line of work. Some may see this as a guide towards starting their own business, how do you market your product, present it, interact with people.
Still its not a job that requires any real education. It simply requires you to remember some product information, some tricks and tips, and not be a douchebag to other people, namely your co workers and customers.
They sell high priced products that are sold in large numbers, of course the numbers will be distorted. I really dislike articles like this because not all jobs within a company have the same value. When you have a product that nearly sells itself it kind of tells me who deserves more money - hint they are not at the store.
Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay
#5For me , here's the key paragraph from the article: "By the standards of retailing, Apple offers above average pay — well above the minimum wage of $7.25 and better than the Gap, though slightly less than Lululemon, the yoga and athletic apparel chain, where sales staff earn about $12 an hour. The company also offers very good benefits for a retailer, including health care, 401(k) contributions and the chance to buy…
Right. If employees want a "cut" of the profits, they can get that cut by buying stock. They're also getting health insurance, 401k.
Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay
#6I sold $350k-$1.2M / month when I worked at CompUSA in college (late 90s). I averaged $10/hr jan-september, about $18 november/december.
I was usually ranked 3 out of 100 salespeople. The rest made $6.60/hr.
I wasn't being exploited, and neither are the folks at the Apple store.
Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay
#7When you are an input, you will never get rich. Apple store employees are not tricked into the job. They are promised x and they get x. If they don't like it, they can go work for a Microsoft store. Or, they can stop complaining and create something themselves. Apple has created so many jobs, not just at Apple, Inc., but with the entire economy that has developed as a result of their products.
Perhaps the NY Times ought to be criticizing General Motors for stagnant growth and job losses rather than Apple who is actually doing something good for the economy. I think that the NY Times is just jealous -- after all, Instagram is worth more.
How many jobs has the NY Times created lately?
They find it easy to attack Apple, but seem to be sleeping when it comes to companies like Solyndra and Fiskar taking millions of taxpayer dollars and effectively wasting them. Apple is a net positive for the US economy, but the NY Times doesn't care about that -- it's trendy to attack Apple.
Foxconn, for example, makes stuff for HP and many other consumer hardware companies, yet it's always Apple that gets the worm from the media.
Nonsense. That's all this is. Linkbait rivaling Business Insider.
We can criticize Apple for many things, but job creation and economic value is not one of them.
Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay
#8Oh hell am I going to step into it. Uh, its retail job. No one there creates the products they sell. Better yet, its not a hard sale. I would bet the majority of people entering an Apple store are there to buy something, provided they can afford it. While some could and can make a living off of these jobs I see them as a stepping stone. As in, I would be forever fascinated by how these product I sell and obviously li…
Have you ever worked in retail? I suspect not given your condescending attitude towards the skills retails works need. Exceptional customer service (which is what Apple Stores used to have, I think it's dropped off in recent years) requirers exceptional interpersonal skills, and is not something that anyone can just turn on, it's a skill - sure not one you learn through the traditional education world, but a highly valuable one.
Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay
#9This article starts out with a fallacy that immediately made me stop reading:
Jordan Golson sold about $750,000 worth of computers and gadgets at the Apple Store in Salem, N.H.
No. The ~$3M dollars that apple spends on advertising daily (http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Apple-products-guru-m...) are what put Jordan Golson in the position of seeing $750,000 worth of purchases be made in front of his cash register within 3 months of his working there.
Jordan Golson probably didn't have to "sell" a single customer who walked through that door.
All I see in the 'Apple vs. Tiffany' image on the left side of the NY Times page is a more efficient business model on the left.
Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay
#10For me , here's the key paragraph from the article: "By the standards of retailing, Apple offers above average pay — well above the minimum wage of $7.25 and better than the Gap, though slightly less than Lululemon, the yoga and athletic apparel chain, where sales staff earn about $12 an hour. The company also offers very good benefits for a retailer, including health care, 401(k) contributions and the chance to buy…
They just upped the discount on Apple hardware, much to the delight of the employees I know: http://9to5mac.com/2012/06/20/apple-starts-500-off-macs-250-...