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Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay

nytimes.com

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Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay

#31

Post by WalterSear »

toyg wrote: post #12
nanijoe wrote: post #3

For 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…

For comparison, companies like Oracle and IBM don't offer "the chance to buy company stock" even to senior techies and consultants, nor do they offer any real discount on their own products anymore.

Except a cursory google search shows that they do, just like every other tech company.

"Employee Stock Purchase Plan Oracle's Employee Stock Purchase Plan lets you purchase Oracle common stock at a discounted market price."

http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/careers/college/benefits/...

"Employee Plan Account Access If you hold shares in the IBM Employees Stock Purchase Plan, please use the Employee Plan Members site to access and manage your holdings. ESPP participants will also to able to view and transact on their registered IBM common shares that are not held in the ESPP. Instructions for ESPP login access are on this page."

https://www-us.computershare.com/investor/default.asp?bhjs=1...

Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay

#32

Post by azakai »

GigabyteCoin wrote: post #9

This 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 regis…

> This article starts out with a fallacy that immediately made me stop reading

You are 100% correct about the fallacy, but you missed out on a very interesting article. The fallacy is not a central part of it, it's just how they open.

Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay

#33

Post by WalterSear »

briandear wrote: post #5
nanijoe wrote: post #3

For 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.

ESPP won't net you more than pocket money at any company I've ever worked or heard about.

Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay

#34

Post by WalterSear »

emmapersky wrote: post #8
Shivetya wrote: post #4

Oh 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 v…

I've worked retail. This just isn't the case.

Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay

#35

Post by [deleted] »

GigabyteCoin wrote: post #9

This 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 regis…

[deleted]

Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay

#36

Post by WalterSear »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #26

I think the most interesting thing is the mention that a huge number of college grads work at Apple stores. I wonder if this is just due to the economy with more educated people just gravitating to retail in general or whether employment at an Apple store has a prestige that is comparable to a more traditional role for a degree holder?

What else are you going to do, if you are young, intelligent, naive, and have spent 4 years working very hard but acquiring no actually marketable skill? You 'start at the bottom' like your parents tell you.

Of course, they don't realize that the bottom goes nowhere today.

Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay

#37

Post by azakai »

Shivetya wrote: post #4

Oh 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…

> I really dislike articles like this because not all jobs within a company have the same value.

Did you read the whole article? That part about which jobs have value was mainly just in the beginning. The main parts of the article are about how motivated people are to work at Apple, how they foster that, and a lot of interesting details about Apple's retail outlets and what it is like to work at them.

Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay

#38

Post by JumpCrisscross »

Many technicians, though, wanted to leave but were unable to find equivalent work, according to Mr. Garcia and other former managers, in part because of the weak economy.

For a job paying the median income for a 25+ individual with between an associate's and bachelor's degree their labour seems fairly priced if there is nobody else bidding for their skills.

Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay

#39

Post by jsz0 »

Like any other part of the labour market wages are largely based on the supply of labour. There are probably millions of people in the United States alone who are qualified and would be happy to work at an Apple Store for the same wages. Truth is there are plenty of people who would work for lower wages. Retail is not really a career. It's a job. If you want to make money you need a career not a job.

Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay

#40

Post by brudgers »

GigabyteCoin wrote: post #9

This 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 regis…

All the advertising in the world doesn't close sales, it just gets people in the store (or to the website). If salespeople were not important, Apple wouldn't carry the burden of 30,000 of them.
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