Behind the scenes at Apple Retail

typical apple store experience...12 customers waiting in line to buy something, 1 cashier, 30 apple employees standing around doing nothing.

#12...

Subjective? Of course - I want to buy one of their products. Yes, opening up Photoshop using a REAL image (big TIFF image) would be GREAT. I don't care what Best Buy would do - I went to the Apple Store to get the supposed Apple expertise. I expect dimwits at Best Buy.

The Apple Stores (and their employees, minus Geniuses and Creatives of course) are trained at the CONSUMER level. Differences between MacBook and MacBook Pro? Easy. Does the iPod Classic have a flash drive in it? Easy. If you come in asking about using Terminal or connecting remotely to a Mac, you probably don't need to use or do either. So to the people saying that Apple store employees don't have computer knowledge, you are overstepping the bounds of what employees are trained on. As a former Apple retail Mac Specialist, the people who ask about Developer Tools or Unix commands are usually just there to make themselves feel cool, from what I've seen. PS, if you are a dork you will be made fun of. Simple as that. Cheers

So Apple hires hipsters to sell their stuff. Big deal. (By the way, I live in NYC--hipster central--and the hipster quotient was only about 20% at the Soho store last time I was there.) It's a mistake to go to any large store and expect youthful sales staff to know anything about the product they're selling. Apple stores are no different. The person up above who said the staff are far better than, say, Best Buy or Circuit City hit the nail on the head. Those folks are brain dead in comparison. Anyway, I've found the staff at Apple stores to be perfectly friendly and helpful--no more or less than I expect of them. The only strange thing is there always seems to be a *huge* number of them. Like clumps of eight or ten hanging out in every direction you look.

I know I am stereotyping here, but I find most of the Apple retail staff are "much too hip" to be in retail - if it wasn't for the Apple products / life style.

Most of them has greasy hipster haircut, tight tight jeans, and name-your-random-body-piercing (at least in the Bay Area).

They are, in general, pretty friendly but as some has mentioned they can't really tell you much about the technical side of things nor give you an "honest" answer or opinion on things - which is too bad.

That's why I still prefer to shop online for Apple products.

Just a comment for those in retail who don't like getting asked 'stupid questions'- it's probably not a stupid question to the customer- even if they haven't done their own 'research'- that is your job. Get over yourselves.

@ #8

Glad we don't have Macy's up here in Canada. :)

We also get stereotyped for owning Mac stuff too. It's frustrating, people will see my MBP in the library and just give me a snotty look. Ain't my fault my laptop looks good! :

@14

I worked in Kenwood for several years, and I want to thank you for your kind words. I'm not sure how it is there now, I've been gone a while, but we always tried to let all the specialists know as much as possible about new products and the technical aspects of things whenever possible. That is not always possible, alas.

I know that the old timers at the store really believe in the brand, and so there's always an attempt to recruit that same enthusiasm in new hires.

Your milage may vary of course, I've heard good and bad stories about a number of stores both from within the stores and from the customer perspective.

They are trying, at least, but I think you'd be surprised by just how hard that job is, how much you need to know, and how little Apple actually tells you. You'll find that the employees get most of their information from web-sites like this one, so don't be surprised if there is an occasional lack of specific knowledge. Apple plays it close to the vest, even with its employees.

@ #5
http://pointatme.com/keyboards/

I agree completely with the lack of technical knowledge by some employees. Granted, many customers are not asking those types of questions, but what is Apple doing to prepare for the ones who do?

When the latest revision MBP came out, I called several Apple stores asking if they had the Santa Rosa MBP. This was very confusing...I asked if they had the ones with the 2.2 or 2.4GHz. "Umm, we have 2.16GHz which is sometimes rounded up to 2.2."

*bangs head on table*

Maybe they need to have one or two people on staff at all times designates as "Experts".