Whooping Apple store staff
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Kid_Eternity
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
It's a bit odd.
Not to derail the thread but it's even WORSE in Abercrombie and Fitch's 5th Ave store. There are rows of people to greet you on your way in with a "hi! how are you doing /*cheesy grin*/". Go down the stairs and there's another chap at the bottom of the stairs and he'll have an even-bigger-grin and greet you as well.
Both the chap near stairs and ppl by the entrance will also say good bye on the way out.
Never going back there again!
Both the chap near stairs and ppl by the entrance will also say good bye on the way out.
Never going back there again!
I bought a Mac Mini from the Apple store in London at the start of the year and I can honestly say it was the most disturbing experience of my life. Never mind the staff, the clientele seemed to consist of anorack glad geeks, gently caressing the display models whilst at the same time (and I kid you not) nodding their heads to the music playing on their ostentatiously worn iPods and pausing only to send a text on their shiny iPhones. The whole thing was like stepping into the headquarters of some electronic cult.
When I finally attracted the attention of the store drone and informed them what I wanted to purchase (she seemed almost unhappy that I knew what I wanted and did not need a sales pitch) I then had to repeatedly rebuff suggestions that I bought the support package with it, pointing out that a care package that cost 40% again of the actual hardware was unlikely to provide me with value for money no matter how much of a priority it gave me in the queue to fellate Steve Jobs. Undeterred I was encouraged to check the timetable for their seminar talks help in the store amphitheatre, something I was again reluctant to do lest I was offered a salt stick and the chance to stay up all night.
I exited the premises with my box tucked away inside the bag and as the fresh air hit me I realised I was actually caked in a cold sweat. No shop in history has ever made me feel that way and you can bet that if ever I need to buy an Apple related product again I will be doing it online.
Memo to Apple: stores are where we go to purchase consumable products. They are not places we go to feel "part of a club" or "a member of the Apple family". If I want to make new friends who own the same things I do I will attend a tupperware party. kthxbye.
When I finally attracted the attention of the store drone and informed them what I wanted to purchase (she seemed almost unhappy that I knew what I wanted and did not need a sales pitch) I then had to repeatedly rebuff suggestions that I bought the support package with it, pointing out that a care package that cost 40% again of the actual hardware was unlikely to provide me with value for money no matter how much of a priority it gave me in the queue to fellate Steve Jobs. Undeterred I was encouraged to check the timetable for their seminar talks help in the store amphitheatre, something I was again reluctant to do lest I was offered a salt stick and the chance to stay up all night.
I exited the premises with my box tucked away inside the bag and as the fresh air hit me I realised I was actually caked in a cold sweat. No shop in history has ever made me feel that way and you can bet that if ever I need to buy an Apple related product again I will be doing it online.
Memo to Apple: stores are where we go to purchase consumable products. They are not places we go to feel "part of a club" or "a member of the Apple family". If I want to make new friends who own the same things I do I will attend a tupperware party. kthxbye.
cliche guevara
Well-Known Member
Thing is though - It seems to work. Their stores are always busy.
editor
hiraethified
That's surely down to the highly desirable products on offer and little to do with the excruciatingly naff US-style "fun" atmosphere decreed by Apple, no?
I mean, you've got to be some kind of geeky corporate-loving fuckspud if you actually want to be congratulated, whooped, clapped and high fived for simply buying a consumer product.
fogbat
The Talibum
They probably have a token curmudgeon on staff to deal with the less enthusiastic customers. Maybe he does that?
Onket
Je suis [CONTENT REMOVED]
I've never wanted to buy anything from them.
cliche guevara
Well-Known Member
Mostly down to the desirable products, but the high fiving must work on some people, otherwise it wouldn't happen. They obviously had a meeting and decided, more than likely based on research, that it'd be a good idea.
scifisam
deleted
They probably have a token curmudgeon on staff to deal with the less enthusiastic customers. Maybe he does that?
Quite possibly - he'd probably be very popular.
Mind you, he took a job where his title is 'Mac Genius,' and if he can stomach that, then maybe he can stomach the whooping too.
editor
hiraethified
So do you like to be whooped, clapped and high fived by horribly over-enthusastic staff when you buy products?
Does anyone here?
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
Okay, this is obviously a bit much, but Apple Store staff do seem far more enthusiastic than anyone else I've ever seen working in retail, and not in a forced-smile how-can-I-help-you-today way - even the ones in Regent Street who are clearly run ragged seem a lot less likely to kill you than they should be. I was in the Apple Store in Exeter the other week and they were a right happy-seeming lot, and I've seen it in every other one I've been to.
I don't know whether this is because
(a) they specifically only hire people like that and have good interviewers;
(b) they're good employers and/or it's a good job;
(c) Steve Jobs' reality-distortion field is set to 11 in all establishments;
(d) they actually all go postal after a while but are quietly taken out the back and bludgeoned with a Macbook
or combination thereof, but it's noticeable.
I've never experienced anything like whooping myself - I did get given some odd dog tags when I bought Panther, but more significantly for the customer experience, whoever it was who sold it to me didn't give me a look like I was some sad cock for going out and buying an operating system just after it was released.
I don't know whether this is because
(a) they specifically only hire people like that and have good interviewers;
(b) they're good employers and/or it's a good job;
(c) Steve Jobs' reality-distortion field is set to 11 in all establishments;
(d) they actually all go postal after a while but are quietly taken out the back and bludgeoned with a Macbook
or combination thereof, but it's noticeable.
I've never experienced anything like whooping myself - I did get given some odd dog tags when I bought Panther, but more significantly for the customer experience, whoever it was who sold it to me didn't give me a look like I was some sad cock for going out and buying an operating system just after it was released.
editor
hiraethified
I'm sure they're a knowledgeable lot and quite probably are more helpful and happy than your usual High St store automatons - but then you are paying a premium for that.
I guess my beef is that this weird whoopin' and high fivin' is part of the same insincere, vacuous American shit that is creeping into other aspects of British life - like stupid theme tunes blasting out when a team scores - and I find it fucking bizarre.
It's tragic that this whole consumerism thing has gone so wild that you get squeaky berks jumping around like an over-excited schoolboy and customers whooping like they've achieved something useful when all they've done is buy an upmarket consumer item from one of the world's richest companies.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
I don't think it really affects the prices - those are high for other reasons - I think it's a deliberate strategy. Instead of having large numbers of understaffed shops, they have tiny numbers of shops with relatively loads of staff in them and treat them well, so as to maintain their premium image, not that they shift a vast volume of kit anyway. I suspect they also recruit on the basis of people being a bit keen, too.
(This is backfiring on them a little in that Regent Street is massively overstressed at the moment, I reckon - not enough shops in the London area for support means that their Genius Bar is overloaded and there are fifty-deep queues.)
Obviously high-fiving is not the done thing though. I'm not even sure it would be acceptable in the States. I certainly know quite a few people who'd roll their eyes to the back of their heads presented with that sort of thing. People being happy in their jobs is great but I don't want to experience them on iDrugs.
(This is backfiring on them a little in that Regent Street is massively overstressed at the moment, I reckon - not enough shops in the London area for support means that their Genius Bar is overloaded and there are fifty-deep queues.)
Obviously high-fiving is not the done thing though. I'm not even sure it would be acceptable in the States. I certainly know quite a few people who'd roll their eyes to the back of their heads presented with that sort of thing. People being happy in their jobs is great but I don't want to experience them on iDrugs.
editor
hiraethified
That's a really wanky name, isn't it?
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
Er, yeah, it is a bit. Not quite sure what possessed them to come up with that.
pk
drink flounce rinse repeat
Dr. Furface
One small step for me
Is that Dave Gorman on the left?
Sounds like someone has been reading something along the lines of Fish!
I had to do that in an understaffed, underpaid staff loans unit in a bank. The overall consensus was that the management would have done better to spend the money on an extra member of staff.
I'll be doing it again in my role as a 'wine advisor'* in a well known chain of high street off licences. Quite why we should be 'making their day' is beyond me.
*till monkey.
I had to do that in an understaffed, underpaid staff loans unit in a bank. The overall consensus was that the management would have done better to spend the money on an extra member of staff.
I'll be doing it again in my role as a 'wine advisor'* in a well known chain of high street off licences. Quite why we should be 'making their day' is beyond me.
*till monkey.
Look, there's nothing wrong with creating a buzz for a product or amongst staff but this is the ruddy pits. A simple please and thank you is enough, eh?
eh?
eh?
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