Apple Retail Employee Concerns

[dieselg4]

Originally posted by Chip NoVaMac
But it is a vicious cycle. In order to get into real-estate (using your example), most states require licensing which requires classes. Those classes cost money that many retail workers can scrape together perhaps. Hopefully their employer will not change their schedules at the last minute.

But once they get their license, then comes need need for a decent car (preferably a later model, not too "cheap" for image is important). then according to realtors that I have talked with, if you are "hot" seller - you might see your commissions in 3 to 6 months. Realistically look at 6 to 12 months to start making "real" money. If you are lucky you might get a draw, but in the case of the DC area as of a few years ago, you have to have another source of income.

And keep in mind not everyone is suited for that type of sales. And because of that some here are saying that these people do not deserve a living wage. Yet we have people complain that the house on our block has "way too many people living there". We also seeing people complain about the level of help in the retails stores.

Reminds me many years ago Montgomery County wanted to buy some land in Potomac, MD to build affordable housing. Housing that teachers, firefighters, and general office workers could afford. A woman who owned a home in the Potomac area was quoted as say something along the lines of "i have to work with these people during the day, but I should have to live with them at night".

Reminder that what some of us are talking about are living wages for full-time workers. When you give living wages you generally can expect better motivated workers helping you in the stores. You can generally expect better living conditions for everyone. And you give those that have few other options (for a variety of reasons) a chance to make better their lives.

Will everyone deserve the "living wage"? Probably not. There will always be marginal workers. But a socially responsible society does not "create" marginal workers. And in the US, I would think that both on the left and right would say that we are a socially responsible society. But what both sides have forgotten is that charity (by this I mean this definition: Benevolence or generosity toward others or toward humanity) begins at home.

Remember but for the grace of God, go I.

It seems that a living wage is becoming more and more a relative term. In places like DC (or DC Metro, in your instance), San Fran, Boston, etc., the costs are much higher than other places. Subsidized housing for teachers and firefighters? I didn't realize their economic situation was as dire as displaced manufacturing workers who can't find work, the disabled, the elderly, or the minimum wage earner.

But at any rate, that's off topic. Apple retail is no more grueling than selling handbags at Coach. Since Apple computers are so user freindly and intuitive, they don't (or shouldn't) require to much explanation.

Bottom line is, the cost of living in DC Metro, nor charity, is a compelling argument for Apple retail employees to make signifcantly more than other retailers, or gain significant bonuses from sales. If they were reciveing higher comissions they'd probably jsut get less per hour anyway. I have a feeling they gey on the phone at Dell isn't getting a kickback.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

Originally posted by dieselg4
It seems that a living wage is becoming more and more a relative term. In places like DC (or DC Metro, in your instance), San Fran, Boston, etc., the costs are much higher than other places. Subsidized housing for teachers and firefighters? I didn't realize their economic situation was as dire as displaced manufacturing workers who can't find work, the disabled, the elderly, or the minimum wage earner.

But at any rate, that's off topic. Apple retail is no more grueling than selling handbags at Coach. Since Apple computers are so user freindly and intuitive, they don't (or shouldn't) require to much explanation.

Bottom line is, the cost of living in DC Metro, nor charity, is a compelling argument for Apple retail employees to make signifcantly more than other retailers, or gain significant bonuses from sales. If they were reciveing higher comissions they'd probably jsut get less per hour anyway. I have a feeling they gey on the phone at Dell isn't getting a kickback.

Keep in mind land costs are the major part of a home purchase in the larger urban areas. The "subsidized housing" was the county buying the land to make the homes more affordable. In the DC area it is getting very hard to find decent housing to buy for under $200k.

And you are right, there are many others that need our help, but yet we are looking at deficit spending on other items of major expense that could be better spent to create a better life for everyone here in the US. As long as we reward companies for sending jobs to Mexico and China (by raising their stock prices), not much will change there.

The comments about living wages was not just limited to the Apple employees. In this thread some felt that Apple retail and other retail workers don't deserve more then the $7 to $12 an hour. Yet in other threads we see complaints that we get poor service in retail and other support areas. In many cases you get what you pay for.

The retail company I work for does provide for living wages for its workers. And that is reflected in the customer service, if our customers comments are any indication.

Some feel that retail work is way too easy to deserve much more in pay. Yet a good worker has to be "up" every minute. It takes a good person to able to answer the same questions 15 to 30 times a day. To be able to take being yelled at by a customer that feels the companies policies don't apply to them. Thankfully there are customers that come back and thank you for the good work you did getting them the right product or service.

As I said in another post here, I can generally tell when the employees are getting decent rewards for their work.

 

[mk_in_mke]

Woaw

Just like the type of advertising Apple needs...


(If the employees stories are true...that is to say!)

Michel

 

[Hugh]

Shrink-it

Is that new, or has that been the policy for sometime now?

Didn't Andy Nicholas finish the Apple IIgs version of Shrinkit while he was working for Apple? So who owns Shrinkit? Andy or Apple? I thought it was Andy.

Was just wondering.

Hugh

Originally posted by Stella
From what I've heard, Apple is an awful employer, with this example and others:

There is also the case where Apple state in employees contracts that any software they write *IN THEIR OWN TIME* belongs to Apple...

There have been a few recent examples of Apple employees having to finish developing their shareware apps because of this.

Apple absolutely suck as an employer, some one should stand up to Apple and get them sorted out.

 

[Grabbag]

Apple retail employees DO NOT work on commission. It fosters an atmosphere of cooperation (not competiton) between the sales people. They attempt to find the right solution for each customer (honestly), working off of eachothers strenghts when needed to answer customer questions. Apple truley wants peolpe to walk away happy... not feeling "sold" on something they didn't need.

The sales goal bonuses are given to everyone in the store, regardless of individual performance.

Yeah, that's exactly how the U.S.S.R. became the global superpower it is today.

Seriously tho, I've been working in commisioned retail consumer technology sales for exactly a year now and I have to refute each and everything you've said. First off, competition is a good thing. It forces people to become better at what they do and who they are. Ever hear the phrase "rising to a challenge"? The rivalries on the sales floor are FREINDLY, and there's also the competition against other locations, which cause us to pull together as a team for the greater good of our store.
As far as the ability to help a customer "honestly", stores have something called a return policy now. I would never sell a customer more than they need because they WILL RETURN IT AND THAT WOULD COME OUT OF MY POCKET, never mind the fact that I, and my collegues, have ETHICS.
I know squat about cameras. When somebody comes to my with a camera question, I hand them off to somebody who knows more. I know about networking. When somebody has a networking question, that customer gets handed of to me. Do you know why? If I attempt to sell something I know zero about, how can I possibly convince them to buy it, let alone properlly qualify their needs? It's just a huge waste of time for me.
In the end, this system results in just about the same amount of money.
I honestly believe that all retail sales establishments should be commisioned. The pay structure has changed a bit since I started, and since then, they added a base hourly pay (used to be a draw program, i.e. you had to write a certain amount of sales in a period for commision to kick in) there's been an influx of unskilled salespeople who are not especially computer savvy which leads to poor sales and zero customer satisfaction. Would you want to buy a computer from someone who called a usb cable a ubs cable? Yes, it does get that bad. YOU WILL NOT GET GOOD SALESPEOPLE WITHOUT PAYING FOR THEM!Educated and skilled sales personel need to be compensated. Otherwise every retail store becomes Service Merchandise where employees are no more than order takers (I don't know if Service Merchandise was regional the the ny/nj area, but basically it was a store that had no sales staff, only catalogs which you picked items out of). Most of the people frequenting this board are knowlegable enough to get by, but the majority of the computer bying public is not tech savvy.

 

[krts]

This may be off the subject but do the people working at the "Genuis Bar" get paid the same as the rest of the staff or more?

The reason I ask is because I've seen guys at the "Bar" working with people for over 2-3 hours and looking a bit frazzled while the sales staff are sitting around talking about what they are doing later.

I know this because whenever I visit the Mall Of America store I usually start at the Apple Store and work my way around which takes about 2-3 hours with the addition of a shoe-mongering-fiance and then I end up back at the Apple Gap.