The thing is, I don't see the "sales-focused" approach working. I've been to a number of Apple Stores (six so far), many of which I've visited a number of different times (so as to see different staff), and what I've seen is that the sales - the number of boxes people carry out the door - are higher when employee enthusiasm is higher and the staff actually spends time showing people how fun and useful Macs can be. It seems like, anymore, most Apple Stores are practically sterile. You walk in, you see the Macs, and you walk out.
On Black Friday, we were in Syracuse, NY, and when my wife was out shopping with friends in the Carousel Mall, I spent my time around the brand spanking new mini Apple Store there. First, I just walked in and looked around. The mini stores (or at least this one) are pretty much half iPod/half iMac and iBook. This one had no PowerMacs and no eMacs on display. Still, a nice setup given the small space. After about 5 minutes, I went to sit on the bench outside and listened to an audiobook on my iPod. My wife can spend many hours shopping, esp. when with friends, so I'm used to this. Thank God for the iPod. Anyway, I saw lots and lots of people walk in, look, and walk out. I figured that most of them weren't like me - used to Macs, used to Apple Stores, familiar with everything in there. I also noticed that none of the Apple employees was doing much except for answering questions - no real attempts to demonstrate anything unless they were asked and then only briefly. So, I walked back in. I have no experience selling anything aside from some pretty poor results from selling popcorn and candy in junior high. Anyway, I saw a woman and her son feebly trying to do something on an iMac, and no one was helping her. At the time, the employee/customer ratio was greater than one, so there was no excuse. I asked her what she was trying to do, started talking with them, and got her excited about a lot of the OS X features and iLife apps. She walked out with a 20" iMac. People who had been watching this asked a few questions. One bought a 14" iBook. One was so impressed she bought three (!) 12" iBooks for her grandkids (I loved my grandparents, but I never got anything
close to that nice from them...). So... 10 minutes in the store, 5 Macs purchased. Approximately an hour of watching before that while listening to "Speaker for the Dead": zero Macs sold. Coincidence, perhaps, but unlikely.
Not only that, but the store had almost no display of the sales going on - tiny red tags. Why they didn't have a big red banner or poster board loudly announcing "$101 off all iMacs! iPods on sale!" or whatever puzzles me still.
So... while I understand the "retail" approach, I think that people who are potential Mac customers will respond a lot better to positive proactive demos and help as opposed to sterile only-answer-questions-briefly techniques.
So,
earthtoandy, while I know you can't respond anymore now that you're officially one of "them" (
), please try to give people a reason to be interested when they walk in. I haven't been to the Phoenix store - but the one in Tucson, when I visited, was quite uninviting. Well, not
uninviting, just not inviting. The employees were superfluous and made no impact on people who entered - people would have been just as likely to decide to buy a Mac if they'd entered the store when it was unstaffed. Don't let that be the case with your customers!
