Apple Retail Store Changes
Specialist performance will now be directly measured in part by how many accessories they can sell with each hardware item sold. So if you walk in to buy a MacBook Air, the new metrics would encourage sales people to push you to buy cases, hard drives, AirPort base stations, and more.
It’s sad that it sounds like Tim Cook is pushing towards a Steve Ballmer–style sales guy strategy. However, an anonymous genius writes:
As a current Genius at a very high profile Apple Retail store, I’m happy to report that ifoAppleStore’s (and other’s) sources are either flat-out wrong or highly exaggerated. Very little has changed since Browett has taken over, and what has changed has been overwhelmingly for the better.
I was unable to load the original ifoAppleStore article.
Update (2012-08-29): Gary Allen on ifoAppleStore:
According to accounts, Cook pushed Johnson “quite hard” about how other channels were selling more Mac’s per-capita than the retail stores. Without Jobs’ support, Johnson found it was nearly impossible to keep Cook and Oppenheimer from switching the chain’s primary purpose from a superior experience to revenues.
