digg

Facebook Connect Join Digg About
See the original image at news.cnet.com

Apple added 8,000 retail employees in fiscal 2008

news.cnet.com — Company filing shows Apple hired around 11,000 people during its past fiscal year, and the vast majority went to work for its retail operation.

Who dugg this? Made popular Nov 6, 2008

Digg DudeWhat is Digg?

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. Digg surfaces the best stuff as submitted and voted on by the community. Take the Tour to learn more.

78 Comments

show profanity settings
expand all
  • 610dean, on 11/05/2008, -4/+30At least somebody is hiring. Not a bad company to work for as I have heard.
  • DeathJux, on 11/06/2008, -3/+17I worked for Apple from December 2005 to December 2007, at the Minnesota (Southdale) and London (Regent Street) locations, as a "Genius" technician.

    It was easily the best company I've ever worked for. The variety and diversity of people that I worked with was astounding, and I met many people that have become my best friends.

    The pay wasn't spectacular, but it was more than enough for a very comfortable life. Customers could be annoying, as many people expect Apple computers to be perfect (Protip: they use the same components as other computers, and yes, they do fail, so back your ***** up before you lose it).

    I'm currently working for an Apple-Authorized shop (no official stores in New Zealand), and some things are nice (we can do more for customers), but overall it sucks compared to Apple itself, as Apple's internal systems generally work very well.

    Anyway, my $.02. It's not for everyone, but it was great for me.
  • chkdg8, on 11/06/2008, -4/+12The world economy could be in the ***** but this company will still manage to sell half eaten granny smiths.
  • MacParrot, on 11/06/2008, -2/+9How sad buubie. Just not enough people willing to devote all the time of perusing the web for cheap hardware, ordering it, putting it together, fixing it when it (inevitably) breaks or has hardware/software issues.

    What? You mean instead of that you just bought a Dell or Hp/Sony/Bob's BBq and Computer sales? Well you suck then
  • MacParrot, on 11/06/2008, -1/+7Holy crap no. I love the computer and the OS but would not want Steve Jobs as President.
  • DeathJux, on 11/06/2008, -1/+6Why is this news...?

    Apple is growing, so it would stand to reason that they will need more employees.
  • DatDudeWiggs, on 11/06/2008, -1/+6Ok, do you really think that's going to work here? New to digg?
  • Variyen, on 11/06/2008, -4/+9I work for apple, and that they hire so many people shows. I, along with the other 40 part timers at my store, get under 10 hours a week. A little more than half get 4 (I get 8). Of course, it's cheaper for apple to do that rather than give benefits to those who work more hours. Bastards.
  • MarkusX, on 11/06/2008, -2/+7good for them and for those people.
  • zippy757, on 11/06/2008, -1/+5...and Apple fired more than 8000.... which they don't have to list in any SEC or other filing...it's an old trick....
  • Compactman, on 11/06/2008, -0/+4Working for apple is like fight club. The first rule of working for apple is that you don't talk about apple.

  • KMartSheriff, on 11/06/2008, -0/+4I wish. The one near me says they're on a hiring freeze at the moment. (I have a good work experience background too). :(
  • HookmasterCH47, on 11/06/2008, -2/+6The vast majority of them are morons and douchebags. I used to love the Apple Store because you could find die hard fans that really knew their stuff. Now, it's all about if you look like an Apple guy, which means you have to look smug and refuse to shave. Of course, their still better than the salesman at Best Buy trying to sell Apple.
  • 4NDr01D, on 11/06/2008, -0/+4quit taking our hours!!
  • 4NDr01D, on 11/06/2008, -0/+4same at my store, they cut everyone's hours, and the noob hires dont have a clue!
  • MacParrot, on 11/06/2008, -3/+7Where is this computer that is 1/4 the price of a Mac with all the same specs? Can you link to it? No? Then STFU
  • skeen07, on 11/06/2008, -0/+3Yes, I believe I would like to buy one of those...pray tell.
  • m00nmaster, on 11/06/2008, -0/+3Don't you think after 3 replacements they should give your money back or something?
  • Lewiji, on 11/06/2008, -0/+3Typically though only half the team in their stores are "salespeople" (although they're not sales oriented at all, at least in the UK). You have the technicians, the trainers, the managers, the concierge and the back of house guys to account for too.
  • wolfing, on 11/06/2008, -1/+4I'm sorry to be the harbinger of bad news but expect an 'Apple lays off xxx employees' soon after Christmas season. Not even Apple is immune to the effects of the recession. The new notebooks are plagued with problems, the Iphone is facing more competition than months ago, and companies are just in defensive mode as far as spending goes.
  • WintersNight, on 11/06/2008, -2/+5last i checked there are 356 days in in a year, not 256. . .
  • MacParrot, on 11/06/2008, -0/+3I've had similar experiences with some of Apple's retail employees. Keep in mind however that they aren't always hired based on their Mac/ Apple experience. When I bought my 80GB iPod Classic, I also bought their AV kit to hook it directly to the TV (as I didn't want to buy an AppleTV). Turned out the AV kit did not work with the new Classics or Nanos and no one there seemed to know it (on the showroom) until I came back to return it.

    Of course that's a bit of an extreme example as it certainly wasn't something Apple wanted to brag about so it's no wonder why they weren't informed. I don't expect salespeople to be as informed as the techs hired for the Genius Bar, but they (Apple) do need to improve training so sales people have a better working knowledge of the equipment they're selling.
  • NightOwl4, on 11/06/2008, -2/+5I can happily say I am 1 of those 8,000.
  • ju1i3andcandy, on 11/06/2008, -0/+3If you spent the entire day in a store, which by the way I do not suggest, you would see that it comes in waves. One minute there are 2 people in the store with 20+ employees standing around, the next minute it's stuffed full of customers. YUCK!
  • KSUdesigner, on 11/06/2008, -0/+3Last I checked there were 365 days a year, not 356 . . .
  • inactive, on 11/06/2008, -0/+3Good for Apple. Although I'm not a Mac user I still like to wander into the Apple store once in awhile. The staff always seems rather friendly, certainly much better than your typical retail environment.
  • freakFlag, on 11/06/2008, -0/+2I really agree with Hookmaster, I used to love to go into the Apple store, I could ask all of the technical questions I wanted. For instance, how much L2 cache is on the Macbook CPU or what is the highest bitrates supported by the ipod, nothing hard. Now I'm lucky to not get laughed at. Truely, I believe that all the same fans are working for Apple just not in the stores.
  • pw378, on 11/06/2008, -1/+3Apple hires 8000 'retail sales' positions, while Google hires 8,000 engineers and developers.
    Hmmmm....
  • inactive, on 11/06/2008, -0/+2Oh look, you said "crapple" and utterly de-boned the point of your post. Huzzah.
  • inactive, on 11/06/2008, -0/+2finally people are getting jobs phew!!! relief from the global meltdown a tad
  • baldbean, on 11/06/2008, -0/+2Some of those employees are a joke. I heard one lady ask an Apple employee, "Whats the difference between this Macbook and my Dell laptop?" The Apple guy fumbled around for a few minutes trying to find an answer. It was sad.
  • thirdeyeopen666, on 11/06/2008, -0/+2Same here :) Best job I've ever had... granted its only been a month and a half.
  • brianthill, on 11/06/2008, -0/+2I can't imagine this business model can last for Apple. Gateway and others tried retail space and failed miserably.

    Everytime I go into our local Apple Store there are about the same number of people working there as there are shopping there.
  • itsbob, on 11/06/2008, -0/+2I don't like spam!
  • levelwave, on 11/06/2008, -2/+4Why is this news? A job in retail at Apple is no different than flipping burgers at Burger King... the pimple faced teenage just may look a little more trendy. What Apple *doesn't* provide is higher paying manufacturing jobs to it's native county's citizens... it outsources these jobs to China...but hey, at least they're designed in California!
  • benologist, on 11/06/2008, -0/+2I think they might need to open several million more to actually play a significant role in the world's financial recovery.... and sell about a billion more laptops and iphones / ipods.
  • MacParrot, on 11/06/2008, -0/+2"The fact that you have to make an appointment is ridiculous. I have to go back to replace my iPhone again soon, I hope they are better than the last 2 times."

    Would you rather just show up and never be able to see anyone because the line is too long? Heck, even with making an appointment I've had to wait for someone to be clear to see me. Everyone is doing the best they can and just adding more people isn't the solution. Make your appointment and they will see you as close as they can to the appointed hour.

    As far as your iPhone goes, considering your past comments about Apple in general, I find it hard to believe that you actually purchased one. Heck I'm accused of being a fanboy all the time (shrug) and I haven't bought one as it doesn't currently meet my needs.
  • ju1i3andcandy, on 11/06/2008, -0/+2Be careful, they don't like when you post opinions of the company on the net!
  • inactive, on 11/06/2008, -0/+1No matter what Obama does, 1.35 an hour for a chinese factory worker is different than 22 dollars an hour for a unionized US factory worker. No amount of incentives or tax breaks will fill that void.
  • LuCiFer6, on 11/06/2008, -0/+1Hmm so while everyone else is laying off employees Apple is actually hiring. I guess that's a good sign from the at least the Tech Industry.
  • MacParrot, on 11/06/2008, -0/+1Couldn't you have said this without the stupid "Crapple" line? Businesses not buying a lot of "IT" related equipment is going to hurt others more than Apple. Apple will take hit in the consumer end, but they are better suited to a downturn than most other computer companies with a lot of cash and a reasonable amount of flex in manf.

    Dell, HP, and most of the others will take a much bigger hit than Apple will.
  • redwallhp, on 11/06/2008, -0/+1It's nice to see Apple is creating more jobs in their country...while Gates is funneling money out from Microsoft and sending to to other countries to train them to be mindless Microsoft zombie developers.
  • ju1i3andcandy, on 11/06/2008, -0/+1Sounds familiar
  • levelwave, on 11/06/2008, -0/+1No, I asked why this was news...
  • Compactman, on 11/06/2008, -0/+1uhhh maybe it's because apple opened 50 new stores. Someone has to be there to be condescending.
  • MacParrot, on 11/06/2008, -0/+1Can you name ANY company that still manfs most of their computers here? Apple used to until it made no sense economically. We've had decades of tax breaks to corps to move their plants (under Reagan, Bush1, Clinton, Bush2) elsewhere and zero reasons for them to keep them here.

    Here's hoping Obama will offer incentives to reverse this trend. We'll see
  • pw378, on 11/06/2008, -0/+1Selling ipods is not a job.... its a holding pattern..
  • osabr22000, on 11/06/2008, -0/+1Actually this is quite common in IT sales. I worked three different sales positions at Dell over 2 and half years, and I was responsible for some stupid mistakes as all of Dell's reps were. You see, the training course we had lasted about 5 weeks, 30% of that was getting to know the products and the rest was actually how to sell the more profitable stuff. It's a lot to remember. I cannot tell you how many customer satisfaction issues that company had because somebody needed a computer to sign onto a domain, and the sales rep sold them XP Home. Surprise surprise you have a pissed off customer. THEN, we weren't able to sell an upgrade to XP Pro in those cases, so the customer would have to return the machine, then buy the same thing except with XP Pro. LOL, I experienced some of the most asinine scenarios in that job. Also, there is only a 7% chance any given sales rep will last over a year at Dell, kind of a disgusting attrition rate. So the problem I mentioned above, will never get fixed until they make quotas much more attainable. God forbid anybody needs to buy a couple of thousands of dollars in Dell equipment and they call into the Q because they don't have a relationship rep. My expectations are that customer will end up pissed off 90% of the time. If you don't have a relationship rep at Dell because you're not a big enough customer but you really want the Dell equipment, I advise you go through a reseller. You'll pay more, but she'll buy the right equipment and the process will be much smoother. Also, that reseller more often than not is assigned a dedicated rep who is experienced. Just an FYI.
  • Philbert, on 11/10/2008, -0/+1I hate apple, the company, their advertising, their computers... In my opinion the iPhone is the closest they've come to doing something right.
  • Narfmaster, on 11/07/2008, -0/+1They turned me down. I was a bit disappointed.
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 83 of 83 discussions

  • Add a Comment

    Login or register to comment!
    Or, sign-in super fast with your Facebook account ...


© Digg Inc. 2009 — Content created and posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain | Terms of Use Updated | Privacy Policy
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.