Launch day queues for the latest must-have gadget are as much a part of Apple culture as learning to live without ports and optical drives.
But Apple retail guru Angela Ahrendts wants to change all that — sending out an email to Apple Store employees proclaiming that, “The days of waiting in line … are over” for customers.
Her alternative? Shop online.
The memo, in case you can’t see the above image, reads:
Get in line online
The days of waiting in line and crossing fingers for a product are over for our customers. The Apple Store app and our online store make it much easier to purchase Apple Watch and the new MacBook. Customers will know exactly when and where their product arrives.
This is a significant change in mindset, and we need your help to make it happen. Tell your customers we have more availability online, and show them how easy it is to order. You’ll make their day.
While we knew that customers would have to book appointments (rather than just turning up) to buy their Apple Watches on launch day, the fact that the above email also refers to the new MacBook is certainly interesting.
Apple has traditionally reserved plenty of stock for its brick-and-mortar retail stores. Even after its online store has sold out of pre-orders, there is regularly stock left for its stores — with flagships like the Fifth Avenue Apple Store getting thousands of units to sell on launch day. As Ahrendts pushes people to buy online, it will be intriguing to see if these in-store supplies are cut back any.
The move could also be a reaction to the large numbers of resellers who increasingly show up in Apple launch day queues. Or maybe Apple just no longer has to prove its popularity with large crowds as it did in the early days of the Apple Store.
Is it too early to start an over-under on whether the new ruling also applies to the forthcoming next-gen iPhone? An iPhone launch that doesn’t look like the “Odessa Steps” sequence of Battleship Potemkin is virtually unimaginable to me.
Source: Business Insider
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
8 responses to “Angela Ahrendts wants to change the way you buy Apple products”
This is all well and good, but really, on occasion, it’s just plain FUN to stand there in line with other Apple fans, waiting to acquire the latest gadget, visiting about your experiences, sharing tips, war stories, apps that you might not know about, all sorts of things, so I hope Apple doesn’t completely take this experience away from its customers. Human beings are social creatures, we sometimes enjoy being around other people and don’t always believe that it is beneath us to stand in a line once in a while.
Yes but when it comes to the watch apple doesn’t want the media to show all your nerdy pale asses queuing up for their products. It’s a piece of fashion. It wants the first impression of the type of person who will wear it to be a bunch of pretty people on Instagram. Not the usual fanboys they always show lining up on release day.
I’m sure they want to improve the experience in general but there’s a good reason why they’ve chosen this product in particular to shake up.
“Nerdy Pale Asses” While I was in line for my iphone6 in Naperville Illinois, the line was actually filled with many very good looking, fit, young women.
Samsung would love for people to believe that only nerdy pale people wait in line for apple products
“crossing fingers for a product ”
In other words, tell us when and where and we will have products there. No more “Sorry, we’re out.”
I don’t buy online because I’m out at work all day and there’s nobody to accept the goods. What am I supposed to do Angela? If you’ve got plenty of stock online why should have a problem stocking your retail stores? This type of shit is why people didn’t buy Apple years ago. I want to walk into a retail store after work, buy the new MB and walk out with it. Forcing people to go online is a total BS and it will alientate customers.
Pick it up in store???
Not available for for many locations.
I think once a person is in the store, and you are out of stock, the associate should just order it online for you. You shouldn’t turn away a customer and ask them to go and do something. This might cause you a sale.