The World According To Chris Brewer

I’ve been clamoring for Apple to build a store in the Battlefield Mall here in Springfield. After working at one up in Tigard, Oregon for roughly three months before moving here, I found out it’s the one retail environment I truly loved. The people were great, the environment was relaxed, and there was no set dress code except everyone having to wear the same Apple T-shirt and a name badge.

Me wishing they would open a store here will probably never come to pass, however. If you go to the BM (as I call it) on a Saturday you’ll notice it’s packed with shoppers, prospective shoppers and those just hanging around with nothing else to do. But, alas, head there on a weekday, especially from the hours of 10 to 5, and you’ll pass maybe twenty people the entire time. Apple Stores get a lot of foot traffic just from people wandering past, and if a mall doesn’t have those people wandering through it, then there’s no chance they’ll even remotely turn a profit margin. Which sucks because there is a decent-sized Apple user base in this area from what I’ve seen and heard.

Apple has the capability to spank any other store in that mall in terms of profit, but the lack of foot traffic through the mall on a weekday would kill any chance of that.

Sucky.

Speaking of Apple though, I caught wind of a story on Digg about how over 800 Apple Store employees have been given pink slips for accepting $100 store credits mistakenly given to them when the iPhone’s price point was reduced from $599 to $399. Check this out, courtesy Ars Technica:

Apple might be a little upset with some of its retail employees who scored free iPhones this summer. For those who didn’t hear, Apple promised a free iPhone to every fulltime employee and all part-timers who have been with the company for over a year?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùincluding retail associates and Geniuses. The company made good on its claim, and we never heard much of a complaint about the program.

Unfortunately, we have now heard through two independent sources that a few of these lucky retail employees let their greed get the best of them. We’ve been told that as many as 800 Apple Store retail associates who received free iPhones have also cashed in on the $100 iPhone credit that Apple issued for early buyers. Apple understandably wasn’t too happy about shelling out an extra ~$80,000 to employees who already scored free iPhones, so pink iSlips have apparently been issued to the bunch.

Don’t know if any people I worked with being given the boot, but I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Apple has posted a bunch of retail job openings on its website. As for the offenders, they deserve what they get. Apple employees already get a ton of free stuff, and to claim a store credit that isn’t theirs after Apple already lavishly rewards its employees, is just dishonest, insolent and just plain greedy.

That being said, I’m switching back to Windows so I can run Avid Xpress Pro.