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The iEconomy

Apple’s Retail Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay

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Apple stores are renowned for impeccable design, deft service and spectacular revenues. Last year, the company’s 327 global stores took in more money per square foot than any other United States retailer — wireless or otherwise — and almost double that of Tiffany, which was No. 2 on the list, according to the research firmRetailSails. It opened a store at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan last December.

Credit...Justin Lane/European Pressphoto Agency

Slide 1 of 8
Apple stores are renowned for impeccable design, deft service and spectacular revenues. Last year, the company’s 327 global stores took in more money per square foot than any other United States retailer — wireless or otherwise — and almost double that of Tiffany, which was No. 2 on the list, according to the research firmRetailSails. It opened a store at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan last December.
Credit...Justin Lane/European Pressphoto Agency
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Apple’s retail success rests partly on a built-in fan base that ensures a steady supply of eager job applicants. Apple Store workers in Sydney last March prepared for the new iPad to go on sale.
Credit...Ian Waldie/Bloomberg News
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Shane Garcia said his work life seemed tense and thankless after working at an Apple Store in Chicago for three years. He left work that paid a little more than $40,000 a year when stress-related health issues sidelined him long enough to put his job at risk.
Credit...Peter Wynn Thompson for The New York Times
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Steven P. Jobs, then Apple’s chief, announced the opening of Apple’s first retail store in 2001. Skeptics outnumbered believers when he pitched the Apple Store concept to his board in 2000. Ultimately, approval was given for just four stores.
Credit...Win McNamee/Reuters
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Mr. Jobs hired Ron Johnson, an executive at Target, to oversee the stores. Eventually, so many people wanted to work at Apple’s stores that Mr. Johnson would compare applicants-to-openings ratios and boast that it was harder to land a job at an Apple Store than to get into Stanford, his alma mater.
Credit...Jackson Lowen for The New York Times
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One of the company’s first stores was in McLean, Va., and included a children’s section.
Credit...Linda Spillers/Associated Press
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About 30,000 people work in American Apple Stores. Many of them earn about $25,000 a year.
Credit...Richard Drew/Associated Press
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"When you look at the amount of money the company is making and then you look at your paycheck, it’s kind of tough,” said Jordan Golson, a former store employee.
Credit...Scott D.W. Smith for The New York Times

By David Segal

June 23, 2012

Last year, during his best three-month stretch, Jordan Golson sold about $750,000 worth of computers and gadgets at the Apple Store in Salem, N.H. It was a performance that might have called for a bottle of Champagne — if that were a luxury Mr. Golson could have afforded.

“I was earning $11.25 an hour,” he said. “Part of me was thinking, ‘This is great. I’m an Apple fan, the store is doing really well.’ But when you look at the amount of money the company is making and then you look at your paycheck, it’s kind of tough.”

America’s love affair with the smartphone has helped create tens of thousands of jobs at places like Best Buy and Verizon Wireless and will this year pump billions into the economy.

Within this world, the Apple Store is the undisputed king, a retail phenomenon renowned for impeccable design, deft service and spectacular revenues. Last year, the company’s 327 global stores took in more money per square foot than any other United States retailer — wireless or otherwise — and almost double that of Tiffany, which was No. 2 on the list, according to the research firm RetailSails.

Worldwide, its stores sold $16 billion in merchandise.

But most of Apple’s employees enjoyed little of that wealth. While consumers tend to think of Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., as the company’s heart and soul, a majority of its workers in the United States are not engineers or executives with hefty salaries and bonuses but rather hourly wage earners selling iPhones and MacBooks.

About 30,000 of the 43,000 Apple employees in this country work in Apple Stores, as members of the service economy, and many of them earn about $25,000 a year. They work inside the world’s fastest growing industry, for the most valuable company, run by one of the country’s most richly compensated chief executives, Tim Cook. Last year, he received stock grants, which vest over a 10-year period, that at today’s share price would be worth more than $570 million.

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