“It would be safe to say that eyebrows were raised at news that Apple is hiring John Browett, the chief executive of British technology retailer Dixons, to head Apple Inc.’s global retail division,” Ben Rooney blogs for The Wall Street Journal. “Presumably Mr. Browett interviews really, really well, and perhaps Apple CEO Tim Cook has yet to visit a PC World or Currys (Dixon’s face of retail in the U.K.), but the two retail experiences are poles apart.”
“Apple stores are the epitome of tasteful design, with no visible cash registers, highly trained staff and an exacting attention to visual appeal; think gleaming white counters, bleached wood floors, minimal and tasteful signage,” Rooney writes. “Currys and PC World are more in the ‘stack ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap’ end of retail, with all of the associated aesthetic appeal of that school of selling: garish purples, violent yellows, stacks of products, cluttered, aggressive, frenetic.”
Rooney writes, “PC World was slated in a 2009 report as the worst place to buy a computer on the high street, receiving a 42% customer score. The same survey put Apple at the top, with customers rating it at 88%. Although such searches are, of course, self-selecting, a quick search online finds little evidence that much has changed in the last three years.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Perhaps Mr. Browett’s rather interesting Tesco experience counted for something in the eyes of Mr. Cook?
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Apple hires Dixons CEO John Browett as new retail chief – January 31, 2012
Steve Jobs’ ex-lieutenant Ron Johnson adds $1.5 billion to J.C. Penney in two days – January 30, 2012
J.C. Penney CEO Ron Johnson: What I learned building the Apple Store – November 21, 2011
New J.C. Penney CEO Johnson hiring former Apple co-workers – November 9, 2011
Why Apple’s retail genius Ron Johnson is paying for the privilege of running J.C. Penney – June 15, 2011
Apple’s retail store chief Johnson off to J.C. Penney; expected to become CEO within months – June 14, 2011
