I’ve been a Mac service technician at an Apple Store for almost a decade. I’ve had an extremely competitive wage for the entire time vs other jobs of this level, I get RSUs, and a very comprehensive benefits package even though I’m currently part-time. me and my team are expensive for what we are (essentially, just retail workers).
The majority of appointments I take on the Genius Bar in a day have no charge; software/iCloud issues, data migrations, or just how-to questions are free and unlimited. Most, though certainly not all, repairs are done in warranty.
Yes, repairs are often expensive, but when I think about the daily operating costs and salaries of my entire team vs how much revenue we bring in per paid repair transaction, I can’t see how repair costs & AC sales cover even half of it. That’s to say nothing of the extremely busy call centres that Apple waived the per-call fees for over five years ago.
Take that for what it’s worth, but when you see how much traffic flows to and from the Genius Bar every day with no money ever changing hands, it would take a lot to convince me that AC is a profit centre, and not a huge loss leader.