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Comment by archgrove | Hacker News Reader

Anyone who A) likes Apple and B) has ever been in a Dixons store in the UK will be overjoyed with the other departure, Browett (head of retail and previous Dixons CEO) who is leaving immediately (compared to Forstall's year long "transition" departure). Dixons is everything that Apple should never be; terrible customer service, clueless minimum wage staff, horrible retail experience, and generally used only by people who desperately need something immediately or are too naive to find another store.

Recent news out of Apple regarding "cutbacks" at retail suggested he was nudging them in the same direction. Given that he got his first stock disbursement last week and was due $58 million over the next few years if he hung around, I'm guessing he was pushed. Great decision from Cook if that was the case.

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>> Anyone who A) likes Apple and B) has ever been in a Dixon's store in the UK will be overjoyed with the other departure, Browett (head of retail) who is leaving immediately (compared to Forstall's year long "transition" departure). Dixon's is everything that Apple should never be; terrible customer service, clueless minimum wage staff, horrible retail experience, and generally used only by people who desperately need something immediately or are too naive to find another store.

I agree, the one thing that irks me though, is that I remember reading the guy was able to convert a sizable part of his Apple stock options only a few weeks ago. That's a quick & cool few million $$$ he made in one year at Apple without any apparent positive contribution :-/

Cost of doing business. In Steve's words: "What can I say? I hired the wrong guy."

Viewed from the other side, though, he did convert $3 million, yes, but Apple saved $57 million.

Apple can afford to lose the three mil. They'll make that back in a few days once somebody who actually gets Apple's retail concept is running the show again. Somebody who respects the model that brought Apple top-of-the-charts customer service ratings. Somebody who respects that if you're making more money per square foot than any other retail store in the world, you might be doing something right.

Many times this type of fast vesting is to compensate for options lost elsewhere. Yes he was a crappy executive, but hiring ex-CEOs is costly.

Considering that Ron Johnson's stint at JCPenney hasn't been going so well, wonder if he'll end up back at Apple.

But why did someone like this Dixon guy get in to begin with? He seemed like an odd choice from day 1, but I figured maybe apple knew something the rest or us didn't. Apparently not.

Apple retail head is one of the most desirable executive positions on the planet. Why couldn't they recruit a true superstar?

I'm a little confused and worried ...

> Apple retail head is one of the most desirable executive positions on the planet. Why couldn't they recruit a true superstar?

I think the problem is identifying the superstar in the first place. Quite frankly, there is no company whose retail comes close to Apple, and so there isn't anyone who has a track record of being able to do the SVP Retail job.

In addition, the Apple SVP Retail job is different from head of retail at other companies (e.g. s/he doesn't have control over inventory [1]), and so when it comes down to the end of the day, it's really hard to find someone who has done a similar job in the past, let alone done that job well.

In all likelihood, Tim Cook had some idea of the downfalls of hiring Browett, but decided to bet on it. I would also guess that given the worries around that time that Cook wouldn't be able to handle the CEO job also made the hiring rather more urgent that it should have been.

[1]: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/08/25/how-apple-works-insid...

> I think the problem is identifying the superstar in the first place.

I'd look towards fashion - for example the Japanese clothing store Uniqlo [1]. Their stores are quite similar to Apple's in terms of layout and space, the way that they encourage you to come in and look around, and they always have helpful service on hand. The problem is Tadashi Yanai [2] is too rich and successful to leave his current post.

I see a parallel with Apple making (subjectively) luxurious electronic devices available at prices for the masses the way Uniqlo makes (subjectively) luxurious fashion available at prices for the masses. I grabbed a bunch of French linen shirts in Tokyo for ~25 AUD each (though the AUD was doing well against the JPY at the time).

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniqlo [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadashi_Yanai

Parallel? More like copied.

Yeah this sounds more sensible, look for someone who can deliver the same experience… not for someone also successful selling electronics because all other electronic shops are fucking horrible (Especially Dixons which I haven't bothered to step into for nearly 10 years now)

It isn't even about identifying. Browett has to be one of the worst choice on the planet in terms of executive. I dont even know how he got into CEO of Dixon in the first place. Anyway all that is past, now that he is gone lets hope they either find someone great or simply promote what they already have.

I had the misfortune of shopping UK retail for a few years, and especially in electronics, I can't imagine anyone using it as an example of a great way to structure anything, let alone a premium brand like Apple.

The only UK retail brands which don't seem horrible are high-end department stores (Selfridges, etc.) and grocery stores, and neither really seems like a good background for running Apple retail.

(Assuming you're American) what specifically makes retail in the US so much better?

I'm from New Zealand but have travelled in the US and lived in the UK. The difference is service.

You get it in the US. I remember it in every store. Initially I thought it was intimidating because I was not used to it. But after a few months and some great experiences I really enjoyed it.

You don't get it in the UK. High street stores, especially noticeable in places like shoe stores where you need service to complete a transaction. You could easily wait 10 minutes until someone was available to help you. And it could take another 10 minutes per pair of shoes you wanted to try on. So painful.

I'm curious what you think of New Zealand stores. I too live here and I have yet to find a store comparable to Apple's. Then again I don't get out much.

I never got into the helpful staff thing. I dislike being helped when in shops. Clearly I have been in New Zealand too long. Something that really irked me in the US was the way taxes worked. I never knew what I was going to pay, as taxes weren't included in the label price. It wasn't a large percentage, but I never could quite understand why anyone would take the time to make a price label which showed a price different to what I would pay. Does anywhere else do this? i have travelled a fair bit and have never encountered it before (My US experience was limited to California I should note).

(Completely off-topic here, but my understanding is that sales tax in the US can vary from county to county, and definitely varies from state to state, so it's simpler in the case of labelling, and impossible in the case of national advertising, to show the final price. Contrast with Europe where sales tax is nationally fixed, which makes it easy to show the final price. (and in some places illegal not to!))

In California it definitely varies county by county.

It also varies by product, including how the product is consumed. It is quite complex.

It's like this in Canada too. Very irritating. Especially because somethings are subject to tax and some aren't so it isn't even as simple as just adding a percentage to every price.

Aside from prices and selection (for some reason the number in USD is equal to the number in GBP for almost everything, even when GBP is 1.6-2.2x the USD), it's size and layout of stores and staffing.

There were two main kinds of stores -- pale imitations of Best Buy, Circuit City, and Microcenter (out in the suburbs/small towns) (which is ironic since those businesses have had serious problems in the US market now, too, 10 years later), and urban small stores. The smaller chain stores (Dixons high street locations) had very limited product selection and you had to wait in a queue to get a salesperson to handle your purchase, rather than staff out on the floor to push products (often on commission) and then take the purchase to the registers. The big stores mainly had cookers and other white goods/appliances, with really limited selection of anything tech. This was 2000-2002. EU stores were a lot better in my limited experience (NL and DE). The only way to actually buy computer parts was to go to fairly sketchy flea market type buildings or fairs, mail order, or a small number of independent shops (at least in London; never found anything outside London).

Staff were even less educated on products than at a Best Buy in the US today, terrifying. Even getting people to take a model number and look it up in their inventory system was a minor production.

This is a culture difference. I as a Brit absolutely detest when sales staff are pushy and forcing their way into your purchase decisions. This is generally highly frowned upon in UK culture and is not something the majority like.

I do however agree on some of your other points, such as poor selection and useless staff.

Probably a European thing because Belgians don't like pushy sales staff either.

Actually, nobody likes pushy sales staff, ever.

Fine — but in that case, people's definitions of pushy vary widely.

I prefer if they don't approach me unless I'm obviously looking for help, but in my cases shopping in the UK it was "there is nothing useful on the shelf, I need to find out if there is a product by asking an employee" and not being able to readily get one.

> Aside from prices and selection (for some reason the number in USD is equal to the number in GBP for almost everything, even when GBP is 1.6-2.2x the USD)

Completely irrelevant to the discussion

> "for some reason the number in USD is equal to the number in GBP for almost everything, even when GBP is 1.6-2.2x the USD"

Price is set by willingness to pay. full stop. Cost for goods is almost always worked to, backwards, from price targets. Exchange rates don't enter into it, except as pertains to costs.

GBP prices remain 'close' to numeric USD, because people still buy products at those prices. Looking into why they do, leads to interesting questions and analysis about disposable income, taxes, psychology, etc - but it's largely irrelevant.

It is that way because it works.

I will never understand why this concept gets downvoted every single time it comes up. Price comes first. It's not really a secret. Everything else follows from that.

I agree partly with this but it fails to take competition into account.

It's worth noting that Dixon's eventually scaled back its high-street presence completely and is now found only in airports. If his role at Dixon's was what got him a job at Apple, I'd be really surprised!

Not exactly. Dixons branches were re-branded as Currys.digital and there are plenty of those.

Dixons is just one brand of Dixons Retail (formerly DSG International) which also owns Currys, PC World, etc.

They rebranded all their high street stores to Currys.digital, and although store numbers have been declining, they are still a regular fixture on high streets.

That would explain why Currys and PC World are also ridiculously awful.

Every time I go into one of those shops, it's because I need something immediately, to take away. They never have it in stock, and ask if I'd like to order it. If I wanted to order it, I'd do it myself, online.

I can't believe it's still a viable business model.

Granted they provide convenience and the ability for customers to use products in store before purchase, but I can't believe people still pay the price premium.

I've only stepped foot in their stores twice in the last couple of years; once to try out the new Retina MacBook Pro and once to inspect televisions before buying one online for ~£400 less than their price.

> Great decision from Cook

Cook hired him, which many commentators pointed out was a mistake in the first place.

People make mistakes, good that he could recognize he made a mistake.

Absolutely.

Unless you can hire someone you 100% know will never make a mistake, you should be interested in how they deal with them when they do.

Cook seems to have given him enough time to prove himself (or as it seems otherwise) and has then taken steps to right his mistake.

The problem is it took him too long to know this as a mistake.

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