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- Apple's
retail strategy has always been an important part of the customer experience, especially its iconic iPhone launches. - Much of that success also comes down to the people that Apple hires, which say they liked working at the Apple Store for a variety of reasons.
- Some of those reasons include the opportunity to grow and expand into different roles.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Apple's retail presence has always set it apart from its rivals.
The Apple Store, the first of which opened in 2001, thrived in an era when other electronics brick-and-mortar chains were struggling to stay afloat. Two major tech retailers from the early 2000s, CompUSA and Gateway, both shuddered their physical stores in 2007 and 2004 respectively. But even in 2019, at a time when ordering products online is probably the norm for many people, there's bound to be a line wrapped around Apple stores all over the globe when the company presumably launches new iPhones next month.
But the Apple Store was never intended to be just a store - it's also a hub for interacting with Apple's products, learning more about how to use them, and of course, getting them serviced or repaired at the Genius Bar. That's undoubtedly an important part of what sets Apple's retail stores apart from its competitors.
It's also why Apple's retail employees love to work there: the culture around Apple and the notion that your role is more than just another retail job. A recent report from Bloomberg, however, suggested Apple's priorities may be changing, saying that the Apple Store now focuses more on branding than serving customers.
Yet it's not uncommon for some Apple Store employees to work there for more than five years, sometimes even 10, even though employees only stay with their current employers for 4.2 years on average, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in September 2018.
Business Insider spoke with several former and one current employee about their experiences working at the Apple Store. Most of the people requested to remain anonymous so that they could speak freely about their former or current employer.
Here's what they had to say about why they liked working for Apple's retail division.
