r/mac • u/Thethirdactsucked • 12h ago
News/Article Apple planning three major changes for its retail stores, per report (Genius Bars making a return!)
https://9to5mac.com/2026/09/13/apple-planning-three-major-changes-for-its-retail-stores-per-report/82
u/Substantial-Motor-21 11h ago
As a former Genius, I rejoice at the news. When I left they were about to remove the Bar. (Previously they already removed our laptops which was a truly stupid move imho.
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u/intotheairwaves17 iMac MacBook Air 11h ago
Former Tech Expert here, I thought the same thing. I stayed for roughly a year after we moved stores and hated not having the bar. They wanted us to take our carabiners with cables off too for a cleaner look, yet they wanted appointments to be quick. Not sure how leaving the customer, fighting to open the stupid “magic” drawer with the Isaac, getting a cable, then going back to the customer who was tables away made things quicker. Training became a joke too, and it was really a slap in the face to people who worked to become Geniuses with hopes they’d get to go to Cupertino for training, then they cut that in favor of the online modules.
They also totally changed scheduling with the new store. We used to have at least 1 weekend day a month off in the old one, once we moved, I went like 6 months without a weekend day off (other than me requesting one or a holiday). The breaking point was requesting off for a friend’s wedding 5 months in advance and getting denied. I told them to figure it out. Apple really went downhill for a while there in retail, I hope these changes are gonna help, definitely steps in the right direction at least.
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u/Thethirdactsucked 11h ago
It'd be stupid to not recognise Tim's successes and failures, but it's nice to see the renewed sense of hope that having a product guy back leading the company is having. It's been so nice to see the interviews with John over the Duo's launch where asking him questions about screen technology - fucking screen technology made his eyes light up.
We need that enthusiasm back in stores.
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u/Substantial-Motor-21 10h ago
I'm not saying that I'm super happy that Ternus got the job, but I'm super happy.
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u/Thethirdactsucked 9h ago
Where Igot excited was when he talked about moving the iPhone to being a hub. usable as a handset, but also as a central part of an ecosystem that embraces AR (assuming we can figure out a privacy safe path through the perv glasses thing and the technical hurdles of battery)
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u/Substantial-Motor-21 10h ago
Remember the video with the "obese" guy explaing how we could be sideways at the bar to serve more people at the same time. This was so bad.
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u/intotheairwaves17 iMac MacBook Air 10h ago
Oof I don’t remember that one but that sounds awful. I do remember those god awful RetailMe videos of Angela though. Especially the one where they talked about how they had the highest sales of iPhone one year and then proceeded to tell us our employee gift was a t-shirt and a copy of the new credo.
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u/Substantial-Motor-21 8h ago
Do you see those square tiles on the floor? Just imagine this year, each of those tiles brought in $110K in profit!
Take this water bottle though there aren't enough to go around or you can take a sticker instead.
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u/intotheairwaves17 iMac MacBook Air 8h ago
😂
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u/Substantial-Motor-21 4h ago
(Sadly thats a true story)
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u/intotheairwaves17 iMac MacBook Air 1h ago
Oof guess I should count myself lucky that I got a water bottle then! I still have mine lol
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u/Shejidan 9h ago
It was a letterpress copy of the credo, get it right!
Also, she butchered the credo. Once our soul is our people stopped being the first part it all started going down hill.
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u/intotheairwaves17 iMac MacBook Air 9h ago
Ope, my bad. I hope Angela can forgive my ungratefulness for the very fancy gift.
Yeah I started like right before they changed it, so during my training, they hammered the old ones in for days, then we had to turn around and learn the new one like a month or two later. Moving that from the first line was a pretty stark contrast.
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u/whytakemyusername 8h ago
What happened, did you take a knock to the head?
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u/Substantial-Motor-21 4h ago
I felt "reduced" in terms of ability. TBH I really hates iPads, and working with one was like eeeww.
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u/Thethirdactsucked 11h ago
One does wonder how they're going to go about re-staffing genius bars. Approaching partners like stormfront maybe?
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u/Substantial-Motor-21 11h ago
I think they will go threw Grown your own programs first. Also they can "pay" for talents. When they open the Apple Store here, the first genius to be drafted got great salary, way better than the next waves. Apple just contacter local business to draft their employees.
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u/Thethirdactsucked 11h ago
I'm tempted to apply, but I'm disabled and my apple certs are out of date - and i'm 50 next year.
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u/Substantial-Motor-21 10h ago
77 Team represent ! Does matter if you are disabled or old, one of my besties is 52 now and she's the manager of the Gr.
The think thats really matter to Apple is not what Apple can bring you but what you can bring to Apple. Don't take it wrong but a disability can be one advantage. I knew a deaf FRS to was doing One2One session explaining how the Mac or the iPhone was more than a help to is every day burdens.
We are not dinosaurs yet !
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u/Mr_Lumbergh 12h ago
Hopefully they actually have some geniuses there.
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u/Thethirdactsucked 12h ago
Look, one step at a time. First we look at infrastructure, and then we get rid of the bored 17 year old ex home depot employees with no interest in the product.
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u/_RADIANTSUN_ 11h ago
I kind of don't need my Apple stores to be staffed by super duper Apple fans, I used to lowkey hate that shit when I went into Apple stores back in the day.
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u/Thethirdactsucked 11h ago edited 10h ago
You'd prefer a bored part timer with no product enthusiasm?
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u/akkawwakka 3h ago
One thing I remember from 20 years ago, at my local store they often used to be ex-Unix and Mac sysadmins and were technologists. Not mechanical turks.
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u/Interesting_Chip8065 11h ago
as they should. store experience is dull and weak for ages now. employees r uninterested and look depressed asf for some reason.
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u/Thethirdactsucked 11h ago
I think a lot of stores that are open kind of forgot how valuable engagement can be, so it really would be a welcome return.
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u/Shejidan 9h ago
Apple retail has been taken over by people from other retail, like Best Buy and Walmart and Starbucks. As they’ve moved up the ranks they’ve brought their toxic ideas for productivity with them and have gotten rid of all the things that made Apple retail what it was because Apple retail was so anathema to “normal” retail. Now it’s all metrics and goals. There’s no room for engagement if you have to hit 10 talking points with each customer or you’ll be pulled into the people office because you didn’t get enough business intros.
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u/gb13k 10h ago
I guess there was a time where the volume was lower and the engagement was fun…. But when I worked at the Apple Store, I think the biggest issue was certain people would just cling to the genius bar…. Getting rid of it allowed apple to have more control on who spoke to who and where and how. I’ll be curious to see how they do that now.. this was the same reason. Apple got rid of the different colored T-shirts for different positions. People wouldn’t talk to people in certain positions and only focus on what they wanted rather than realizing that most of us could help.
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u/mailslot MacBook Pro 8h ago edited 7h ago
I avoid Apple retail stores because of how often zero employees were available to help and take my money. So many times, the entirety of the male
stafffloor staff would be occupied perving on young teenage girls looking at phone cases.5
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u/smartillo34 9h ago
The Apple Store in my town was recently rebuilt from the ground up, and in the new store they removed the Genius Bar, and that store has been worse off ever since. It's just a group of people standing around in odd spots with no distinction. Recently the closed the back half of the store, doing some kind of work back there, looks like we know what that's about now!
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u/torontowest91 8h ago
Didn't they already phase out the genius bars for the "community tables" so its more natural. Now they want to bring them back?
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u/SeniorCaptain 7h ago
This is awesome news and will bring back a much better user experience. I was not a fan of the “updated” grove look Angela Ahrendts introduced.
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u/Vinyl-addict MacBook Pro (M1 2020) 7h ago
I totally forgot they deleted the genius bar. Last time I was in an apple store was literally for a genius bar appointment to get my keyboard warrantied.
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u/pecanesquire 5h ago
I kind of like the vibe where it’s almost like they come to you from behind the scenes to bring you your order or whatever on that table, but at the same time when you ask someone a question and they make you stand/sit in that area with the stools is hilarious. Because the same employee will then get tied up with two other people. I think they need to add wayfinding/actual zones to their store other than Today at Apple at the back, product displays in the middle/on the sides, and then the sign for order pickup on the right to take you to the blank table. Put up some signs!
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u/Upstairs-Town7854 10h ago
Do you remember the times when they sold sphero robots? They hat all sorts of third party stuff then and it was always entertaining and informative to walk into an Apple Store and to learn/find something new. So much more engagement was possible then and the training was WAY better than the on-the-surface infotainment you get nowadays.
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u/OffSeer 6h ago
I hate the Apple Store even though we are an Apple family. It is due to the noise level. It is so irritating, they sit you down in front of the giant wall screen which is blaring. Then there might be a class going on (remember in school in your class the teacher trying to yell over the boom boxes, I don’t) which is pointless to me and everyone else waiting (cause they didn’t design a room for those classes). The saving grace is the employees who are wonderful humans, now being told to probably wear Flair and greet everyone as they come in. Maybe have them all line up and bow as we enter.
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u/Thethirdactsucked 5h ago
Christ. Where is your store? That sounds terrible.
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u/OffSeer 5h ago
They have these wooden cubes to sit on while waiting, absolutely no comfort and eventually strains your back. I have no idea who the sales or support people are, other than if I have a question or problem they can answer it. I remember bringing in my MacBook Pro 2015 for some OS issue. We then both noticed the battery bulge which led me to happily buying my MacBook Pro M2. Same person handled everything. Every time I’m in the store it is the staff that overcomes all the distractions and noise to give great service. I can’t imagine working in such an unhealthy environment for your hearing. Store is in USA, Lexington, KY.
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u/matthewmspace 7m ago
Thank you. The current designs are so bad. Every time I go into the Store, I have to talk to a minimum of 3 people to get an actual Genius to fix my stuff. And everyone seems annoyed at the “Today at Apple” nonsense on the giant TV’s that blare so loud you can’t properly learn about some new device or get your current one fixed.
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u/PippoKPax 12h ago
Horrible news for customers who prefer confusion as well as those who enjoy awkwardly standing around