An inside look at the ‘fiasco’ of the Vision Pro launch in stores

A new report provides an insider’s view of the Vision Pro launch at Apple stores, describing it as “a fiasco” in many of them.

It also claims that while the Vision Pro launch was particularly problematic, it also pointed to broader issues with changes made to retail staffing over the years …

The launch of a completely new product category to Apple was never going to be straightforward, but on paper, Apple seemed to have a solid plan. Hundreds of retail employees were flown to Cupertino to receive multi-day hands-on training with the new device.

Those staff would then return to their stores to lead four-hour workshops for the other sales employees, who would then be given additional rehearsal and demo practice time. However, Wired carries an excerpt from Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class by Noam Scheiber in which store staff say the reality was rather different.

They were given just one hour to rehearse a complicated demo and become fluent with a script that ran over a dozen screens. Even officially, they were given just two chances to practice among employees before having to conduct their first real-life demo with customers – and in practice many didn’t even get that much.

One former Apple specialist said that the underlying issues ran deep. Steve Jobs had seen the importance of well-staffed stores with carefully trained employees, but cost savings since then had taken their toll.

By the time of the Vision Pro launch in early 2024, many Apple salespeople had only recently become permanent employees after being brought on as temps in the fall. They had little experience with an Apple product launch. “It was the first time a lot of people had to learn a script,” said Kevin Gallagher, a longtime Apple Store employee from Towson, Maryland. “They didn’t have the capability of doing it.”

And with stores understaffed, many workers didn’t get the training and practice time that Apple corporate intended. “I got a 20-minute demo. I got maybe 30 minutes to review the script, did a demo on one person who had went to Cupertino, and was thrown from the nest,” said Sam Hernandez, a longtime salesperson at a flagship Apple Store in Chicago.

In Steve’s day, half of the staff were dedicated to helping customers use their devices through training sessions and one-to-ones with creatives. That ratio was gradually reduced, with one-to-one Creatives’ sessions and small hands-on workshops never returning after the pandemic, replaced instead by Today at Apple sessions that are far less in-depth and more geared to promoting Apple products.

9to5Mac’s Take

The dilution of Steve’s original concept for Apple Store staffing has been happening for more than a decade now. We’ve been saying for many years that the company needs not just more retail staff but more Apple stores to reduce the horrendous crowding and unacceptable delays in getting support.

I particularly regret the company’s decision to end the small hands-on workshops and one-to-one sessions offered by its Creatives. I went to several of these for Final Cut Pro and they were always excellent. It was one of the factors that led me to recommend Final Cut over competing software to friends (that was also an argument for buying a Mac) because I could point them to an opportunity for free, in-person help if they needed any assistance.

The challenges with Vision Pro of course run deeper than the demo sessions, but I can certainly see that issues with these wouldn’t have helped.

Photo: Apple