Retail lessons from a corrupted Apple store

    Aug. 22, 2012
    Tales of corruption and internal theft at Apple store that you can learn from and share with your retail loss prevention team
    (Wikimedia Commons)
    Apple store employees (referred to as Geniuses, because of the store's Genius bar/computer repair desk) open up about their own corruption, managers' follies, store theft and more in a recent Gizmodo article.
    Apple store employees (referred to as Geniuses, because of the store's Genius bar/computer repair desk) open up about their own corruption, managers' follies, store theft and more in a recent Gizmodo article.

    If youd ever had a question about which can be worse -- shoplifters or your own staff -- this Gizmodo story about corruption in an Apple store would answer that question.

    The report details internal theft scams like this one:

    "One Genius had a rather elaborate con going. He was taking service inventory with fake customers. His friends would come in to the store and have their devices replaced with an incorrect product (Say, an original iPhone swapped for a 3G, gratis). The new product was put into the customer's hand and the employee would put the defective product back into available inventory. This went on for more than a year before they were finally caught and canned, but up until then he was actually running an online business based on this scam."

    It's a great story of a poorly managed retail operation, and what was going on at this store wasn't unique to Apple and could be affecting your own store. Read the dirt on what was behind the gloss white facade of an Apple store and take those stories to heart as you protect your own retail operations.

    About the Author

    Geoff Kohl | Editorial Director/Editor-in-Chief/Associate Publisher

    Geoff Kohl is the Marketing Director for the Security Industry Association (SIA). He is the former Editor-in-Chief of SecurityInfoWatch.com