Dixons Apparently Sucks ⇥

John Gruber linked to this Wall Street Journal post by Ben Rooney, who writes:

It would be safe to say that eyebrows were raised at news that Apple is hiring John Browett, the chief executive of British technology retailer Dixons, to head Apple Inc.’s global retail division.

[…]

Apple stores are the epitome of tasteful design, with no visible cash registers, highly trained staff and an exacting attention to visual appeal; think gleaming white counters, bleached wood floors, minimal and tasteful signage.

Currys and PC World (Dixon’s face of retail in the U.K.) are more in the “stack ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap” end of retail, with all of the associated aesthetic appeal of that school of selling: garish purples, violent yellows, stacks of products, cluttered, aggressive, frenetic.

Someone, and I can’t remember who, commented that Dixons was like the worst of Best Buy and Radio Shack combined. This is certainly the vibe I get from British relatives and friends. Gruber astutely commented:

I’m not implying that Browett was hired to or intends to Dixons-ify the Apple Store experience — just pointing out that it’s a curious hire, also given how rarely Apple hires executives from outside the company.

It certainly is baffling. Browett was the CEO of Dixons, a very shitty retailer, and left to persue an SVP position at Apple, arguably one of the best consumer retail experiences anywhere.