Apple's 'geniuses' are straining under the iPhone's success, but revamped stores could ease the pressure (AAPL)

Apple stores have become overcrowded in recent years as the company has become more popular and successful.
Technicians called "Geniuses" say they're feeling strained from the additional volume and demand from customers.
A new redesign may help alleviate the overcrowding problem.

A week before Apple released the iPhone X, its most important new product launch in years, CEO Tim Cook flew hundred of miles away to the middle of the country.

He made the trip to attend the opening of a new "flagship" Apple store in Chicago.

The Chicago store showcased the new design Apple is rolling out across its network of retail outlets, a massive revamp that includes bigger spaces with sweeping balconies and leather seating balls, an upgraded title (retail stores are now "Apple's biggest product") and opening day fanfare reminiscent of an iPhone launch.

The store makeovers are great fodder for press releases that tout "town squares" and space for community building.

Overcrowded stores

When Apple first opened its retail stores in 2001, the company was still a niche player with a less than 4% share of the US PC market. Today, Apple is the world's most valuable company, with a staggering $900 billion market cap, thanks in large part to the success of the iPhone.

With all that success comes crowds.

Retail employees notice that the stores are packed. One says that his store can't keep up. "We haven’t been able to keep up with traffic since I started 8 years ago," a senior Genius at a small store in the Midwest that has yet to be redesigned told Business Insider. "I wouldn’t even walk in the store because of how crowded it gets. During Christmas [season] you can hardly move."

Even consumers who purchased their phones through their wireless carriers now increasingly turn to the Apple store as their de-facto service center. In some cases, the arrangement is deliberate:

"The carriers have always kind of seen the support side as a cost they'd rather not carry at retail and done their best in last few years to shift support to online and phone channels, and get it out of stores," analyst Jan Dawson said. "I think Apple is very welcoming, they encourage you to come into their stores and ask for help, it's quite different in that sense from anything else that's out there."

"Get them in and out as fast as possible"

One Genius who worked on the West Coast said that he felt the pressure to service an increasing number of customers, and received pressure from his supervisors to get people out of the store quickly, especially if he took more than the 10 minutes allotted for an iPhone appointment.

"It's turning into a reality that the system Apple has in place is not able to keep up with the volume of people and demand," he said.

Apple retail employees use a system called Net Promoter for People, or "NPP," and the number of customers an Apple employee helps per day is tracked."We're challenged on those metrics to get them in and out of fast as possible," he continued. The elimination of perks, like flying newly-hired Geniuses to Apple's Cupertino headquarters for training, has also lessened the job's allure.

"For the past five years they've been trying to keep up with the 'victim of their own success' problem, switching now to larger stores to accommodate more techs. More Geniuses. That's been a trend that's very clear," Loup Ventures founder Gene Munster said.

Not just about selling products

And Apple is trying to make the most of its existing space, adding square footage to alleviate the overcrowding.

"They actually expand the literal footprint of their stores. And so they've been remodeling some of the smaller stores to make it almost twice as large. It's not necessary just to fit more product in, it's just to really have people move around," Cybart said.

Email the author at kleswing@businessinsider.com

Apple's 'geniuses' are straining under the iPhone's success, but revamped stores could ease the pressure (AAPL)

Overcrowded stores

"Get them in and out as fast as possible"

Not just about selling products

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