RETAIL WAR: Microsoft Cherry Picking Apple Store Employees

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Microsoft retail stores are coming this fall, and the company has publicly stated that they’re going to build their stores right next to the competition — Apple stores. It makes perfect sense then that Microsoft would also go after Apple store staffers. And according to The Loop, that’s exactly what’s happening.

The blog is reporting that anonymous sources have confirmed that Microsoft is reaching out to Apple retail store managers and offering them “significant raises,” and sometimes even moving expenses.

But it doesn’t stop there. According to the sources, the cherry-picked Apple employees, once hired, are “then contacting some of the top sales people in the Apple retail organization offering them positions at Microsoft retail.”

If rumors are to be believed, now everything from the store design to the Guru Bars, and the actual staffers will have been plucked by Microsoft in an effort to compete in the retail space. The question remains if these aggressive tactics will pay off. We tend think that consumers will buy the better products, but Apple’s unique approach to the retail space has been widely successful. Can Microsoft follow suit?

Tags: Apple Store, microsoft