<![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, ron johnson]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, ron johnson]]> http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/ronjohnson http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/ronjohnson <![CDATA[Apple hires 3,500 new retail zombies]]> Apple's retail staff increased 44 percent from September 2007 to December 2007. Over the past two years, the retail division's staff numbers have risen between 2 and 15 percent per quarter. The company now has 11,400 "equivalent" full-time retail positions. At this year's shareholder meeting, head of Apple Retail Ron Johnson pegged the number of retail employees at 15,000, indicating that a huge percentage of them are considered "part-time."

As a former Apple Retail employee, this jibes with what I experienced. At my store, there were only a few full-time employees and most of us were part-time — mostly so Apple wouldn't have to pay us any benefits. That's right: Steve Jobs is a cheapskate. Even Starbucks gives part-time baristas health insurance. At least I got a discount — and a free iPod. Who needs healthcare?

(Photo by AP/Elise Amendola)

]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=365204&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Apple SVP made $112 million yesterday and you didn't]]> Ron Johnson, Apple's senior VP of retail, exercised options for 700,000 shares of AAPL at a strike price of $23.72 yesterday. He sold later in the day at around $185. That's a net of over $112 million. Not a bad payday, but he certainly earned it. Johnson has led Apple's retail strategy from day one — and the former Target executive is arguably more responsible for Apple's retail success than Steve Jobs.

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