A few weeks ago I told you that a French reseller of Apple products to sue the American company claiming that it offers preferential treatment to its own stores at the expense of authorized resellers. Well, that reseller is not the only one who complains about problems in collaboration with Apple, because another premium Apple reseller in Europe offered, under the protection of anonymity, data a British newspaper. In practice, that Apple premium reseller supports the claims of eBizcuss from France, but claims that Apple goes further and reduces credit lines for stores, thus generating problems in their cash flow.
The general consensus is good luck to them [eBizcuss].” APRs on the continent are definitely feeling the pain more than us, but there are instances where Apple has given preferential treatment to its own stores and website and even the high street retailers like DSG. We totally feel eBizcuss's pain and hope that something positive comes out of it. Apple is not giving us the tools to do the job it wants us to do.
In addition to the problems with the stocks offered first to their own stores and the website and then to the resellers, another Apple premium reseller from Great Britain claims that Apple is now asking this kind of partners to make substantial investments in their own stores. Basically, Apple asks them to modernize their stores and to do this, an investment of approximately $400.000 per store is needed until the end of this year. Those who do not invest remain without premium reseller status until the changes are applied. The resellers believe that the new store plan imposed by Apple obliges them to sell only the company's products without third-party accessories, and this will of course affect their annual sales.
According to our calculation, if eBizcuss has 15 shops, the investment required to remain in the business as an APR v2 would be $6m to $8m... one must concede that without product to place in their shops, with unfair competition from Apple's own pricing and regulation, with no access to iPhone, with no guarantee from Apple on any of the previous topics, it may be a very dangerous game to play.
Practically now, besides eBizcuss, there are two other Apple Premium resellers who complain about the way they are treated, and the company from Cupertino will have to solve its problems before everything degenerates.
